Prepare to get your hearts mercilessly ripped out, because this story is guaranteed to do so. The worst part is, this is a real-life story submitted to Chai Bisket. The contributor is a medico in Romania, and he asked us to publish his (horrendous, to say the least) experience with education agencies since we recently ventured into themes like education and going abroad.
In his opinion, most of the students aiming to study overseas opt to go with an education agency, and that is fairly understandable because in schools and colleges in India, we're only taught how to pass examinations but not how to choose a career or pursue our passion. Career guidance is a staple of the education systems in other countries like the U.S., Japan and Singapore. There are specially-appointed counselors to guide students, and since we don't have such privileges, we often choose to go with the agencies who manipulate us and charge extortionate amounts of money for hardly doing anything.
All they do, according to the contributor, is send the required documents as asked by the universities and wait for replies. This entire process barely costs around 1 lakh for some countries, and less than 30k for the rest. Simple, isn’t it?
Here’s the catch: they wouldn’t hesitate to convey false information about their connections to foreign universities, and also about them bribing admissions officers for easier admissions for the clients (us). Yet, as most of their clients are entirely ignorant about the process, their fear of a foreign country continues to drive them to those fraudulent agencies.
The contributor was charged around 3.5 lakh rupees by an education agency that guaranteed him a place in a Romanian university. He informed the agency that he would pay once he settles in the university. Naturally, the deceitful agency threatened him, saying that they possess some sort of documents that are crucial for admission, and if he did not pay up he would not be able to register for classes. The contributor then cross-checked with his friends, who assured him that he had all the necessary documents for registration.
The agency went a step further by criminally blackmailing him that they added special documents that solidified his admission, and failure to pay the 3.5 lakh fee would result in an automatic nullification of his admission, his repatriation to India and a definite jail term. Horrified by the turn of events, the contributor shared his problems with the Dean of the university, who disregarded the ridiculous claims. The Dean also assured him that his admission was a result of a thorough verification process, and there is nothing to worry.
As the contributor put it, education agencies often outrageously request their clients not to contact the university as that would lead to a ‘cancellation of admission.’ That is absolutely wrong. Universities repeatedly implore us not to opt for a third-party agency to avoid the fuss.
We at Chai Bisket hope that you learnt something from this mostly anecdotal (yet heavily informational) article, and will spread the message that signing up with an educational agency will NOT dramatically rise your chances of admission.
Remember our three strong recommendations against education agency scams: It is our responsibility to hunt for information about foreign universities. It is our responsibility to put up a solid application based on a thorough online research. It is our responsibility to drive these criminal agencies out of business. Note: The contributor did not reveal either his name or the name of the fraudulent education agency for privacy concerns.
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