₦airaland Forum

Tochium: Southwestern Oklahoma State University and Drexel University accept my Toefl for normal admission, please i want to know if Southwestern Oklahoma State University and Drexel University are good enough, can i get a visa with either of them? I need reply before i proceed with their applications.

10X!

samnoah: Oga Imperiouxx I sent my e-mail to the designated address already. Waiting to get the required materials Sir. I'm writing both GRE and TOEFL.

imperiouxx: If your school agrees that you can get your insurance on your own, try this insurance search engine www.nriol.net

Set the limit of medical expense to $50,000 and deductible to $2,500 and you would be amazed by the cheap insurance you'd find.


With those settings above and assuming your age to be 30, your insurance for fall only is $141.12 (Atlas America) or $126.00 (Patriot America)

But for ages within 25 to 29, highest is $104.16 (Atlas America) or $95.20 (Patriot America)

PS: Deductible means it's only medical bill ≥ $2,500 that the insurance company will be responsible for.

Choosing the least deductible like I always do means YOU DON'T FALL SICK but only pay for insurance to fulfill DHS rules.

De Tus: @Tochium, in all honesty, Conditional Admission is not okay. The V0 might frown upon your application. If you could devote some energy to make a chick fall in love with you. Why can't you devote same energy to be fully admitted? All over the world, the Nigerian students are known for being "smart". I know it's kind of hard for you now but try hard to procure Unconditional Admission. Or pray that God blinds any VO that will interview you.

Tochium: Thank u bro for ur advice, the truth is that I already have admission at a community college in TX but I was denied visa last month, I deferred ma admission at the community college till spring. I was advice that it is easier to secure a visa using a university instead of community college then when I arrive I can transfer back to community college.

eucharia64: Hi all please someone was asked what is a must have for all international student. Please what exactly is the answer to this question?

Tochium: Guys i need your advise, is it good to opt in for conditional admission in a university? My TOEFL Score did not meet the required cutt-off for the university i intend to apply for admission. The school said they can grant me conditional admission which means i will do ESL before i begin my course proper. I want to know if this will affect my chances of getting a VISA at the embassy.

Square65: Mr Foohard, I laugh because after two or three years you will come back to this your post and ask yourself "Na me be dis?".

Without any iota of hesitation, please resign and leave!!

De Tus: @Foohard, what are you waiting for? Do you think some workers there are happy with you? You're going to study in America based on Scholarship. Your wife is also working in the US as a Nurse and you expect them to grant you "Study Leave"? They think you're now "Oliver Twins"-I need some more. That's why they are delaying. Nothing more. In life, sometimes, you can't get all what you desire for.

webstradamus: Dude, forget about that study leave. Maybe God is trying to tell you something by the delays. Do not miss your flight ... resign and pay them the 1 month salary. Don't tie yourself down over there. The future is very bright for you here, trust me I had similar fears in my time but now I know better. If you're in IT and you're good at what you do, there is no UNKNOWN. You will get a JOB! And your Nigerian experience will count especially if you've got professional certifications to go with it. Even if you have to start afresh with entry level positions, it will still be miles ahead of whatever you're earning right now (adjusted for cost of living/inflation) and the quality of life is incomparable. Only challenge may be visa sponsorship but it appears that won't be a problem for you since your wife is a PR. Bro, don't modify the perfect script God has written for your life. Just go with the flow

webstradamus: Dude, forget about that study leave. Maybe God is trying to tell you something by the delays. Do not miss your flight ... resign and pay them the 1 month salary. Don't tie yourself down over there. The future is very bright for you here, trust me I had similar fears in my time but now I know better. If you're in IT and you're good at what you do, there is no UNKNOWN. You will get a JOB! And your Nigerian experience will count especially if you've got professional certifications to go with it. Even if you have to start afresh with entry level positions, it will still be miles ahead of whatever you're earning right now (adjusted for cost of living/inflation) and the quality of life is incomparable. Only challenge may be visa sponsorship but it appears that won't be a problem for you since your wife is a PR. Bro, don't modify the perfect script God has written for your life. Just go with the flow

RedReact: Call the airline, reschedule the flight and stand on your ground (in the place of prayers now) that you are going on that day and nothing is going to stop that. They have no choice than to grant the leave.

