From India to the US: How Abinav found the financial support he needed to turn his dreams into a reality

Welcome to #DreamBigGoFar, Leap’s series that documents the stories of students across the globe. This week we take a peek into the life of Abinav Bayya, a graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas.?

There was a time in Abinav’s life when he was content with staying in India.?

Nearly two years after that point, he found himself boarding a flight to the United States to begin his journey as a student at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). “I wanted to experience life in a different country and explore a new culture,” he says.? The journey, he hoped, would help him become a more well-rounded individual by the time he returned home. Like many other aspirants from India, Abinav had put his life on hold due to the pandemic. Within a year, he decided to complete the MBA course he was pursuing and set his sights on studying abroad.

“In some ways, I thought that studying and living abroad would help me understand my home country better,” he reflects.

But in order to do just that, Abinav would have to cross a few hurdles at first. Chiefly among them, getting accustomed to new ways of life in another country.“My first semester was rough,” he admits. “I faced a lot of cultural and academic challenges and had to transition from the Indianized way of learning to the American system.”

But along the way, he received a lot of support, he says–from his parents, friends back home and was, eventually, able to bounce back.

Two years after that challenging first semester, he completed his master’s degree with distinction, earning a scholar with recognition award. “To be honest, none of this would have been possible without the right financial support,” he says.

Abinav recalls the struggle of securing funding. “I visited many financial institutions, hoping one of them would approve a loan,” he shares. For his family, the cost of Rs 80-90 lakhs was beyond their means, and he had no one to turn to for a loan of that magnitude. Abinav was one among the 1.2 million Indian students who decided to study in the USA that year.

After a frustrating and exhausting search for funding, Abinav came across Leap Finance through a Google search. A swift disbursal later, he was ready to take on the next chapter in his life. "Leap Finance was my saving grace. Their support was crucial in allowing me to pursue my dream of studying abroad without the weight of financial constraints.”