From Single-Mom Household in Indore to Sapienza Rome: My DSU Scholarship Journey

🕑 9 min read

Alumni voice: Aishwarya P., M.Sc. Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza Università di Roma (2023–2025). Written in her own words for Kadamb Overseas.

I’m writing this at 1 AM in a flat in Rome’s San Lorenzo neighbourhood, two weeks before I defend my Master’s thesis at Sapienza. Saumitra sir messaged me last month asking if I’d share my story — the honest one, not a testimonial. Most scholarship blogs I read before I left India were either sugar-coated or plain fake. I’ll try to do better than that.

Where I Started — Indore, Single Mother, ₹25 Lakh Ceiling

My father passed away when I was 11. My mother, a government schoolteacher in Indore (Madhya Pradesh), raised me and my younger brother on what is basically a ₹48,000/month salary. I finished my B.Tech in Aerospace Engineering from a decent tier-2 private college in Indore in May 2022 — CGPA 8.5, GATE 2022 score 612 (AIR ~4,800 in AE). Not enough for a straight IIT M.Tech seat in Aerospace, not enough for ISRO entry-level, not enough for the US MS dream either.

The US dream is what I want to talk about first, because it’s where my family started. An uncle (mama) in Indianapolis had been whispering into my mother’s ear for two years: “send her to Purdue, send her to Georgia Tech, send her anywhere in US, we’ll help.” When I actually sat down with a spreadsheet in July 2022, the numbers came out to this: Purdue Aerospace MS two-year total cost ≈ $72,000 tuition + $22,000 living = $94,000, or ₹78 lakh at that exchange rate. My mother’s non-negotiable budget was ₹25 lakh (and even that would require taking a second mortgage on our Indore flat). So: USA was dead before it began.

Finding Kadamb — An Indore Education Fair, November 2022

Saumitra sir was one of four speakers at a weekend “Study Abroad Fair” organised at Brilliant Convention Centre in Indore, November 2022. The other three speakers were selling US/UK packages. Saumitra sir talked for 25 minutes — mostly about Italy, Germany, and something called DSU regional scholarships I’d never heard of in my life. I remember he said, “If your family budget is under ₹30 lakh, do not apply to the USA. Apply to Italy’s public universities and stack DSU with MAECI. You can do Masters at near-zero net tuition.” I thought he was bluffing. I went to the Kadamb stall after the talk.

His assistant took my 10th, 12th, B.Tech transcripts scan, my GATE scorecard, and my mother’s salary certificate. Two weeks later I had a 75-minute Zoom call with Saumitra sir himself. He told me, blunt: “Italy is the only path that fits your budget and your profile. Don’t fight it.” My mother was not convinced — “Italy? Who does Italy? Pizza country? Will she even get a job?” — but Saumitra sir spoke to her in Hindi on a second call and walked her through three past Kadamb alumni at Politecnico Milano who were now at Airbus Toulouse and Leonardo SpA Rome. She gave in.

Italy Skepticism — Language, Reputation, Return on Investment

Between December 2022 and January 2023 I had genuine, hard doubts. The LinkedIn world told me Italy meant gelato and not engineering. My cousin in Boston kept sending me “Italy has 45% youth unemployment” links. My B.Tech classmates applying to USA were on group chats calling me “Europe backup.” Saumitra sir’s answer to all of this, over three separate calls, was basically: “Sapienza is a top-150 QS world university. Politecnico Milano is top-120. Leonardo SpA, ThalesAleniaSpace, and Airbus Italy hire 400+ aerospace masters graduates from Italian public universities per year. The anglosphere internet does not talk about this because Italy does not do PR in English.” That checked out when I actually went looking — Leonardo’s 2024 graduate intake page listed Sapienza, Politecnico Milano, Politecnico Torino, and Università di Pisa as primary target universities.

Profile Evaluation and Shortlist

Kadamb’s profile evaluation for me landed on three Italian universities: Politecnico Milano (for MSc Aerospace Engineering), Politecnico Torino (MSc Aerospace), and Sapienza Roma (MSc Aerospace Engineering). Saumitra sir was clear: PoliMi was the hardest admit for my profile (their aerospace cohort takes 30 international students a year with an 8.8+ average CGPA), Torino was mid-difficulty, Sapienza was the most achievable while still being research-strong. He explicitly told me Sapienza’s aerospace faculty includes a satellite propulsion research group that would be rare to find at my level outside of IIT.

