Academic programs in the US mostly start in the Fall (Sept) semester. Although some programs have start dates in the Spring (Jan) semester. You will have to check with your school to verify that your program can begin in the Spring semester.
Writing GRE & Toefl in Nov will at best give you the opportunity to apply for admission in the Fall '09 semester. Its good practice to apply before december to increase your chances of meeting the school's application deadline. You can verify application deadlines for individual schools from the school's website.

Good luck

@ blackpro.
thanks for the nice job.
please i need your help in this too. you only talked about management courses, but i intend to do my masters in environmental sciences, so what examination am i required to provide? and what are the chances of those that made a second class lower in their 1st degree?
i will also send you a mail with the email address you provided

Its interesting to the read all the very helpful post blackpro gave to Nigerians here and its saddening to note that most Nigerians are short of realizing the great benefit of these posts. To most of us, mediocrity and finding the easy way out has robbed us of the intuition to see and do the right thing.
I am sure if he has titled his post as "study free in the US", the mailbox would been busted by the freebie loving Nigerians.
No wonder, the visa consular can spot the setup guy that cannot even answer the basic intellectual question and want to study in US.

@ badabeat

I agree with you 100%

i must say a big well done to black pro and Ay for their overwhelming contribution to this matter.Almost all my intended questions have been answered, just one or two left.please do i need any further education or work experience before i can apply for an MBA programme in any credible business sch or university in US.If yes,what other business related programmes can i put in for that is in high demand as i just finished a b.SC programme in industrial relations and personnel management,and if possible can you suggest any good business sch or university.And how come their are agencies that help intended students secure admission in UK sch and their are no such agencies for US sch or if you know any, please refer

tonene:

i must say a big well done to black pro and Ay for their overwhelming contribution to this matter.Almost all my intended questions have been answered, just one or two left.please do i need any further education or work experience before i can apply for an MBA programme in any credible business sch or university in US.If yes,what other business related programmes can i put in for that is in high demand as i just finished a b.SC programme in industrial relations and personnel management,and if possible can you suggest any good business sch or university.And how come their are agencies that help intended students secure admission in UK sch and their are no such agencies for US sch or if you know any, please refer

while some schools require you to have work experience, some schools dont make it a requirement. you can be admitted based on your GPA. there arent many agencies for US admission cos students must take TOEFL and GMAT/GRE exams before applying, and people are generally put off by this, while for UK admission, you dont really need to take any exams for admission. You can search for a good business school on google. Here is a link to the top business schools in the US:

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/grad/mba/search/

all the best

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please what is the GRE score for schools like mit and cambridge and any scholarship open to Nigerians over there.my email bones4capt@yahoo.com.U are really doing a great job keep it up.

captaino:

please what is the GRE score for schools like mit and cambridge and any scholarship open to Nigerians over there.my email bones4capt@yahoo.com.U are really doing a great job keep it up.

since MIT has the best school of engineering in the world, i suppose you want to apply for an engineering program ? or maybe you can post the program you want to apply for, then we can get you the GRE score required.

please the school am applying to only talked about TOEFL and not GRE (for the course i intend to read). they only said GRE is required for student applying for assistance ship and fellowship.
i want to ask if this is actually possible or should i still write GRE and also what are my chances of getting the admission since i made a 2.2 (3.31).
what is my CGPA on a 4.0 scale.
blackpro and sayhi2ay please respond.

neduogu:

please the school am applying to only talked about TOEFL and not GRE (for the course i intend to read). they only said GRE is required for student applying for assistance ship and fellowship.
i want to ask if this is actually possible or should i still write GRE and also what are my chances of getting the admission since i made a 2.2 (3.31).
what is my CGPA on a 4.0 scale.
blackpro and sayhi2ay please respond.

your 3.31 should be btw 2.98 and 3.1 on a 4.0 scale. usually, the international admission office converts your GPA to a 4.0 scale before sending your application to the departmental admission committee for consideration.
i think its best to write the GRE, this will increase your chances of getting the admission, and a scholarship too. Assistantship doesn't come easy, the professor offering it to you must have known you well enough to give it. you must have taken maybe 2 of his classes and excel well in both. then he can feel comfortable about giving you an assistantship. you cant just land in the school and expect to get an assistantship straight away. like i wrote earlier, they even prefer to give that to their Phd students or students taken thesis under them,
about GRE, when i went for interview at the consulate, the only documents that the consul checked and confirmed was my TOEFL and GRE, he was particular about the entrance exams I wrote to get the admission. not taking both might cast doubt, but this is just my opinion anyways.
all da best

hi ay n all, tanx for this educative thread, well i intend registering for the gre, gre subject and toefl exams, but i'm lost as to where i could get this done in Lagos. i don't have access to a credit card or any other payment card except cash, n i need to know what it would cost and where it's done in Lagos. i'd be grateful if i can get replies to these questions. by the way i intend studying at the MSc. level, environmental sciences.would also like to know what a cgpa of 2.8/5.0 would be on the 4.0 scale? tanx and God bless.

