Indonesian woman makes second appeal to fund S$82K SMU MBA after first drew backlash

SINGAPORE: A woman from Indonesia who asked netizens to help fund her graduate studies in Singapore received a lot of criticism, with commenters calling her out for asking for money while others are struggling to make ends meet.

Evelyn Clarissa Siregar has since apologised and taken down her Sep 19 Threads post, and on Thursday (Sep 24), tried again.

Ms Siregar had explained in her original post that she had been admitted to  Singapore Management University’s MBA programme, which begins on Jan 27, 2027.

While she had gotten a S$3,000 discount on tuition fees, she wrote that it was “far from enough” and that she needed $82,480 for the whole course, apart from $2,000 to $2,500 monthly for living expenses.

In her post, she sought sponsors and promised that she would repay through skills and experiences, drawing on her experiences in content creation and connecting IT products with companies that need them. 

“I’m 28, with no husband and no kids. I have absolutely nothing preventing me from soaring higher except for the funding,” she added.

Unfortunately, her post did not land well with many Indonesians on the platform, some of whom told her point blank that if she needs to ask for money to afford an MBA, she probably shouldn’t be doing it.

Second time lucky?

In her Sep 24 post, Ms Siregar said she learned from her critics.

“First, I want to say I’m sorry. After everything that happened with my last MBA pitch, I took some time to listen, reflect, and think about what I actually wanted to say,” she wrote, adding the hope that her new post explains her situation better.

She admitted that she had not thought her pitch through, and that she had gotten defensive against commenters.

In her do-over, she focused on the issue of the lack of products from Southeast Asia going global, highlighting that this is because of an incomplete Research and Development (R&D) scenario. In this context, she said she saw an opportunity to connect the three R&D components (scientists, industries, and investors), with herself as the bridge between them.

“How do I actually get there? MBA,” she wrote, adding that Singapore is where she wants to do it “because I want to learn from a place where these things come together.” 

The city-state, she added, has a thriving scientific community and is one of the most developed economies in the region.

“So, that’s what I was trying to say. I’m not just trying to get an MBA. I’m trying to build the skills, connections, and experience to eventually connect: Science × Capital × Industry, and help more great products from Southeast Asia reach the world,” she added. /TISG

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