RedReact: ^^^
Brother mi, I believe you got your visa by the hand of God; am I correct? If yes, 1 million badder stomachs won't stop you from projecting higher at all. As a matter of fact, I am not wishing them to smile at you easily, cos they might think they have the power to do and undo, but I want them to bow to the Authority above all authorities. Therefore, take Absolute control in the place of prayers. Okay?

steve4ever: @foohard.....D main questn is wen are u resuming? And also, d u see any asurance dt u ll be given a study leave....if yes, and ur resumtn date stil cover dt, i ll advice u 2 wait nd if nt i gues u gat to leave, no dulling tins at this moment. No one nos tomorow, all we can do is to try our best. But am sure our tomorow ll be great. It is well says the HYMN.

Espice: Hello house,this is just to inform you all that my visa was approved today @ Abuja Embassy. I'll try to summarize the interview experience.
And let me also add that Abuja embassy is very friendly to applicants unlike what is the usual @ the Lagos consulate.

My appointment was for 10:30am but we were let in around 12:30. After the biometrics we got back to the queue. I observed all the VOs,an Asian-American lady,a white grey-hair guy,a black-american lady. They were all giving visas and also denying people at d rate of 60:40% respectively.
Now my interview,I was interviewed by the Asian-american:
Me: good afternoon
VO: good afternoon,how are you
Me: fine thank you
VO: why do you wanna go to the US
Me: I'll be going to US for my Master's degree program
VO: where in d US are you going you to
Me: told her
VO: why this schoo?
Me: smiled...first of all,I got to know about this particular research project that is presently being carried out by the school. I was able to contact Pro. Stanley Greenwald who is spearheading this research work also,the chairperson of the Envir Engineering dept.
VO:so what will this project do for you?
Me: it will provide me with relevant skills,training and expertise I need to be able to perform excellently in my company here in Nigeria
VO: and what research will you be working on?
Me: Application of Hydrologi and Geophysical Processing Methods on Environmental Remediation and Restoration.
VO: wow,that is interesting
Me: smiled
VO: when did you finish your undergraduate?
Me: 2010
VO: so what have you been doing?
Me: after my program,I went for one year NYSC program finished in 2011 and resume work in a manufacturing company owned by my brother
VO: so what do you manufacture?
Me: told her
VO: how many brothers do you have?
Me: only one and he is the chief executive officer of the company
VO: I see...smiled. Can I see your bank statement
ME: okay,give some minutes pls. I quickly scanned through my bag. Here it is
VO: did you write GRE?
Me: yes,I wrote both GRE and TOEFL
VO: what your score
Me: told her. Sorry my GRE is quite low,but good TOEFL.
VO: ok. Started typing for long on her computer. Then looked at me and said,I will approve your visa. Make sure you do a very good research work ok and make your family proud.
Me and VO: started laughing seriously.
VO: so take this paper,go and pick...
It was just God all the way.

lisadem: well @last I was able to get a flight ticket for 450 after much online researches. You need to hasten up the agency o. Hope they are aware of the deadline

samnoah: First time on the thread. Got introduced by foohard; a great friend.I'm enjoying these coments cos they are insighting. Its great that we can have people volunteer to share this great amount of info here. Have got two admissions in US earlier for master's but never went for visa interview cos the schools didn't offer me any form of tuition reduction. Already completed a master's degree here in naija just recently and looking forward to putting in for phd in the US. Hope to get valuable supports from here.

lisadem: Thanks Find-out. Glad God answered my fervent prayers during ramadan. Hope you are doing great and have settled in the US? #wink

@Foohard: I have same plight too ooo. My school resumes on the 26th Aug, I have 2 orientation programs scheduled for next week but yet to get a flight ticket. The price for the one I got was outrageous - 600-700k!!! Say wetin happen nau. Am still hoping I get a flight with reasonable price. God help us.

syahboy: Hello Nairalanders, I recently took the Gre and today I received the official Score Report Quant-165, Verbal-156 Total 321 and AWA-5.0(Not stellar but laudable).

I started practising for the test since march and to be honest the first powerprep attempt I scored a meagre 290. However, I requested for materials on this forum and some materials were sent to my mail. I found the barrons basic as it covered some aspects of the quant section but not up to actual test standard.

A friend of mine recommended the Nova Gre Bible which I found very efficient as it teaches all the tricks and formulas needed to ace the Quant section, infact with this book you can get a perfect score on the Quant.