seanpounds:

hi ay n all, tanx for this educative thread, well i intend registering for the gre, gre subject and toefl exams, but i'm lost as to where i could get this done in Lagos. i don't have access to a credit card or any other payment card except cash, n i need to know what it would cost and where it's done in Lagos. i'd be grateful if i can get replies to these questions. by the way i intend studying at the MSc. level, environmental sciences.would also like to know what a cgpa of 2.8/5.0 would be on the 4.0 scale? tanx and God bless.

if you need to register for GRE or TOEFL, visit: http://www.firstlogicng.com/contactus.html
each exam is about 25k.

about your GPA, i really dont know what it will be on a 4.0 scale. I just try to estimate it using my own GPA,
but i think your 2.8 should be around 2.5/4.0

all the best

I am an Engineering graduate and I have worked in the financial sector in Nigeria for like 3 years.

I wrote the GRE in 2006 and scored 1340 (740Q 600V)
I wrote the GMAT this year february and had 610 I want to attend a top business school for my MBA like Columbia, Stern NYU, UChicago, Wharton. What are my chances? I guess I have to rewrite the GMAT or what are my chances

I think GRE or GMAT test score expires after 3 years

Let me see if i can reply to some of the earlier questions, i have actually been offline for over a week preparing for GRE/TOEFL.

1) With respect to the CGPA conversion thing, i actually mailed some schools to see if they can convert it for me before i apply but they said i would need to apply first before they can convert it. i have searched and searched the internet for over 4 months to get a standard CGPA conversion but all av been getting are conflicting views. But since i asked this question some months ago and sayhi2ay said my 3.27/5.0 might be 3.0/4.0 , i applied to 5 schools, 2 had 2.75 as minimum CGPA while 2 had 3.0 as minimum CGPA while the 5th scholl didn't have minimum CGPA for international students.

2) GRE/TOEFL Test Center : I actually registered for my TOEFL and GRE at FirstLogic too like sayhi2ay mentioned. GRE cost 30k and TOEFL was 26k. I actually wrote my GRE this week (1310/1600) & wrote my TOEFL last week (FirstLogic already had filled up spaces for the Nov.14th exam so they registered me but i wrote the test at a TOEFL center at GRA,Ikeja.

3) GRE/TOEFL expiration: Based on the browsing av done in the past months, i think GRE expires after 5 years while TOEFL is for 2 years.

tboy81:

Let me see if i can reply to some of the earlier questions, i have actually been offline for over a week preparing for GRE/TOEFL.

1) With respect to the CGPA conversion thing, i actually mailed some schools to see if they can convert it for me before i apply but they said i would need to apply first before they can convert it. i have searched and searched the internet for over 4 months to get a standard CGPA conversion but all av been getting are conflicting views. But since i asked this question some months ago and sayhi2ay said my 3.27/5.0 might be 3.0/4.0 , i applied to 5 schools, 2 had 2.75 as minimum CGPA while 2 had 3.0 as minimum CGPA while the 5th scholl didn't have minimum CGPA for international students.

2) GRE/TOEFL Test Center : I actually registered for my TOEFL and GRE at FirstLogic too like sayhi2ay mentioned. GRE cost 30k and TOEFL was 26k. I actually wrote my GRE this week (1310/1600) & wrote my TOEFL last week (FirstLogic already had filled up spaces for the Nov.14th exam so they registered me but i wrote the test at a TOEFL center at GRA,Ikeja.

3) [b]GRE/TOEFL expiration: Based on the browsing av done in the past months, i think GRE expires after 5 years while TOEFL is for 2 years.[/b]

That is correct.

i applied to 5 schools, 2 had 2.75 as minimum CGPA while 2 had 3.0 as minimum CGPA while the 5th scholl didn't have minimum CGPA for international students
hi tboy, i would like to know which schools u said u found, that didnt require a minimum CGPA for foreign students, also the names of other schools to which you applied. would also like to know if these schools would require me to write the GRE subject test as i am a chemistry major graduate hoping to either study pharmaceutical sciences or environmental sciences. congrats on your test scores!
wouldnt mind having your phone contacts, for correspondence purpose.

hey guys,

this is my story, i came out with a 3rd class from OAU<ile ife.

i hope to write GRE to enrol inthe US for my masters. i want to take computer engineering relaed courses.

i am an OCA and and also doing well with python programming.

what are my chances. i would appreciatestraight to the point answers and even questions if i am not too clear to you.

thanks peeps.

