₦airaland Forum

Rejections 4 & 5: University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins. Omo, to enter american school no easy o!

Moreover, this year, many Delft courses were missing from the list of eligible programs for the NFP scholarship. As a matter of fact, I had already gotten the commitment letter from my employer before I noticed this.

Well, I guess you are right about the PA budget cuts (its sufficient consolation anyways). I'm even more grateful to God now for the offers I got; I would have been crying some major tears by now. You know, I assumed that many of the schools would be easy to get into with my stats, especially when the initial offers started coming in. I'm now learning to take nothing for granted.

About funding, Stanford is quite out of the question; I should be rejecting both the Stanford and Wisconsin offers come early April. Funding looks likely for MIT but I have nothing on paper yet so I'm still praying but I think I will accept the offer. I'm just waiting for about 4 more decisions before I put any closure on the matter.

What of you tabarity?

Rejection 3: Penn State

Try it out? Heck no! Like I said earlier, I carefully avoided applying to programs that require the tests.

I suspect that the subject tests will be taken at the paper-based centres in Nigeria on the specified test dates. As for registering online, you know how Nigeria is naa, today they'll block ETS site, tomorrow it'll be amazon or Apple store. I suggest you explore other means of registration (mail, telephone etc). You could also give ETS a call and have them set you straight before you start running to buy a plane ticket.

If I understand correctly, I believe the subject tests are paper based:

Paper-based Subject Tests are offered at test centers (PDF) worldwide.

http://www.ets.org/gre/subject/register/

From http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_tclist.pdf. It seems there are centres in Benin and Lagos and from http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_pbtregform.pdf, it apparently costs $160

What do you want to know exactly anyway?

Honestly, I don't know much asides what's on ETS's site. I carefully avoided all programs that required subject tests; yeah, I'm lazy like that.

I did. I don't know whether things have changed though. In any case, this was back in October 2010.

If I remember correctly, the registration went through smoothly but I vaguely remember having to use a UK address for some other stuff; probably additional score reports.

@raphael: First Logic on Oba Akran, Ikeja. You can register online http://www.ets.org/gre/

Rejection 2: UIUC. So much for being a safety school,

I agree every bit with stzero's assertion that one should not go for a PhD just for the sakes of it. I believe within me that I am cut out for the stuff but, honestly, I really am not sure. As a matter of fact, even if I get admission to any of the PhD programs I applied for, I will probably still go for the TPP masters so I can get a feel for research and know for sure if its something I want to be doing for most of my useful life.

@myforumid3: I don't know about Nigerians being crazy about a PhD generally o! As a matter of fact, I'm the only person I know that seriously wants to do one in the near future.

@flo_path: You seem to know a lot about TPP. Were/are yu interested in the program? About dual degree, I find the prospect very interesting. I'm not just sure how it works yet cos the site says you have to be admitted to the second degree as well so I'm not sure if I have to apply and all after a year there. I'll make more inquiries sha and probably take up the opportunity.

About media lab, omo, I don see things for that place o! Infact the first thing that tripped me about the program was a TED presentation of some "sixth sense" project from the fluid interfaces group in the lab. I have also watched most of their labcasts. My problem is that they don't need GRE (which is a strong part of my application), and they require evidence of similar creative projects (I no get power to start creating something cos of 1 program). Moreover, its not a traditional engineering field so I might find it hard to get local teaching appointments (inasmuch as I know one ECE lecturer in UNN who was in the media lab). In any case, I might try and do an RA under a prof in the lab. I'm still weighing my options.

I did not apply to cambridge again (or any UK school for that matter). I also intend to go as far as a PhD cos I guess I want to be a university lecturer.

@flo_path: No info yet o! I'm following it up with them sha while they try to find a suitable RA match for me.

We probably went to secondary school together and if he had a more obvious handle, I would know him equally well. I just can't think of which of my smart secondary school friends are not on facebook. Who isn't these days anyway?

See this marcus1234's last posts on NL, all of them na one or two words each: Maybe, nice, wow, thank you, God bless etc, If this isn't spam, what else is?

@physicall: What school is that? If I may also ask, what's your profile like?

lol @ getting banned. When I started posting on this thread, my posts were frequently deleted by the dumb spambot but it been a while since that happened last sha.

So where are you in the graduate school ladder? Prof, Student or Applicant?

March 15 would be a nice day to stay in bed. I have 7 pending decisions promising to come out on or before that day. I really wish they were coming out small-small before my head go explode (or implode).

@stzero: Masters in ECE. I would have thought it to be an easy one too.

, And despite my initial annoyance at your mentioning my name, (yes you did). I must say that your last contribution was invaluable.

@stzero: So we went to the same secondary school at about the same time? I can now narrow you down to about 3,500 people.

I applied to UIUC; no decision yet.

I agree with myforumid3. If you wanted to PM me, you could have searched for me on facebook and done that. Moreover, you have mentioned names; check out your first post on the thread. I may not have been looking to hide myself but then again, you could have given me the benefit of the doubt and assumed that. I honestly don't know who you are so would you be kind enough to post your full name on the the thread *hint of sacarsm here*.

That said, this thread is for grad school admissions stuff so let me address your question:

Have you heard from any other schools yet?

Nope. Still waiting on 7 decisions.

My SAT score

You seem to know me quite well, I should look for a better alias. Its only fair though if I know who you are too.

I use curve as well so I searched and I saw both wordy and wordy2 on getjar.com

@tiana: where did you try 'wordy' and 'wordy 2'? Have you visited getjar.com from your curve yet?

@tiana: I have a few pointers for the vocabulary:
1. You can download a mobile application to help with the words from getjar.com. I used one such but I can't remember the name; it might have had Barrons in the name sha.
2. Download mp3s off esnips.com. I'm too lazy to look for the actual links but if you have difficulty finding them, let me know. Play them off your PC, phone, car, etc
3. Use flash cards written up on 2" x 4" cards. Make them yourself; the process of making them helps with memory.
4. Have different people test you using the flash cards and the mobile application. Note the ones you consistently fail and focus on them (I could never get myself to commit the meaning of 'Animadversion' to memory; I still don't know what it means)
5. Learn the skills of intelligent guessing off your GRE texts; guessing is hardest in analogy but fairly easy in other verbal sections
6. Even if you decide to learn Barrons' 3500 word list (and you should), make sure you master the 300 list fully and completely.

I wish you the best.

@areaboi: My 2 cents on the matter is that you should try and make as strong an application as possible. There are some things you can't change like your GPA but I might take the GRE again if I were you. Aim for a perfect score in Quantitative and as high a score as possible in Verbal and Analytical writing (I have heard of people getting 780 in verbal and I am sure perfect scores are possible in all areas).

You should also get strong recommendations. Detailed recommendations from full professors actively involved in research are as strong as they get.

Finally, you'll need solid essays. It will help if you get them reviewed by your friends in the kind of schools you want to attend.

Honestly, it might be tough but almost anything is possible if you try hard enough. Apply to safety schools too sha.

About your certifications, I don't think grad schools think too much of them but I'm not certain. In any case, if your Java skills are as strong as you say and you are in the market for a (new) job, send your resume to thisbighead at gmail dot com.

@physicall: Funding at Stanford is looking very unlikely. I'm still chasing down MIT; I'm a lot more hopeful about that one. I really wish funding information would have come with the offer. My mind will be a lot more settled by now. What other places did you apply to?

Rejection 1: Princeton

Since you are seriously considering the TTU offer, then you don't have a problem making up the rest of the fees?