Financing your MIF course

The fees for the MIF course at LBS is a whopping £28,000! Added with living expenses it can easily go northward of £40,000. This could be a daunting amount, especially for someone like me who is not earning a lot of money in Singapore. But having said that there are a couple of scholarships which are available which can be used to offset against the expenses. LBS offers three scholarship schemes, two of which are catered for women only
1) The Deutsche Bank Women's Scholarship - One award (amount £20,000).
2) The Citigroup Foundation Women's Scholarship - One award (amount £10,000)
3) The Merrill Lynch Industry Challenge One award (amount £10,000).

There is also another scholarship, the British Chevening Scholarship, which is extremely generous and can cover a large portion of your fees and living allowances depending on the scheme you fall under. This is the weblink for Singapore, they also have the same scheme for a whole lot of other countries. http://www.chevening.com/about/countries/singapore/index.html
For the oncoming year, they will be sponsoring 5 Singaporeans to study in UK (this award is open to all post graduate courses in UK)

Besides the scholarship, there is also the HSBC loan scheme for the outstanding amount. Of course, total expenses is also dependent on how extravagant your lifestyle is (student housing or private apartment, home cooked food or restaurant fare) etc

Starting a biz

Been working at the startup for the past few weeks. Really inspirational I must say. For a start, being your own boss really means having a whole lot of discretion, which I enjoy. You control when you start work, what office equipment to buy, which project to take up. You know exactly how much you will earn from each project but of course it comes with the ups and downs of the business cycle which could translate into sleepness nights worrying about your turnover next day. Couple of things I learn
1) Networking is the most impt thing in a biz. You never know what you need, a supplier of packaging, a new teaching project, cheap laptops etc
2) You might need to go into areas which you are not particularly keen on, esp at the initial stage, in order to support yourself. For e.g. You might want to start a risk management consulting firm but end up being more on the educational side of risk management simply because there are more oppportunities in that sector
3) Its very hard work; more working than working for someone but the rewards are great if you succeed too
4) Being in a small company, there are no commitees, very few meetings, no lousy minutes to take, you made all the decision yourself, you make your own coffee,clear your own rubbish, but life is bliss cos there are no rules at all. No more forms to fill up! You can go for lunch at 10.30!

Is life as a entrepreneur better than that of a trader? Am I having second thoughts?

I am going to stay at Goodenough College!

Accomodation in London is really expensive! For those who are interested in co-sharing an apartment near London Business School, I was told that you should be prepared to fork out between 170 to 220 pounds a week! And of course if you wanna stay alone, be prepared to fork out more than that. Thank God I got into Goodenough College! Though I must say it was quite a hassle; I had to write an essay and get two recommendation letters just to get in there (no difference from getting into LBS!) Although I must say in actual fact, it was easier; firstly becos I recycled the recommendation letters for LBS and then even a large part of the essay for Goodenough is taken from the essays written for the schools. I will be paying around 120+ pounds a week (all utilities and internet included) for a single room without ensuite facilities.

For those who are interested in cheaper student housing i.e. not private apartments, check out the following websites. I applied for all 3

Goodenough College: http://www.goodenough.ac.uk/
University of London Intercollegiate Halls: http://www.london.ac.uk/halls.html (the forms will come together with the package from LBS once you accepted the offer)
International Students House: http://www.ish.org.uk/