@NKnight,
Menh! u really tried, and it is very good you did the GRE on time. You will have time to search for good schools and enough time to write a mind blowing SOP. U are welcome on board!

@SEFAGO,
Well said.

@Godeagle,
I think it will be nice if you can proceed to PhD immediately. (Everybody has their reservation anyway). But, all in all, you are doing well. Wish you best of luck!
Wait a minute, where is emmyclev, has he done it? Brother, show your face o
We shall all get there.

er. . .guys when you say fall 2010 when is that? cos i want to do GRE in feb would it be possible to start school in september?

Well, netotse, it depends on the Fall admission deadlines of the schools you're applying to. Fall semester starts in September and for most schools, the application deadline is between  1st march and 30th april. So taking the GRE in February may be risky if something goes wrong. Just ensure you take it at least a month to the application deadlines of your receiving schools and pray nothing goes wrong.

Me in political history class,

Professor: Why does Ayi Kwei Armah use the title "The beautyful ones are not yet born."

Me: Because Ugliness is genetic, and so makes sense, Ugly begets ugly.

@ arshy,

You can convert your grades yourself unless your school specifically asks for a conversion/evaluation by a professional body. I think the Nigerian system is kind of a mix between the US credit system and the UK class system. For example, in Unilag, GPA is based on 5.00 scale even though we have first class, second class upper, etc.

So you may be familiar with the following (if u be naija student o!)
For a 1 unit course A=5, B=4, C=3, D=2, E=1, F=0
For a 2 unit course A=10, B=8,C=6,,
For a 3 unit course A=15, B=12, ,
.
.
.


For a pretty good estimate, just go through your transcript and replace the values of the grades as follows

For a 1 unit course A=4, B= 3, C=2, D,E=1, F=0
For a 2 unit course A=8, B= 6, C=4, D,E=2, F=0
For a 3 unit course A=12, B= 9, C=6, D,E=3, F=0
.
.
.
Say theres a dept in Uninaija where a guy has only 3 courses to take in 2 years to get a degree.

Year 1
nairaland101 (2 units)
nairaland102 (3 units)

Year 2
nairaland206 (5 units)

Transcript from uni naija
nrl101 (2) A 10 (2*5)
nrl102 (3) B 12 (3*4)
nrl206 (5) A 25 (5*5)
-----------------------
(10) 47
GPA at graduation = 47/10 = 4.7
i.e 4.70/5.00 equivalent to First Class Division(4.50-5.00) in Uninaija

GPA for uni yankee
nrl101 (2) A 8 (2*4)
nrl102 (3) B 9 (3*3)
nrl206 (5) A 20 (5*4)
-----------------------
(10) 37
GPA =37/10 = 3.7
i.e 3.70/4.00

You may have been quick to notice that GPA/5.00 = (GPA-1)/4.00 (that is subtract 1 from the Uninaija GPA to get the Uniyankee GPA. Caution: Use this ONLY when theres lots of A's in the transcript)

If theres a good number of B's and C's, I think its safer to just do the full GPA "re-calculation" as shown earlier.

If you kept a personal record (in spreadsheet format) when still in school then you are lucky. Just change the formulae you used
For A change 5 to 4
For B change 4 to 3 and so on. Click enter and you have your answer.


Dont be shocked by the answer, remember its now over 4.00.

No i want to go directly to MEDICAL SCH AFTER MY GRAD

@ SEFAGO

We will miss you. But your input is forever sealed on the pages of nairaland, (well, thats hoping the moderators leave 'em ). Hope you have a great time doing graduate work.
Could we summon up some courage and ask that you pop in, even if its once during the summer break?
Thanks. Good luck man!

Well I really actually want to leave, because of personal reasons, but I think, before application season starts, I would give more advise, but thats all, I would do. I actually know a lot about the graduate admission process (no I am not trying to show off- this is an online forum) from interacting with other people, include africans who applied to graduate school, And one thing I found out is that you never know what would happen.

For one, I thought US universities don't accept people from Nigeria straight out of university for PhD programs (They are usually expected to do a masters first) graduate because of the standard of nigeria's tertiary education, It being below that of other academically rigorous countries, For example, Like India (IITs) and China (Tsinghua and Peking University) schools which are not facilities/Research wise equivalent to MIT, but are at par academically have students flooding the PhD programs of top schools after there bachelors. However this is not the case especially if you attend premier universities like UI, University of Lagos and OAU, and have a high GPA because then these top schools would assume you are one of the best in Nigeria, and they would try there best to take you.

