Many people think that the worth of studying abroad only lies in studying Europe, the USA, Canada, or Australia. While, I am in complete agreement with this opinion but here I would pen down some of the different advantages of doing your MS from Korea, China, or Japan.
1- First and foremost, financial stability plays an important role during research. So, in all these three countries, most, of the positions are funded.
In other words, you get recruited by a professor, you work on his projects and in turn, he pays your tuition fee and a monthly stipend. The monthly stipend does not only cover your running expenses but it is often enough to save some bucks too.
You must be thinking that it’s the same everywhere, but at the MS level, it’s extremely competitive to get scholarships in English-speaking countries.
2- Not very demanding admission requirements. With an average CGPA, you can get admission. However, over time things are of course becoming competitive. So, it becomes a great opportunity for an average student to do well in MS, leverage his skills, and excel further.
3- In all these Asian countries, you get through a tough research learning process that enables you to expose yourself to some of the challenging projects in your field.
4- You get yourself familiarized with some of the latest research tools/equipment being used in labs as I have seen that all these three countries throw a huge amount of money into research.
5- You’re sent to attend many conferences not only within that country but abroad too whereas Profs. English-speaking countries often have budget constraints and they hardly send students to attend conferences abroad.
6- This process prepares you well to get a good PhD position in English-speaking countries as at the end of your MS you have a good number of skills and publications in hand to grab your dream position.
7- Believe me or not, the infrastructure in these countries is so beautiful and catching that you don’t see much in more advanced countries like the US or Canada. Hence, this adds to the high quality of life in these countries. They are peaceful and safest countries too.
8- No racism at all.
9- All these countries have a great economy. So, if you have plans of doing a job after MS there, the chances of getting a good job are higher there.
This is the journey that I took myself. I spent a good year in China, then moved to South Korea to pursue my MS under one of Korea’s highest-paid scholarships. I then got admitted to the University of Victoria, Canada to pursue my PhD.
I will keep adding more points and sharing my experiences.