Continuing Thoughts about Grad School: the Money and the Career?

Somehow, my previous post about getting an acceptance letter from LSE became one of the most popularly read blog post of today (I kid you not, that post was at one point ranked #45 GLOBALLY in a real-time blog post access ranking...well, for a few seconds, but still, quite amazing). But all the attention I am already getting just make the pressure even worse...Now everyone is sort of assuming that I definitely will attend since, after all, it is the London School of Economics.

But the more I think about how I HAVE to attend the program I am accepted into, the more I feel worried about my future. Last time, I already mentioned the financial woes of having to pay for all of the expenses out of my own pocket. I spent close to the entire afternoon today seeking opportunistic (i.e. not too competitive) sources for funding, but with only the highly competitive Fulbright and Marshall (both of which award about a dozen a year out of how many thousands of applicants...) mentioned, the sources of funding are looking bleak.

Of course, there are the school-based awards...but with my financial aid application filled in way too causally (I regret spending so little time on it, but considering that UK schools are generally not need-blind, I felt the need NOT to overemphasize how much of "adverse" financial situation I am in...especially considering there are so many accepted applicants who are from developing countries and who do not have paid full-time jobs like I do now). Either way, cannot have too much of a high expectation of school-based awards.

Yet, the more I think about it, the more I feel that there is a bigger worry than the money to pay for school. For money, I can still apply for both the Fulbright and the Marshall when the programs start up again in beginning of May, and even if I am declined, I can ask my parents and grandparents (who promised me money for school despite my otherwise unappreciative behavior)...but what about when I am done with LSE?

I realized this issue when a friend mentioned it over lunch today. What AM I going to do after I get a master's degree? We are living in a world where economic downturn is so bad that even Hollywood celebrities are turning to racism against job-stealing minorities to increase their own popularities. And if the huge American economy does not have extra jobs to go around, how the heck can I have a decent chance of finding a job in Europe, where I do not even have a work visa?

So halfway into my day of looking for scholarships, fellowships, and grants, I started thinking whether it is possible to "kill two birds with one stone" right here, i.e. to get a sponsor to pay for my school in exchange for a promise on my part to work for the sponsor for a specified amount of time after graduation. Yeah, right, certainly a lot of confidence I am showing now (like I am some hotshot with extraordinary skills) even though it took me forever (and generated a lot of anxieties in the process) just to land my current job at Rakuten...

Think again, though...what about places were there is a constant shortage of qualified people, such as the US military? Putting aside the fact that I cannot actually imagine myself staying in the military for long, there could still be possibility of places where my value (as hard labor who happen to speak three different languages, at least) should be recognized and be useful enough to be worth more than 18000 pounds in advance.

And (this maybe a long shot, but) what if I can actually persuade Rakuten to pay for my graduate school in exchange for future services? I mean, considering that such a concept does not exist in Japanese companies (and indeed, most new grads here probably never attempt to get to grad school if already a career salary-man), it would be interesting if I can convince the company to change the policy that is already quite common in investment banks....