For the verbal I learnt 299 common Gre words and also practised with the free verbal flashcards from magoosh gre, although on test day the words were actually reasonable than the ones on the practise test.

I did a lot or Reading comprehension questions on both Barrons and http://codecoax.com/grerc/ as this was an area I struggled with. For the AWA I studied essays from http://gre5dot5./ and it helped me a lot as two of the essays on my test were directly from this site. I also recommend downloading the ebook Gre-AWA model essays.

Powerprep is a must as it helps you get the test experience, also your score on the powerprep will likely be your actual score on test day plus or minus 10 points. In summary practise, practise, practise and you'll do great. Having great scores is not esoteric, just be passionate and zealous and you'll make it. On test day I sent my scores to TAMU, ASU, UIUC and UTD. Currently doing my final semester and will be applying for Spring 2015 semester(EE VLSI) plus my Toefl is on tuesday, wish me luck guys

bigfrancis21: I thank God for my visa approval today. I initially scheduled my interview for July 22 at the same Abuja, as you all know, but missed the interview because my I20 did not arrive as expected. I had to reschedule and got today using emergency request.
I had my interview at the Abuja embassy today. My interview time was 11.45am however, there were just so many applicants today that I was actually interviewed at around 12.25pm. My post is very long and I believe I really owe you guys my narration. I took out my time to type my experience with every single detail because you all deserve it.

I left Owerri where I was at the moment for Enugu on sunday to visit my maternal relatives and stayed with them for 2 days. Then I left Enugu for Abuja on tuesday by bus (Peace park. Oh God, I love the way their drivers speed. Makes me feel like I'm on a flight. ). Got to Abuja around 6.30pm and slept over at my aunt's. I wasn't that much bothered neither did I do cram work nor rehearsals of my answers. I just watched movies last night and this morning , prepared and left for the embassy at 10am sharp. Got to the embassy 10 minutes later. Those for 10.30am and 10.45am were called, and few minutes later all others for 11am were called in. I went inside, did biometrics, sat down and waited for my turn. Sat for almost 30 minutes till it got to my turn. I used the opportunity to observe the visa officers. I must confess that while going there I was scared given the horrible news I had been hearing about the visa officers. But on entering the interview lounge and seeing them, all my fears swept away in just a second. 'Oh these people are humans afterall', was the thought I had. After that, I relaxed, became lively, started smiling, and even discussing with those beside me. All the visa officers were around, all 4 of them - 3 ladies and 1 guy. I used the opportunity to observe the VOs. All ladies at counters 6, 8 and 9 were quite fair in their visa issuance rates, except the guy. He gave more denials than approvals. His own voice at the speaker was the loudest more than the other VOs. His own voice was suppressing the others such that you could barely hear the interview process of the other VOs. I kinda liked the guy sha because I noticed that the guy is intelligent, though he was denying more because he was very scrutinizing of applicants. He was scrutinizing for those that were the 'best' to him. His first question was always, 'have you travelled out of the country before?' Followed by, 'what state is your school located in and what part of the US map is your state located in'. I couldn't help but notice a guy who the male VO denied earlier this morning. He smartly went into the bathroom, waited a while, came out and joined the queue. When it got to his turn, he was still called at counter 7(male visa officer's counter) and when the VO called up his record, he shouted that the guy had been denied earlier before, and called security to take him out of the building. I saw him grant only one student who had a scholarship from his university. The lady at counter 8 was a very nice lady, just granting visas. The VO at counter 9 will grill and grill you, even laugh with you but deny you in the end. She's the same person who denied the member here who his resumption date coincided with his passport pick-up date. I prayed to be interviewed by the lady at counter 8 and God just answered my prayers. I'll tell you how he did so in the penultimate paragraph. It then got to my turn, and I was called at Window 8!, and I went forward.

