Most students just start with a dream of studying abroad. The journey to finally landing in a university is filled with roadblocks. How one navigates the aspects of choosing the right university, finding the appropriate course, leveraging from the right scholarships, etc. determines how one’s future is shaped. To assist you on this journey or more appropriately, provide you professional guidance & ensure that you secure all of the above is the role of a consultant for foreign studies. A good counselor can ease the process significantly and help you cut through the transaction that education has been reduced to, in the modern world.
Selecting Overseas Education Counsellor
As a student you should make sure that the abroad study counsellors you're considering cover a large number of universities spread across many different countries. If a counsellor only covers a few countries, then they will tend to push for one of the few that they deal with, regardless of what's best for you. Here are top qualities you need to look for in your study abroad consultants/counselor:
- Excellent Communication Skills
- Knowledgeable
- Personal Experience
- Presentation Skills
- Enthusiastic
- Facilities for additional services
- Confidentiality
Also what make’s for a good Counselor or more importantly, what are the qualities that a student should look for in a Counseling service? Let’s analyze all in detail
1) Excellent Communication Skills: It is one of the main and most distinct qualities a good counseling service needs to have. The Counselor should be able to suggest universities as per the students profile, give sensible advice, provide assistance with student visas & college applications, and for all this needs to have excellent communication skills. Clarity and clear communication is an utmost must between the counselor and student to help streamline the entire process.
2) Knowledgeable: A Counselor should be knowledgeable about the entire process. It is only due to their professional expertise and knowledge of the process that a student is convinced to opt for their help to venture overseas. They should be able to answer each and every question put forth by a student with clarity and mainly be confident about what they speak.
3) Personal Experience: Personal experience plays a huge role. While providing advice to a student and parent about venturing abroad, a Counselors conviction power will surely increase when telling them about their own experience when they took the journey. A personal experience is very vital and essential to have proper knowledge and an insight when you are guiding someone else.
4) Presentation Skills: Presentation creates the first impression for a good counselor. The way one expresses one’s ideas, the persuasive powers, how you present yourself while dealing with the clients, enhances one’s reputation vastly.
5) Enthusiastic: You can base your decision on the kind of Counselor you wish to choose, based on the enthusiasm and energy he/she shows while communicating with you. How they sound when they talk to you makes a big difference. Are they happy and perky when they talk to you? Are you convinced with their authenticity when they discuss with you the many options of studying overseas. You would basically be spending a whole lot of time with this person, so its better to choose someone who would lighten the mood.
6) Facilities for additional services: A Counselor that provides more that just information and guidance about venturing overseas, is more commonly chosen by people. The additional services may include services such as assisting students in their pursuit of securing their dream university, the visa process, bank loan, documentation process and many such amenities. Its basically a choice for you to make.
7) Confidentiality: One of the most important qualities that a Counselor ought to posses is that of confidentiality. The client/student would be entrusting him with information that is very privy to them, be it their academics, financial status & many such things. It is the duty of the counselor to ensure that the information shared is strictly between the two parties concerned (i.e the counselor & client) and by no means there is a leak or its shared with anyone else.
So, as seen in the points above, the entire point of availing the services of a Counselor is to get professional help and streamlining the entire process of your journey overseas. There are many Counselors out there who would gladly be willing to assist you, but what you need to look for before opting for their services is, are they really the right one for you? That, only comes through research. Don’t just go on word of the mouth. You can opinionate yourself in a meeting or two whether this is the right person to help and assist you in your journey overseas and mainly has all the qualities & services that you’ve been looking in a Counselor.
Always remember that you are entrusting your entire overseas academic future into the hands of this person, so ensure that you make the right choice.
In the meantime you may have a look at Yocket Premium Counseling Services offered by our our experts or have a look at top study abroad consultants in India according to us.
