Going to college in the United States is exactly what Bayu Prakosa's siblings all did. Bayu decided to follow in their footsteps and do the same thing. “I’m originally from Indonesia. My hometown is Jakarta and I decided to come to the United States to follow my siblings, all of them go to college here so I decided why not give it a chance. I decided to come here," he says.
“I applied to six universities across the United States and I got into all of them, but Auburn had the best among those six so I just picked Auburn I didn’t know what Auburn was like until actually I got to Auburn like two weeks before the school starts.”
Bayu received his undergraduate degree in Political Science and Economics. Now, the focus is on a MBA degree in Management Information Systems. Once he completes his studies both his undergraduate degree as well as his MBA will be from Auburn University. Staying at Auburn University to further his education was for one reason in particular. “For graduate school I gave myself options I applied to four other schools. Three are on the Southeast and one is in San Francisco, but at the end I decided to come to Auburn just because I was very familiar with the program and I am very familiar with the people here too.
“Another thing that really makes me want to go to Auburn was the fact that the MBA program is only a year and a half program here and it is a requirement for graduation for students to do internship whether it be during the summer or after the last semester,” he says.
“So basically if you haven’t done your internship in the summer then after the last semester you have to do it, you not actually graduating yet,” he says. “So, that is why it compels me because I realize in undergrad I was pretty much build on my organization skills being active with soccer, being active with international student organization all that kind of stuff, but I realize going to graduate school I need a place that can give me a chance to actually go out there and taste how it is to be working in the world and that is the biggest reason I choose Auburn because for requirement they need for the students to have an internship.”
From Political Science and Economics to Management Information Systems, Bayu says studying something totally different for his MBA would give him better marketable skills for the workplace. “I’ve always interested in working with computers. I have to admit I don’t know a lot of the technical terms unlike many people that actually dealt with computers do, but I’m always interested and when I got into the MBA program, one thing I set my goal was, when I get out with my master’s I will be able to compete out there because I had a hard time competing for jobs after undergrad because I only had Political Science and Economics and it’s very broad,” he says.
“There is no specific function that I can get into so I was thinking I like computers so maybe I will just try so what I did was actually the second semester of the MBA program I actually took an internet programming so basically what you do is you pretty much create a web site and you write the coding and everything. I really enjoyed that,” he says.
“So from there I was like maybe I can do this. I know with all the technology that is going on right now I think it is very good and at least it is very good for me to have a background in this,” he says. So, that is when I decided I am going to concentrate on M-I-S, (Master Information of Systems) and it can be very frustrating sometimes especially with writing the code, but I enjoy it.”
Bayu says getting an education in the United States is very important for him. “It is very important to me because from back home there is a perception that the education system here especially for higher learning is better and that is why I actually wanted to come here was because of that too and when I got here I found that’s true,” he says.
“It is not only just the education part in the sense of like our classes now, but also interacting with different people because over here again like I said it was a challenge for me to adapt to the new situation here not just the fact that it’s a small town, but it is a different culture than what I am use to.”
So after Auburn University, what is next for Bayu? “I just received another internship offer. I already did an internship this past summer in Dallas and I’ve received another internship offer that is going to be in Birmingham for six months,” he says. “It will be in Accounting and I will be working with an Accounting department with that company and I am hoping that I can prove myself worth to be hired full time there because I really like the company.”
News