So basically, what i am trying to say is if you have results which reflect top 1-2% in nigeria, and you dont have a masters, apply straight for a Phd, that is where the money is at (scholarship wise).

Also pertaining to schools, there are so many engineering schools in the US that it is ridiculous, the school you do your engineering rarely has nay bearing on your job, Only MIT/Stanford/Berkeley/Caltech and Georgia Tech/Austin are up there. After that, all of them are the same, look for cheapest, and one that would make you debt free.

Goodluck

@ SEFAGO,

Good to hear from you.

Heres my email

np.knight@yahoo.com

Thanks!

For one, I thought US universities don't accept people from Nigeria straight out of university for PhD programs (They are usually expected to do a masters first) graduate because of the standard of nigeria's tertiary education, It being below that of other academically rigorous countries, For example, Like India (IITs) and China (Tsinghua and Peking University) schools which are not facilities/Research wise equivalent to MIT, but are at par academically have students flooding the PhD programs of top schools after there bachelors. However this is not the case especially if you attend premier universities like UI, University of Lagos and OAU, and have a high GPA because then these top schools would assume you are one of the best in Nigeria, and they would try there best to take you.

My friend came from OAU and came directly to do a PhD in chemical engineering, so it is still possible.

yeah, i know that, that is why I said that at the end of my statement. However, he is one of few, from my experience anyways. My main reason was the lack of research experience in nigerian universities, and the fact that most undergraduates at these schools dont have the opportunity to take graduate classes. For example I have taken a couple of PhD level classes when i was just 18 . Also schools have to standardize the Nigerian GPA to figure out who is one of the best. Not trying to disparage nigerian schools, my dad went to one, and he is using it to pay my fees  , I just want people to be aware of the difficulties.
Also, I am looking for an interpretation for why with so many smart ppl,I see on this board, why not many are at top schools. For example, i have met quite a lot of people who applied for there Masters in finance/financial engineering/industrial engineering/Operations research at princeton/columbia/berkeley/northwestern and they rarely have scores above 1400 in their GREs.

Nknight, I would be contacting you later, around next week when I am less busy

arshy:

@Godeagle,
I think it will be nice if you can proceed to PhD immediately. (Everybody has their reservation anyway). But, all in all, you are doing well. Wish you best of luck!
Wait a minute, where is emmyclev, has he done it? Brother, show your face o
We shall all get there.

Amen brother! Yeah, it will be nice if I can proceed for PhD immediately, but I'm just not ready to spend the next 5-7 years in any school. Anyways, I'll still consider it; let me get the masters first. Seems emmyclev has gone off the radar, even if the GRE turned out bad at least he will have a lot of time to retake. Not like my case where there's no time to retake the test.

@ SEFAGO

Great job sir; our in-house grad school guru. I'll be considering your recommendations. Please keep it coming.

@ Nkinght

Great job with the GPA conversion. I appreciate your imput. But seriously, I contest that a 4.0 in Nigeria is equivalent to a 3.0 in yankee cos if a person with 4.0 in Naija were to study in yankee, I bet he won't get anything less than 3.5. I know your calculation is technically correct; it's the representation of reality that I doubt.

SEFAGO:

Also, I am looking for an interpretation for why with so many smart ppl,I see on this board, why not many are at top schools. For example, i have met quite a lot of people who applied for there Masters in finance/financial engineering/industrial engineering/Operations research at princeton/columbia/berkeley/northwestern and they rarely have scores above 1400 in their GREs.

Clearly, they don't respect Nigerian degrees.

I don't think so, its just that they are not familiar with it. They just receive a handful of nigerian graduates. Schools try as much as possible to take the best students from around the world, they dont care if you are from a naija school. But they are more familira with people who apply to there schools all the time. AKA Chinese and indian schools

ha ha what do I know, but then, we're saying almost the same thing: since they're not familiar with the degrees, they tend to underestimate it. So we don't see many Nigerians in the top schools. However, I know that for petroleum engineering, Nigeria has the most foreign students in many top programs. For instance, Univ of Oklahoma-Norman.

Is anybody applying to UH? I'm trying to get them to waive TOEFL for me, but they said it cannot be waived. Does it mean they don't consider Nigeria an English speaking country? What else can one do after appying to facilitate admission? I just sent all my applications.