Please ay or blackpro, can you explain the credit hours schools in the US use.
A school I intend to apply to says I require 33 graduate credit hours, i don't understand. I will like to find out how long (in years) this course will take.

Thanks

jon_edet:

Please ay or blackpro, can you explain the credit hours schools in the US use.
A school I intend to apply to says I require 33 graduate credit hours, i don't understand. I will like to find out how long (in years) this course will take.

Thanks

33 graduates credit hours means 33 units like we use in naija. usually, a class is 4 credit hours, which means 4 units in naija terms. so depending on how many credit hours a course is in your school, lets say 3 credit hours, which is 3 units, then if you divide 33 by 3, that gives you 11 courses in all. where each course is 3units or 3 credit hours.

so in your school, you might not be allowed to take more than 4 classes per semester, which means 12 credit hours per semester in total, that means, 33/12 = 3 semesters = 1 year


let me know if you need more clarification

blackpro,sayhi2ay. and all, u guys r doing a great job. thanks for all info. am registered to do GRE this december, men i need prayers
i registered myself i.e. got a master card from one of em' banks, mailed the registration form and got a test date.
@sayhi2ay, am applying to MIT,pittsburgh,houston and a host of other schools. for sept'09 admissions. what r my chances of getting scholarship/admission. am expecting by God's grace a GRE score of not less than 1450   (i'll be here to testify to God's goodness) and a cgpa of 4.0/5.
thanks
 

please can anyone reecommend a center in Nigeria where i will be allowed to use a calculator for GMAT, thanks.

violent:

please can anyone recommend a center in Nigeria where i will be allowed to use a calculator for GMAT, thanks.

First logic !!!

http://www.firstlogicng.com/contactus.html

gongo aso:

blackpro,sayhi2ay. and all, u guys r doing a great job. thanks for all info. am registered to do GRE this december, men i need prayers
i registered myself i.e. got a master card from one of em' banks, mailed the registration form and got a test date.
@sayhi2ay, am applying to MIT,pittsburgh,houston and a host of other schools. for sept'09 admissions. what r my chances of getting scholarship/admission. am expecting by God's grace a GRE score of not less than 1450   (i'll be here to testify to God's goodness) and a cgpa of 4.0/5.
thanks
 

these are all good schools. why not narrow the list down, or do you want to pay application fee to all these schools ?
when you are done with GMAT and TOEFL, you can apply for scholarship, who knows!
all the best bro

@sayhi2ay
i ve actually narrowed and narrowed to these schools. I want to narrow again based on chances of securing a scholarship. as i said earlier, im gonna testifying to God's goodness, made a score of 1420 on the GRE. Im actually going to give out all my preparation materials to who so ever needs them. just send a mail to gongogoso@gmail.com. so oga ay, what r my scholarship (engineering)chances with these schools or others u might know.thanks

gongo aso:

@sayhi2ay
i ve actually narrowed and narrowed to these schools. I want to narrow again based on chances of securing a scholarship. as i said earlier, I'm going to testifying to God's goodness, made a score of 1420 on the GRE. I'm actually going to give out all my preparation materials to who so ever needs them. just send a mail to gongogoso@gmail.com. so oga ay, what r my scholarship (engineering)chances with these schools or others u might know.thanks

Cos I didnt try for a scholarship, its hard for me to tell how to go about it. am always of the opinion that scholarships are much easier for people already here, or maybe in the school, one thing that might help though is to try and get your results evaluated by WES, so they can convert it to 4.0 GPA and also compare your classes with ones here, and the school can really tell how intelligent you were in college. That way, you can get considered much faster instead of having them do the conversion of your transcript.
If you plan to take that path, let me know, getting your results evaluated by WES (World Education Services) can be pretty messy

please i need information on any test centre that allows calculator for gmat(first logic only does GRE and not gmat) or any other good centre in ikeja and its environs.thanks alot

Yeah, i was also at first Logic today and they dont administer GMAT, they dont even allow calculator for GRE, please nairalanders assist

ay, thanks for the response.i know of wes but none of the schools requested for it. i ll just keep my options open for now.thanks a bunch for the response.

Hi guys,

The Spanish government has a scholarship scheme particularly for Africans.

Two of the top 11 Business Schools in the world are in spain and their courses are offered in English, so I think it's worth evaluating at the very least.

(replace the dot with an actual .) - Couldn't post the link here properly for some reason.

www [dot] internationalmasters [dot] [dot] com

Deadline is January 14, 2009.

Just thinking aloud . . . .

With all these financial meltdown/recession, do you guys think it will affect international student admission?