It seems like every time we scroll down our Instagram feeds, we are bombarded by pictures of melanated goddesses living their best lives abroad. London. Cuba. Dubai. Black girls are going everywhere – but what about for graduate school?
According to the National Center for Education, black women are graduating from college at an all time high and are America's most educated group. Of black students alone, black women have earned 66% of bachelor's degrees, 71% of master's degrees, and 65% of all doctorate degrees. So, I think it's safe to say that black women are killing it.
Early last fall, I made the decision to jump off the college to 9-to-5 assembly line and apply to various Master's degree programs in London, England. What started off as a fun and semi-sarcastic conversation-starter when people would ask the infamous, "What are you doing after graduation" question ultimately evolved into my true preferred course of action for this next chapter in my life. When I interned at the White House under the Obama administration, I interacted with a number of senior officials who had international degrees, but they were rarely women of color. We have the ambition, we have the travel bug, and clearly we have the educational prowess. So if they can do it, why can't I?
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Despite the shortage of women of color mentors to guide me on this journey, I was pleased to find a number of resources to guide me along my quest for a degree abroad. And, I would like to share them with you! Here are 4 quick tips to consider when taking your talents global.
1. Understand What Experience You Are Looking For
Are you willing to learn a new language? Are you particular about the prestigiousness of a certain graduate program? Are you here for a good time, not a long time? These are all factors that you will need to take into consideration as you first begin to research international degree programs. The world is a big place, and as expected, there are a lot of program options.
I narrowed down my choices by prestige, language, duration, and international access. Specifically, I limited my research to leading one-year international relations and public policy programs in the U.K. that were located nearby to airports and train stations, so I can easily travel to other destinations in Europe. Europe can just as easily be Asia, South America, or Africa and financial aid packages, networking opportunities, and name recognition vary by school, so start with a big framework and tailor down your schools from there.
2. Make A Timeline
After you have an idea of which school profiles you are interested in, I highly recommend making a comprehensive timeline, which outlines all of your application deadlines, funding deadlines, school login information, program requirements, etc. This is definitely the least glamorous part of the application process, but organization and proactivity are key. Life doesn't stop because you're applying to grad school, so do yourself a favor and make everything as easy to navigate as possible.
3. Be Proactive In Your Applications
In line with making a solid timeline, there are a number of mini-deadlines like external scholarship deadlines and visa applications that can pop up within the overall deadline. Most programs require academic and/or professional recommendation letters and there is nothing worse than having everything ready to go, but you cannot submit your application until your recommender submits their component. That being said, start early. Give yourself time to write several drafts of your personal statement and program-specific essays (if applicable) and reach out to at least double the number of required recommenders. This is especially true for post-grad applicants whose preferred professors may have left the school or are on sabbatical. Many schools have rolling deadlines, but a 3-4 month cushion to get everything in order gives you the opportunity to put your best foot forward.
4. Look Into Different Funding Streams
But actually, look into different funding streams. For many students, myself very much included, I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth and the first question my dad asked me after receiving my acceptance was, "So, who's paying for this?" Depending on your desired program and academic track record, there are a number of prestigious programs that fully fund international graduate degree programs in select countries like the Fulbright Program, Rhodes Scholarship, Marshall Scholarship, and Schwarzman Scholars. These programs aside, tuition fees at foreign universities are often much lower than their U.S. counterparts.
For an example, graduate tuition fees at École Polytechnique (ParisTech) are €15000 per year around $19,000 USD whereas similar degrees from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) are $48,000 per year. Furthermore, some institutions offer specific merit-based scholarships on a rolling basis or are even virtually free for U.S. students (excluding relocation, housing, and visa fees). So again, be proactive and do your research!
There's a whole world waiting for you if you decide to take a chance and pave your own path. Bon voyage!
Featured image by Getty Images
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak