₦airaland Forum

hello house! please i really need information from you guys urgently.I am set to register for the GRE and TOEFL exam and would need some advise.Firstly i want to personally register it myself rather than through agents.The problem am facing with the registration of TOEFL is that online registration is available from candidates in Nigeria, i intend to pay using credit card but the following cards are not permitted from candidates from Nigeria Express, Discover, JCB and MasterCard i need to know how else i can make the payment online without the listed credit cards.
for the GRE this is where the headache lies more online registration is not available for Nigerian candidates.There@s a form to download and to be mailed to RRC in Netherlands and the payment also is what i don't understand.please if anyone has personally done this i would highly appreciate the info because i would need to register for both this august.i can send my email address or my phone number.i can also call so that i grab the info at once.thanks all

hello mr tanimola i sent you a mail.Am yet to get your response kindly check and reply as it is urgent thanks.

imperiouxx pls send me the TOEFL and GRE materials.I am writting by november this year.Thanks in advance.eddycollins2003@yahoo.com

BEAUTYBOX9JA: I know a place off salvation busstop at opebi.Its called Lights height or sometin like that,my brother registered and had toefl lessons there and he scored high...If you want i can get the address and phone number

sure i need it.please get the address n number.how much did your brother pay for his

pls I really need information on how to register for GRE and TOEFL in Nigeria.I dont have anybody abroad that could help me with the registration.I have been studying and all is now set for me to register and write the test as soon as possible as I would need to apply for my masters november this year.Thanks

hello house , please I need information on how to register for GRE and TOEFL in Nigeria.Theres no online registation from nigeria from the ets website.pls anyone that has succeded in registering for those exams in nigeria should elucidiate more on how I can go about it.I need to register for the exam ending of this month.Secondly can i get to write the exams by october in that time farame? Thanks

porka: See how Oyinbo withdraw jeje... It's a cultural thing you know!!! I'll not be surprised to hear Aunti claiming on Monday that the votes were rigged against her. It'll be a surprise not to hear how she "won" but the votes were stolen because she's black and a woman, even when her all her acclaimed qualifications for the job did not leave the editorial board rooms of the New York Times and the Economist.

so wat you are saying is nobody should contest because america has an annoited candidate.well there is no harm in losing by the way.if u tink it is easy acheive half of what she has acheived so far.nonsense

onyewec3: I think the outpouring of vituperation on this woman is uncalled for. Give this woman a break please. She did not rise to her present position in world bank on the back of Nigeria but merit by those who know. Apart from politics of America Ngozi remains the best candidate. A lot of ignorant fellows sit behind computer to write on subject they know nothing about and abusing this woman. The stereotyped media agenda has brainwashed half educated fellows in to thinking that Ngozi is incompetent. If you ask me, Is deregulation the right thing? My answer is yes. What about the timing? Probably wrong. You will be asking for too much if you think Ngozi can turn things around overnight. You sure need a magician to do that. Giving the circumstances and allowance for human frailty which is common to all, the woman should NOT be blamed entirely for our economic woes. SO NGOZI FIGHT ON PLEASE

well said.sometimes i wonder the mental state of some people when they comment on topics.most people have never acheived anything on merit yet they criticise like they are the issac newton of our time.it is better u kip silent when u have nothing tangible an meaninful to say.castigating NOI is uncalled 4

tanimola22: This is very nice, and your preference of wanting to first gather some industry experience in the field of petroleum engineering is almost surely consistent with those of other engineering grads that I know. My friend who studied petroleum engineering had your view, and he luckily landed a job with Total few months after concluding NYSC. He is on 11 Million Naira per annum; so you may want to try your luck there too, when you graduate as a petroleum engineer.

I don't know how higher than 4.6 your GPA currently is, and I also don't know the level you are at the moment (whether 300L, 400L, or even 500L), but I believe, from experience, that it is possible to improve your GPA above what it is now. Try as much as possible to do that. A high GPA is always an advantage. In fact, it would be nice if you could target and achieve 5.00 from now on till you graduate. Trust me, this is very possible. And the good thing about this is that many schools in North America, especially schools in Canada and the US, specifically look at the grades you obtained in your last two years of studies as a way of evaluating your transcript(s). I have seen cases where boundary first guys (4.5-4.55) got very nice offers from top schools around the world because, even though they did not start very well, they had almost 5.00 in the last two years of their studies. Please take note of this, and take advantage of it. I would not have said this if you had already graduated, but I am saying this because you are still an undergrad and you can still make your situation better.

In case, upon graduation, you are not able to secure a very nice job that suits your taste, and you still desire to pursue a Master's in Petroleum Engineering, then I would advise that you take up the graduate research position, preferably work as a research assistant to a prof who is heavy in any research area that interests you, do it for one year and apply to all those top schools around the world. Of course, if you are gunning for the US, you first must have gotten very nice scores on the GRE and TOEFL tests. The reason I suggest working as a research assistant for one year is that the very top engineering schools around the world, such as MIT, Stanford and others, very much value research experience. Again, I have heard of cases where students were accepted into top research schools in the US and elsewhere just because they previously worked as research assistants in very relevant fields. So you may want to take very good advantage of this.

I earnestly believe that you have little to no problems at all. Try to up your already great GPA, take and ace the GRE and TOEFL. For the GRE, I suggest you concentrate more on the quantitative section because this is the area most programs are interested in. Don't kill yourself on the verbal part, although it would be nice if you could make a great score there. I guess someone with your IQ should score nothing less than >94th percentile on the quantitative section, >70th on the verbal section and perhaps >4.5/6 on the analytical writing section( I don't know how well you write, but you can always practice and score well). When you are armed with all these things, make sure you have some money to pay application fees. The application fee for each university in the US can be as high as 60$-100$. At times it can be more sef. However, if you know a prof who is ready to stick his neck out for you, then you escape paying the application fees at some universities. I for one did not have to pay any fees because I was familiar with some profs who aggressively supported my application .

The following schools should be your main focus:
Cambridge University: I am not sure if Petroleum Engineering is offered there, but I know they have Chemical Engineering. Also, the Gates Scholarship for very qualified students like you is not bad. You can get it, although the competition is fierce. Four people I know got it; 2 studied Mathematics, the other 2 studied Chemical Engineering. I particularly like Cambridge University because the academic work there is rigorous. You either shape in or shape out! I will not divulge more information than this, which is in fact what you need

Stanford University: A nairalander and one of our proud alumni did his PhD there. It is almost sure that you will land a top oil job in the US soon after your studies at Stanford University. For an instance, the said nairalander (username withheld) is a researcher at Mobil and, from what he has remarked, chances of getting top oil jobs are high after graduate studies at Stanford. The monthly stipend they give to graduate students is usually not bad. You can be a teaching assistant/research assistant, which means you have to teach undergraduates/do research with a prof before you earn the stipend, or you can get a fellowship, which means you don't have to teach nada. All you need to do is sit down and make a high GPA hahahaha. But getting a fellowship can be a pain in some US schools.

MIT: This one is among the best of the best engineering schools around the world, if not the best sef. Do your best to enter this one. This is the more reason why you have to make your GPA as high as possible, get great letters of recommendation from the best profs you can approach, score highly on the standardized tests and generally package your application very well. In my experience, a well packaged application will always not hurt you. I have had some academic opportunities, which other more able and qualified people could not have, simply because I have consistently packaged my applications very well. Use this trick.

Other very excellent schools you should try are Oxford University (UK), University of California at Berkley (US), Texas A&M (US), University of Houston, Caltech (US), Yale (US), Colorado School of Mines (US), TU Delft (Holland----a nairalander who graduated from your school FUTA did his MSc there and afterwards got 3 oil jobs and 6-11 PhD positions. He rejected all PhD positions. hahahaha. You too can surely achieve the same feat or even better), Manchester (UK), Toronto (Buhari ),Mc Gill(Canada). In fact, the list goes on. Another strong advice I would like to offer is that you certainly should not apply to only the very top schools. You have to diversify your applications. Endeavor to apply to schools that are not very high up there. You may still get a good offer after your studies. For instance, Louisiana may not be the best university to study your course. However, oil companies have consistently visited the university to recruit graduating students. In the same vein, I have two senior colleagues who completed their fully funded PhD programs at Heriot Watt University. One works for Schlumberger, the other works for Total. Don't look down on some schools.

In my experience, I have found that Nigerian students who graduated tops in oil and gas engineering related programs in the US got more oil job offers than their fellow Nigerian counterparts in the UK. For example, one of the Cambridge guys I earlier spoke about came back to naija after his studies because he was unable to get a juicy job and never applied for any PhD position. Till now, it has not been easy for him to land the big oil job he envisaged. The other one successfully got a place at Shell UK. Many others I know, they had to accept PhD positions in Chemical/Petroleum Engineering because the juicy jobs just weren't forthcoming and they needed to get a steady source of income. A PhD offers that steady source of income for the duration of the PhD program and even beyond. That is why I am an advocate of using a PhD to hedge against one's inability to get a juicy job. Nonetheless, I am sure that you may also give many examples based on your experience in which many UK trained Nigerian graduates got juicy jobs after graduation. There is no one hard and fast rule; nothing is particularly straight.

On a last note, if you desire to get very close to the major oil company in Saudi (Saudi Aramco), if you desire to get into a graduate program that funds your studies without your having to pay for accommodation, bills, taxes, transportation and other utilities, if you are strongly looking to earn about 20k$-30k$/year while studying, without having to spend a dime from this money other than feeding yourself, then look no further than KAUST (Saudi). In my view, and based on my research and information from friends there, KAUST offers the best funding package anyone can ask for. I am yet to see an institution that funds as much and still pays for bills and provides a very nice accommodation for all of its students, all at the same time. However, and very sadly so, the downside to KAUST is that it is relatively new university and has zero track record. You may want to strongly consider this very important shortcoming.

Hope this story story story helps.

Truly yours,
T22

thanks T22 for this wonderful piece.am rily greatful u replied my post.Am at present in 500 level with two more semester to go.d highest cgpa i can graduate wit if i have 5.0 for the remaining two semesters is 4.70 n it is very acheivable for me by his grace.i av also heard of the gre n toefl which i intend riting around august since i wil b graduating around sept dis year.i wil look into the schools u mentione,and would get in touch for any other info i nid. I rily appreciate u.my email add is eddycollins2003@yahoo.com pls send me urs thanks n God bless

helo great scholars in the house.i've rily enjoyd d educative post of forum members here.am a final year studnt of mining engineering fed univ of tech akure.i currently av a cgpa greater than 4.6 as at nw.wel i intend going 4 my masters in petroleum engineering.i rily like d course any one with useful info abt scholarshp opportunitier in usa canada n eu countries should pls update me.also wat do u tink abt graduate assitant positn in nigerian univ nw cos as as a rule in futa prospective first clas graduates r retained upon graduation.dou i lv teachn bt wld luv to do that later in my life after i have gotten industry experience and in petroleum engineering field.thanks

TB joshua, man wey don see am for spiritual una dey here dey deliberate in d physical bt his profesy shouldnt av been made public since it was negative it affects d psyche of pple.i respect his powers wether oluwa or sango all follow join.

hello learned colleauges in d house pls i nid a vital information about GRE exams.i intend writting the exam next year.i would like to inquire how many times is the exam done in a year and when, that is the month it is taken.secondly wld like to knw if a relative can purchase d form in america and u write d exam in nigeria here.any other info u feel is necessary i should knw would be highly appreciated.u can reply to my post or contact me via eddycollins2003@yahoo.com.thanks

vikky09:
what will u say about OAU 60,000 post-utme candidate?

u cant compare oau a conventional school with futa a university of technology.oau offers courses on differnt fields while futa is just a technology school so there is no basis for comparison.

I dont belive this concoted story, i think moderators of nairaland should screen post with d view of preventing stories based on sophistries and cooked on a calabash of skulduggery.bt if that tales by moonlight is actuly tru then i think d minister took the wrong path.what was she thinking when she took up d appointment to meet a sound economy without financial misappropriations? Or to jolly with other ministers she was called to use her expertise ti FIX a jagajaga nigeria.she ought to be part of the restoration process

really futa is the best technology skool in nigeria.thier products speak highly of them. A 2-2 or 3rd class raduate is equivalent to a 2-1 in other universities.futa is a school known to av close circuit cameras n depolarizers to disconnect phones during exams.i love this schoolGREASTEST FUTARIANS

Tobi_dad:
mercy johnson is ugly as hell so i guess she gives great head.

leave preety johson alone make she flex her new man abeg

hello friends pls am a 400l mining engineering student of fed univ of technology akure.am currently searching for an industrial attachment placement in any oil company [upstream or downstream] pls any one with useful info should contact me on 07032741122 my email add is eddycollins2003@yahoo.com. thanks i appreciate

u guys are all badbelle if gene likes the kokomaster they should carry on joo