The DSU Application — The Real Work

DSU stands for Diritto allo Studio Universitario — the Italian regional right-to-study scholarship. Every Italian region runs its own DSU. For Rome (Lazio region) it’s run by DiSCo Lazio. The award, for a student from my family income bracket, comes to roughly €5,700/year plus full tuition waiver (exonero tasse) plus subsidised accommodation in a student residence. Combined with the MAECI Italian Government scholarship (€9,000 one-time stipend) — the total annual scholarship is in the range of €14,000. I’m writing €13K in the table below to be conservative because of exchange fluctuations.

To apply for DSU you submit something called ISEE Parificato — a parallel version of the Italian family income certificate specifically designed for international students whose families earn abroad. You get ISEE Parificato issued by a CAF (Centro di Assistenza Fiscale — a tax assistance centre) in Italy. For that you need: (a) your family’s Indian income proofs (mother’s salary certificate + Form 16 + Income Tax Return); (b) translated into Italian by a sworn translator (traduzione giurata); (c) apostilled by the Indian MEA (Ministry of External Affairs); (d) then legalised at the Italian Embassy/Consulate. This process is genuinely painful. For me in early 2023:

• February 8: My mother’s ITR 2021–22 notarised in Indore
• February 22: MEA apostille via the regional branch office in Bhopal (took 11 days)
• March 7: Italian translation done by an Italian Consulate–certified translator in Mumbai (₹6,800 for three documents — salary cert, Form 16, ITR)
• March 18: Consular legalisation at the Italian Consulate, Mumbai
• April 2: Documents couriered to my Indian-Italian contact in Rome who queued at a CAF office for me
• April 14: ISEE Parificato issued
• April 21: DSU application submitted to DiSCo Lazio

Saumitra sir had warned me the ISEE Parificato step would feel “like renewing a passport five times in a row.” He wasn’t wrong. Without Kadamb’s checklist I would have missed the apostille-before-translation sequence (they have to be in that order — not the other way).

Choosing Sapienza Over the Politecnicos

I got admission offers in March–April 2023 from Sapienza Roma and Politecnico Torino. PoliMi waitlisted me. I picked Sapienza for three reasons: (a) the aerospace propulsion research group under a professor whose name I won’t share without permission but whose 2022 paper on electric ion thrusters I had read during my B.Tech; (b) Rome’s proximity to ESA-ESRIN (European Space Agency’s earth observation centre in Frascati, 20 km from Rome) which opens ESA internships; (c) Sapienza’s DSU acceptance rate for Indian students in 2023 was historically around 70% vs Torino’s 55% (Saumitra sir had past-student data on this).

Visa — Italian Embassy Mumbai and VFS

Italian student visa from India in 2023 is a two-stage process: Universitaly pre-enrollment + visa application at VFS Mumbai/Delhi/Chennai + interview at Italian Consulate. I did VFS Mumbai in late July 2023. Kadamb ran a 60-minute mock interview with me two days before — Saumitra sir asked me, in his Italian-officer voice, “Why not US, why Italy?” and “Who is paying for your studies if DSU is rejected?” Both questions came up in the real interview. I got my Type D student visa in 18 days, flight Emirates Mumbai–Rome on September 14, 2023.

First Semester Reality — Homesickness Around Diwali

Rome in October 2023 was beautiful for four days, then I crashed. My English-program courses were fine but the actual city is not an English-friendly city at all — not the students, not the shopkeepers, not the bank clerks, not the DiSCo Lazio officers. I was stuck in paperwork for my residence permit (permesso di soggiorno) for two months because I couldn’t read Italian forms. My first student housing in Tiburtina zone had a roommate who chain-smoked inside the room.

Diwali 2023 fell on November 12. I video-called my mother from a park behind Sapienza’s main campus. She had lit diyas at home. I cried in the park for about 20 minutes. Then I went back to my room, messaged Saumitra sir the next morning, and he told me — this actually helped — “Every Kadamb Italy student has a week like that in November. Switch residence if you have to, join the Indian Students Association Sapienza (there is one), and get through December.” I moved out to a shared flat in San Lorenzo in January 2024 with two other Indian students (one from Pune at Sapienza Chemistry, one from Kolkata at Sapienza Architecture). Life stabilised.

DSU + MAECI — The Money Side That Actually Worked

My DSU for Year 1 came through in December 2023 (backdated to October): €5,700 stipend + full tuition waiver + subsidised residence (€195/month instead of market-rate €550). My MAECI award (€9,000 one-time, disbursed in two instalments) came through in November 2023. Combined, I had roughly €13,500 for Year 1. My living cost in Rome on a student budget came to ≈ €830/month × 12 = €9,960. Meaning I had a surplus of ≈ €3,500 at the end of Year 1 — which I sent home to my mother.

