Study abroad [我想想]

Study abroad

I began to think about studying abroad when I was a high school student. At that time, I was so childish to believe that I would get a decent job with high salary if I come back as an overseas student. However the truth is kind of cruel to me. It is said many returned students are still unemployed nowadays in shanghai. Since I received my IELTS score last week, I have to reconsider my going-abroad schedule.

I got 6.5 in my IELTS test. It’s not an excellent score but enough to enable me to apply for most colleges in Euro, especially UK. What places me in a dilemma now is the opportunity of exchange student provided by my university. Should I go for it and is it worth applying for, disregarding whether I can get the offer or not? I’m sure that to be an exchange student for one year will become a memorable experience in my life. But I suppose it won’t have too much value on my career because there is no useful legal certificate after finishing courses there and also costs a lot (yes, it’s true that school will pay tuition for exchange students but you can’t forget the expense living abroad.). I really hope that it could be more far-reaching to my career.

Another aspect I need to care about is money. I never want my family in debt because of me, though it’s sort of inevitable. So I must benefit my career in an economical way, for example, gaining one or two degrees or licenses. In fact, there are several choices such as JD, LLM(UK, USA,CAN), LLB, GDL. I preferred LLM in UK before because it is one-year course. Compared to spending 3 years on JD in USA or LLB, LLM really can save much money. But the question is that without a LLB, I have no chance to be a lawyer in UK. It means LLM can’t help me to practice law in UK and it is also extremely difficult to fill any vacancy from English based law firms in shanghai. In America, you can take the bar exam with LLM degree only in New York but the tuition in US is higher. Actually I think GDL seems more suitable for me because it integrates the advantages of JD and LLM. The Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) is a conversion course enabling those holding non-law degrees(LLB) in any subject to convert to a career in law. It can qualify me through cramming the essentials of the law degree into one year and costs only half of the expense of LLM. It also may secure a training contract and then I can start to learn LPC course and my firm will pay it.

After reconsidering these all, I have a new plan in my mind. The plan can be divided into 3 stages.
At stage 1, I have to pass the National Bar Examination in china to ensure that I still can be hired in domestic law firms and keep improving my English. At stage 2, I hope I can take the chance to do a LLM as an exchange postgraduate student whilst I am doing my Master of Arts in Law in china and then attain both degrees. At the last stage, I apply for GDL and find a TC in UK or China.

This is just a plan. Frankly I can’t guarantee that it will be carried out successfully and that all my wishes come true. But I am sure I will strive for it because I am fully convinced that where there is a will, there is a way.