Me: Good afternoon (smiling)
VO: Good afternoon. Pass me your passport and application documents please. (I did).
VO: (Looked at my document and typed something on her keyboard and said) Hold on sir, let me verify your details.
VO: (Looking up after a few seconds) Okay! What are you going to the US to do?
ME: To further my studies. I'm going for my masters degree.
VO: Have you travelled out of Nigeria before?
ME: Not really. I've never had the opportunity to before.(Note, I didn't just say 'no'. I dreaded that answer like a plague. The answer I gave was more preferable)
VO: What school are you going to?
ME: University of Maryland, College Park.
VO: Ok! In what field are you going for your masters?
ME: Telecommunications Engineering.
VO: Ok. When did you obtain your bachelors degree?
ME: July last year.
VO: What school did you obtain your bachelors degree from?
ME: University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
VO: (Thinking and saying) Nsukka...Ok! (She shouted it and smiled at me. To go to a good school is really good. I was surprised she'd know UNN sef, given that its not in Lagos or Abuja that they can easily hear or know of.)
VO: How did you come about this your school?
ME: I performed intense research on the internet and discovered the school and found out that it ranks among the top 20 schools in the US in the field of engineering so I decided to apply to the school and other 2 schools.
VO: (still smiling) What other schools did you apply to?
ME: University of Tennessee and University of Alabama.
VO: (On hearing U of Alabama, she fell back into her seat, laughing loudly and shouting) Oh! Alabama! Why didn't you go to University of Alabama! I schooled there.
ME: (Laughing loudly) Really? That's nice! My dad schooled there too.
VO: Really?! Tuscaloosa?
ME: Yea. Tuscaloosa.(She was then laughing now and typing).
VO: Who will be paying for your studies?
ME: I got a graduate assistantship from the school though...
VO: (Cuts in)...wonderful! (Looking at my I20)
ME: (I continued). However, my sponsor is my paternal uncle.
VO: What does he do?
ME: He's a financial consultant. He has a company that offers financial consultations and advise. He also works for FirstBank and DiamondBank on contract basis where he trains their newly recruited bank staff.
VO: (Looking at me, smiling). Wonderful. Do you have his bank statement?
ME: Yes. I passed it to her. (She quickly flips to the back, looks at it and gives it back to me. It was containing a balance of 10.4 million naira)
VO: Can you please place your left thumb on the scanner?
ME: Yes. (I quickly did so).
VO: (Returning my I20, looking up at me smiling) Your visa has been approved! Pick up your passport on friday at this address located on the pick-up form.
ME: Thank you! (Smiling now).

I packed my file and left. She didn't ask for my GRE or my transcripts like the male VO was doing. The whole interview didn't last up to 1 minute because it went so fast. Boldness, confidence, and speaking eloquently are very important. Gesticulations are also important. I spoke confidently, brilliantly, together with hand movements. Most importantly, God's favour supersedes all. I'll tell you how.

I prayed to be interviewed by the lady at counter 8. BAnd God answered my prayers immediately and in a miraculous way! When I was the third to go ie two people were before me, the lady at counter 8 concluded with one applicant and was supposed to call 'next applicant' as usual, but she didn't. She just looked our direction, noticed that I wasn't next, and kept on typing on her system. The VO at counter 9 called, the first person left, and the VO at counter 6 called and the second person went to her counter. I was then next. The nice lady, on looking my direction again and seeing that I was next then called 'next applicant' and I moved forward to her counter. I noticed she wanted to interview me herself. It was just God's doing. Funny enough, the two that were in front of me who went to the other two female VOs were denied! The nice VO just waited to interview me herself and grant me the visa! God's favour is just so wonderful.

Thank you all. My enormous thanks goes out to all the members on this thread. God bless you all.

imperiouxx: You will be allowed to use it for 1 year after which you have to change to the state's driver's license. Though, you'll still need a written test + road test to get it. Then you'll choose between 4 or 8 years license. Mine is 8 years for $38. The best for you is to change it as soon as possible. You can use this for the written test.

http://www.usdriving.net/index.php

JFK12: where can I read your interview transcript Foohard ?tnx

iamchux: Very well! A lot of people on this thread have gotten their visa with only toefl as standardised test. Like Lisadem rightly said, it all boils down on you. GRE could be waived based on your field experinces...So cook up things to tell the VO!

JFK12:
With only toefl as standardize test,do you tink one really av a good chance of getting Visa? Without GRE etc

bigfrancis21: Please, get one as soon as possible if you can. It will ease the US driver's license protocols for you. Mine was to expire by October this year, so I applied for a renewal 3 months ago (in May) so that it still remains valid for some time. For the state of Maryland, its necessary for one to come with one. Below is a portion of the email that was sent to me by my school last week concerning what important documents to bring, and also concerning the driver's license:

Mike-Will:
Visa don come flight is ready 220 for one way ticket .... Foolhard I'm off to LAX airport on Thursdays son...... I will be calling Los Angeles my new home y'all. Thanks to lisadem , big Francis and see u foolhard