₦airaland Forum

Hello house.
Hi sefago. Quite som time huh?
Please I need to discuss a matter with you. Can I PI u on collegeconfidential?

SEFAGO:
Wow that's ridiculous- they should have stated it explicitly on their website.

Of course they stated it clearly what they can afford. lol.

SEFAGO:
Not really, i made my decision a long time ago. I would only go to the best tech school in the world or nothing else hehe.

Cambridge's research offerings are a too limited compared to what I am looking for, and the research area is not what I want to do. While I was at another school for an interview, I stumbled across a research are that really interested me. If I could work in this research area, I think it would be the greatest things especially if I can create a patent from it.

Fundings becoming stringent everywhere. I have been discussing with people at Ivies and top research programs and things are not looking that great. Harvard's endowment basically got screwed up. I heard a lot of interesting things during my interviews

U've got the dice man.
Funding, perhaps the reasons why those guys served me QUICK rejections.

SEFAGO:
I thot all of Alberta's Chem Eng admits came with a full tuition waiver and funding
http://www.engineering.ualberta.ca/cme/MSc.cfm
http://www.engineering.ualberta.ca/cme/financial_support.cfm

University of Alberta is a strong engineering school- not in the same class as University of Toronto or McGill but close to it.

Also blackkboy another thought- you can try and transfer from the school u are going into in the US, if you want to- I would not encourage it, very unethical and could destroy any reputation you are trying to build in academia (assuming you are not planning to work in industry). However, being fully aware how you were disadvantaged in the process, considering how brilliant a student you were, I would you not dissuade you from doing it.

You did deserve to attend good schools, just that they are really if you lack research experience.

Thanks. But I am not new to the site you recommended. Tuition is not guaranteed. They only give a 75% of tuition differential for international students.
Congrats on your acceptances. Really it's been one hell of a year. Two acceptances out of at least 15 schools you appllied to. But acceptances are great ones anyway. You must have written a winning SOP to Yale (Yes I know they pay a lot af attention to writing skills). Were you admitted for PhD in ChemE?
Cambridge is also one of the best in the world. Infact top 5 in ChemE world rankings. I'm sure it might take you several sleepless nights to make your final decision (Except, of course, if you consider it extremely expedient to earn a PhD as a young man - Kidding).
Don't you ever say you are an 'olodo'. Anyone who is on the track of having the 'Cantab' suffix after his/her must be quite smart. Gaining graduate admission into top schools like Yale and Cambridge, in my opinion, makes you doubly smart! Congratulations.

SEFAGO:
^ hey tell me if an your offer comes up from alberta. I also wanted you to note that it is way easier to get jobs in oil and gas from alberta than other schools. The work visa process in canada is quite easy I must say than the one in the US

Yea thanks sefago. I really want to go, but I hope the funding comes with a sort of scholarship/tuition waiver.

bebure:
To everyone who has contributed to this thread thank you. Your advice has been of significant value to me. I will visit this thread from time to time in case anyone needs help regarding the GRE exam, converting British/Nigerian degrees to GPA and other grad school admission stuff such as statement of purpose.

Sounds like a goodbye sorta.

SEFAGO:
Did you get to school into alberta? why dont you decide to go there, excel if you got a studentship and then try and get into a PhD in the US? I know people put the US on a high pedestal but you could try and come there later

I'm considering that, but my decision remains in abeyance until I receive the funding letter.
I really hope I can make it to Rice.

@sefago
I didn't know I was even applying to hard ones until the results started coming. You predicted quite well.
Anyway got in with TA in a small school in Philadelphia. (Really don't feel like going - high cost of living, high crime rate, blah, )
Also Alberta.

@ Sefago
Seems you finally got into Cornell. Congrats anyway.

I think my fears are now manifesting. I had a premonition of serious difficulties (especially for international applicants) in getiing into graduate programmes in the US this year.
It's a public knowledge that the US has been in the centre of the never abating global economic crunch, and this, I'm sure, has severely reduced (I mean relatively diminished) the amount of research grants and donations many companies and institutions give to most schools (or professors). So professors have very limited positions compared to what they used to have, as constrained by the little funds they have.
It is also known globally that a lot of Americans are now jobless as another consequence of this monster (financial meltdown). People will naturally think of doing something to raise their profiles (so they might increase their chances of getting a job) by going for graduate degrees (masters and PhDs). The result of this is evident. That many graduate programmes mention a significant increase in the amount of applications received by them in the many rejection letters they've been serving to applicants lately, is not so surprising to me.
What do we expect as a consequence of this domino effect? A huge number of applicants vying for very limited available positions.
If I had followed my mind (and words of advice) not apply to a highly competitive school, maybe my first notification wouldn't be a rejection

Hi guys. How come I never knew such a forum exists? Believe me, having spend some one hour+ going through the 11 pages of really interesting posts in this forum, I knida feel some regret not to have discovered this group earlier; especially when I realized I could have just obtained some debit cards from some Nigerian banks to make online payments for my GRE scheduling, ASRs and application fees.
It's still quite nice to know I have some like-minded individuals I can rub minds with.
Perhaps, I should introduce myself as some Nigerian hpoing to matriculate in a decent graduate programme in the US come fall 2010.  
I will be glad to continually share my little experiences with these 'American runs' with positive minded Nigerians who are or will be interested in following this path.

2good, contratulations on your acceptances. With the assumption that you have applied to, and thus admitted to, masters degree programmes which is a norm that it's sparingly funded; I think the very first thing to consider is funding. Except you are from a really well-to-do background and it's no problem to fund yourself through these programmes, I think an admission that comes with some sort of scholarship should top your list of
preference.