@Nknight,
Thanks for the CGPA, though i have sent the application before u post it, but i still appreciate it, at least others can make use of it.

@All,
Don't mind me, i have been away on official assignment for close to a month now. How is it going? any positive news?
We shall surely get there.

While preparing for the GRE let us not forget about the TOEFL.
Preparing for both at the same time and taking them within a a week or two apart does pay off.

@ All,
Does anyone in Nigeria know how long it takes to get the mailed scores from GRE?

@ SEFAGO,
I know u must be real busy now. Please dont forget to mail me.
np.knight@yahoo.com

@ Superbrain,
Please what dept is ur friend at MIT. Is he doing M.Sc. or Ph.D.? Any idea on the funding scenario there?

I havnt forgotten u, it is school, I am struggling with. I would email you stuff, soon---but funding scenario at MIT is great for PhD and close to 0 for MSc.

I dont know about the GRE, but when i took the SATs, it took close to a month and a half, are u curious about ur analytical scores? I never got my paper copy, even though I am in the US, , I had to call them and pay 12 bucks.

don't they mail you your GRE score three weeks after you take the test?

dont forget naija mail- personal experience

NIPOST has improved o, from what i can tell. . .

ok, then i am wrong, , to be sincere, i dont knw what nipost is up to these days

Hi Sefago/Arshy/Godeagle et al, You guys are doing a great job here, thanks very much.

I am yet to write GRE, but hope to write maybe early next year, i'd like to know (1) How do i apply for the GRE test? (2) How do i get the study materials u guys mentioned here (Barron's, Kaplan, PowerPrep, e.t.c.).

I studied Chemical Engineering (Undergrad) came out with a CGPA of 3.92/5.00. For my Masters, i'm seriously considering this program - Masters in Engineering Management (M.E.M), Pls i'd like to know which schools are good at it & how relevant it is in the OIl & Gas industry since that is my long term vision - To get into the Oil & Gas industry.

Thanks Guys & awaiting ur reponse,

I actually know some info abt MEM programs---however, it is impossible to get funds for them. I know of only 1 school (i have done some research on this program, because i wanted to do it too) that gives funds for this program, but i cant remember its name rite now. I know however that duke has one of the best, but u have to finance urself.

http://memp.pratt.duke.edu/

http://memp.pratt.duke.edu/tuition-and-financial-aid

The Masters of Science in Engineering, Engineering Management Program at University of Texas at Austin
The Master of Engineering Management Program at Penn State housed within the Engineering Division of the School of Graduate Professional Studies
The George Washington University's Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Program
Carnegie Mellon's Engineering & Technology Innovation Management Program
Columbia University's Master of Science in Engineering Management Systems
Case Western Reserve Univerity's Master of Engineering and Management Degree
University of Kansas's Master of Science in Engineering Management Program
Portland State's Master of Engineering in Engineering Management
Tufts University's Masters of Science in Engineering Management
Saint Martin's University Masters of Engineering Management Program
Old Dominion University's Engineering Management Program
St. Cloud State University's Master of Science in Engineering Management Program
The Masters of Engineering in Engineering Management Program at University of Colorado at Boulder
Western Michigan University's Master's of Science in Engineering Management Program
Western Michigan University's Bachelor's of Science in Engineering Management Programw



Cornell
Duke
stanford
Northwestern are the best


These are all the MEM programs

I know case western gives scholarships. Do some research. I mighthave applied for MEMs too, since they are very useful for business and consulting side of engineering. For the nigerian oil industry, i don't think it is that useful---it is more suited for the needs of american companies. If you plan to work in naija, roll over to MS chemical engineering or do both, MS in chemical and then MEMS and companies would hire u

Thankyou very much Sefago. I find all the info very very useful. I think i'd settle for MS Chemical Engrg to be on a safer side, Thanks again

Thanks so much Godeagle. . .

I'm actually looking at taking the exams in January which thankfully will give a lot of time to prepare. Masters in Enineering Mgt (MEM) is not a very popular program but like Sefago advised, it is more suited for the needs of American companies. Since i want to leave the option of working in Nigeria after graduation open, i'd settle for MS. Chemical Engrg ( i'd pass Petroleum engrg. . .lol, don't u guys all sound thesame?. . . i mean petroleum engrs. . . lol)

So u mean i can pay online??. . . a friend of mine told me they've stop accepting online payments from Nigeria. It will be a huge relief if i can pay online. . . . i better go subscribe to FCMB pre-funded mastercard then.