Year 2 DSU renewal was automatic (you have to maintain credit minimums — I hit mine by July 2024). Total two-year scholarship stack: ≈ €26,000 (₹24 lakh at current rate).

Leonardo SpA Internship

I landed my Leonardo SpA internship via Sapienza’s career fair in March 2025. Leonardo’s Divisione Velivoli runs a six-month paid internship for aerospace master’s students at their Rome and Turin sites. Pay: €1,800/month gross, roughly €1,450/month net. I’m working on aerostructure fatigue analysis for a military trainer aircraft. Can’t share more specifics (I have an NDA). The internship is expected to convert to a full-time graduate engineer offer upon thesis defence — I’ll know by July 2026.

Looking Forward — Italian B2, Permanent Residency, Mother

I’m at Italian B1 right now, targeting B2 by December 2026. Italian citizenship eligibility is 10 years of continuous residence (tough, longest in EU). Permanent residency (carta di soggiorno) is 5 years. My goal: permanent residency by September 2028, then sponsor my mother for a family-reunification visa. Indore to Rome is a long way emotionally, but my mother has a valid passport now (she’s 54, first time applied in 2024) and she’s open to the idea of six-month stays.

Kadamb’s Role — Specific Moments

Where Kadamb actually earned its fee:

1. The “don’t apply to USA” reality check at Indore fair. I had two consultants in Indore trying to sell me a Purdue application on a ₹25L family budget. That would have meant a ₹50L education loan. Saumitra sir killing the USA idea in the first meeting saved me (and my mother) three months of chasing a financially impossible goal.
2. The DSU + MAECI stack strategy. I’d never heard of either before the Indore fair. No YouTube video in 2022 explained them clearly to Indian students. Kadamb’s Italy scholarship spreadsheet — with Lazio, Lombardia, Piedmont region DSU comparisons — was the single most useful document.
3. ISEE Parificato sequencing. The apostille-then-translate-then-legalise-then-CAF order is not written anywhere in one place on the internet. Kadamb’s 14-step checklist saved me at least two months.
4. Embassy mock interview. The “who pays if DSU is rejected” question really did come up.
5. The Diwali phone call in November 2023. Reality check that what I was feeling was normal, not a reason to quit and fly home.

Cost Breakdown — Two Years

Item	Cost (₹ lakh)
Sapienza tuition (2 years)	0 (full waiver via DSU)
Living cost Rome (2 years)	14
Visa + flights + settlement	1.8
Kadamb Overseas fee (2022)	0.75
Document translation + apostille	0.45
Gross outlay (before scholarships)	17.0
Less: DSU + MAECI scholarships received	-24.0
Less: Leonardo internship earnings (6 months)	-6.5
NET COST (effectively negative)	-13.5 (profit)
USA Purdue counterfactual (rejected)	78
Savings vs USA path	≈ ₹91 lakh

My Advice to Indian Families on a Real Budget

If you are a middle-income or lower-middle-income Indian family looking at Masters abroad in 2026, here are three things I’d say to you:

1. Do not believe the “USA = prestige, Europe = compromise” narrative. Sapienza’s aerospace department places students at Leonardo, Thales, and ESA. Those are real companies at real salaries. A Purdue MS places students at similar companies but at four to five times the cost and with H-1B lottery uncertainty at the end. The math is simple if you let it be simple.
2. Italy’s DSU is a genuine programme, not a trap. But it requires real documentation discipline and a real Italian-Consulate-grade paper trail. Do not do DSU on your own unless you have an Italian contact to queue at the CAF. Use a consultant who has placed students through DSU before — Kadamb has done 60+ DSU placements (I’m number 47, per Saumitra sir’s count).
3. Pick one scholarship specialist, not a general consultant. The big chain consultancies in Indore did not know what MAECI or DSU were. Kadamb’s Italy pipeline is why I’m writing this at 1 AM from Rome instead of crying about USA rejections at home.

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— Aishwarya P.
M.Sc. Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza Università di Roma (2023–2025)
Incoming: Leonardo SpA Divisione Velivoli (pending conversion)

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Related reading:

• Free Education in Italy — Complete 2026 Guide
• DSU Italy Scholarship — Region-by-Region Breakdown
• MAECI Italian Government Scholarship Guide
• Study in Italy — Kadamb Country Hub
• Italy Student Visa from India — Step by Step