LUMS CONTRIBUNAL - Lahore University of Management Sciences

12 LUMSContribunalRealizing dreams and ambitionsfrom a rural background and moved to Lahore 30-40 years ago. Although my prior schooling was fromBeaconhouse School System, then A-levels from ResourceAcademia, I had no idea about LUMS becausenone of my family members, friends or acquaintanceshad been there.When I came to LUMS I was so impressed. I thoughtthe building, the environment and the people wereawesome. Now, I advise people to send their childrento LUMS if they want them to get the best educationin Pakistan.Q. How did you decide your area of specialisation?ANS: I majored in Social Sciences. When I joined LUMS Idiscovered that everyone wanted Accounting and Financeas their major, so I also decided to follow thetrend. Also, Accounting and Finance seemed to be thekind of major which would guarantee a good job. Myfamily also encouraged me. After a couple of quartersin Accounting and Finance, I realised that I was notinterested in the field. I liked studying languages, Iwas a debater and a poet so I felt that these numbersand ledgers were not my piece of cake.My parents discouraged me from taking Social Sciencesconsidering the limited career choices. My fathersaid, “What would you do after studying SocialSciences?” He himself was from a Social Sciencesbackground and could not find a suitable job.Fortunately, my cousin who is a Masters in Social Sciencesand is teaching in UK intervened and convincedmy father to let me study Social Sciences. I changedmy major in the last semester of 2nd year. I felt that Iwas made for the field. I didn’t need to put any effortto study and enjoyed every course. I got good gradesbecause I was enjoying my studies. I applied in thesame stream at Oxford as well. Everybody kept convincingme to change my major, saying that nobodyknows what anthropology is. You have to tell peoplethat it’s a branch of sociology, something related tosociology though slightly different.Q. How did you get your admission and scholarshipat Oxford?ans: I applied for the Masters in Social Anthropology atCambridge, University of Manchester and Oxford. Igot an offer from the University of Manchester withina couple of weeks after applying. For University ofOxford, I applied within the first deadline and I dideverything heartedly. While waiting for a response, afriend suggested that I should email the concernedperson regarding my admission. I did and got aprompt response and an attached admission offer letterwith the email! I just started crying and calling outto my Dada (Grandfather), who thought that I wascrying because I had seen a lizard. When he came tomy rescue I showed him the letter and asked him toread it repeatedly to make sure I had actually got theadmission.After receiving this great news the next task was toarrange for funding to pursue my Masters at Oxford.I had applied for two scholarships, the Agha KhanFoundation Scholarship and the Punjab EducationEndowment Fund (PEEF). I had also applied for anOxford Internal Scholarship but I didn’t get any responsefrom the University. Also many people told methat this scholarship is not given to overseas studentsso I should not raise my expectations.PEEF refused my application as my area of studydidn’t fall under their category of scholarships. Theywere only offering scholarships for geology, earth sciences,physics, chemistry etc. However, I got throughthe screening and application process of the AghaKhan Foundation Scholarship and they called me foran interview at their office in Islamabad. It was a verydetailed interview with a panel of 6-7 people. I wasinformed a few days later that I had cleared the interviewand they would now be sending my application