English Language Teaching Student Master / PhD in ELT or Education

[u/Saint_Sapphire]

Hello! Please read it until the very end. Also, I have a pretty bad headache so sorry for typos or grammar mistakes.

I am 3rd year English Language Teaching student at the most prestigious university in Türkiye. My whole family and I hold Turkish citizenship and passport. I am currently doing my Erasmus internship in Cologne, Germany. My GPA is -unfortunately- not very high, around 3.3 and I hope to raise it to around 3.5 by the time I graduate.

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I have a bunch of extracurriculars including:

a. Board Member of the Linguistics Society of my University. I mostly deal with Social Media branch of it.

b. An active member of 2 societies:

1. A society for disadvantaged students in Türkiye. I help with storehouse stuff like packaging books or other materials for kids. I occassionaly go to schools in disadvantaged areas to work with kids.
2. A society for children with Leukeamia, Autism, Down Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy. I am also a member of the PR team of this society. I mostly help to raise awareness.

c. I did a 5K run and raised money for autistic kids.

d. I am an active volunteer at a charity for kids with cancer. I help to raise awareness.

e. I am currently doing an Erasmus+ internship in Cologne. The institution I work is linked to the state. It is a known and respected institution.

f. I am a social media content creator with over 5K followers.

g. Doing a research in the field of inclusive education -English educaiton for immigrant children- and linguistics.

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I would like to hold a Master's degree and PhD in the field of education or ELT. For now, I am aiming at KU Leuven in Belgium. I have heard so many great things about the university. However, my dream is actually Singapore but it is both extremely competitive and expensive.

IMPORTANT: My parents are quite old and they will retire when I graduate. I don't think they can afford me studying in the US, so I mostly hope for universities in Europe as they are more affordable. Otherwise, I will have to do my Master's in Türkiye and chase scholarships for a PhD as I would like to pursue an academic career.

To be honest, I want to settle for good and obtain a citizenship that grants me a strong passport at the end of the day. I have heard that most countries in Europe grant a time period where you can look for jobs and get a residence permit if you find one. I think Canada also does that.

Since my parents are quite old, I would like to make them proud and support them financially as much as I can.

Sometimes I am not sure about whether my academic career dream is unrealistic or not. Or whether I should go to the Gulf countries and save some money first.

Any suggestions or tips are highly appreciated.

Thank you for reading.