nemesiis:
Hello Guys.. hope y'all doing fine...

So I just finished my BSC and wanted to go overseas (USA) and do my masters, or maybe any professional course/experience another country( not necessarily doing the masters)

I had Germany in mind but after discussing with my parents and close friends they said germany is out of it because of the language barrier and other issues I don't want to bore you with

So my dad contacted a travel agent who helped his friend's newphew and others enter the US to make inquiries..

So below is the 2 options (and Fee) the man gave

1. 2 year B1/B2 visa (tourist Visa I guess)

Requirements: intl passsports, visa fee (#54,000), travel history (#35,000), Documentation(#40,000) and then #650,000 to be paid to him once visa is out, he ddnt mention any ticket fee which means the total amount will go higher (he said I ll be going with a family moving to the US). And he also said he could help work this Visa for onward movement to Canada,

2. Student Visa

Requirements: intl passports, university certificate, secondary school cert, transcripts, processing fee of #300,000, CV

And then he further said once I get an offer, I ll be required to make a deposit of $3000, and then Visa application fee of $1000

So This brought up some questions in my mind I wanted to clarify before making any payment to the man which I hope people here with experience could help me answer (please!)

1. Are these fees correct (or at least within the range) or the man is just trying to rip me off?

2. How much should be my budget (school fees, accommodation and all) in my course of getting a masters degree in the US?

3. Is there any possibility of getting any job with B1/B2 Visa?

4. Is it advisable to skip NYSC in pursuance of a masters degree overseas?


I ll be so happy if you guys can help me answer these questions

Thanks

1. The fees are not correct

2. You will need to do some work yourself, you don't need any agent to apply to schools or get student visa, iMO they don't do anything. They basically just swindle the gullible ones. Talking about visa application fees of $1000, thats ridiculous.

What you need to do, is know the course yoy are putting in for M.S. degree and schools that offer it-that can give you admission based on your profile ie GPA, test scores et al. Then you will need to qrute GRE and TOEFL. Apply to the schools yourself. Hopefully get admission. From there you apply for visa. You get it. That's it. But its not hard and its not easy. You just need to put in some work

3. Legally you are not supposed to

4. Yiu have the prerogative to decide that. If you will be back in the country to seek employment, you can just chill and do it. Use your service year to prepare for the exams and your applications.

Who else is tired of reloading his/ her email/ checking applications portal for decision already?

ganiyuadeoye:
TAMU,Kingville also uses applytexas but still ask for official transcript from your UNI

ooh. cc hushee

sirRiddy:

Good thing you asked in advance before applying. More reason prospective applicants need to connect with the programs way ahead of time. Good luck.

Yeah. Thanks boss.

Hushee:

Thanks Bro, God bless you. @bolded Kingsville too?

I guess so. Although I was referring to college station. Most schools in Tx use 'applytexas'. If kingsville use that-then they will allow unofficial.

sirRiddy:

Interesting!
Applied to both schools last year and did not need all that. Both even allowed for upload of unofficial transcripts.

Wow! I guess it defers by dept then. Was going to apply to their geology dept.

sirRiddy:

Which school in kansas do you mean?
Both ku and k-state need no wes evaluation
to the best of knowledge.

Ku needs- infact I had a potential advisor there but later didnt apply because of the economics; spending wes $250+app fee +additional score report wasn't economical to me. I even mailed the grad cord of my dept but she insisted.

I don't know about K-state tho.

Hushee:
Please I need help on southern schools that accept unofficial transcript.
Oga Deetus, Oga Imperioux.

Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma state, Uni of oklahoma, CSM, NMSU, arkansas...infact I think most schools in the south should except for some schools in Louisiana and Kansas that I know of ; Louisiana schools your school would have to send the official hard copy while Kansas-you will need WES evaluation.

imperiouxx:


Men, that's a lot of money whereas intl students can't apply for financial aid.

yeah.

fredoricko:
Does anyone know if Cleveland state university fund incoming students?
Though I've asked before, I really didn't get a response I could work with. I'm about to put in my application and I'll like to know about their funding so I wouldn't regret the choice. And by the way, I have asked the grad coordinator about their funding but he was evasive.

If the grad. cord was that should give you all the pointer you need. Otherwise connect with a student in your prospective department on Linkedin and get undiluted info. or contact professors you will like to work with, if they have RA positions to fund you.

mjksho:
Thanks for your kind response. Can you suggest schools?

Texas A&M college station competitive I think fees is less than $16k; LSU Competitive but fees around $16k per yr, Uni of Kansas but you will need WES evaluation here, check Oklahoma state too dont know the fees but they should have funding; generally check southern schools they have funding and fees are cheaper I think. You can check NMSU, Arkansas, North dakota too.

mjksho:
House, please I am here again to ask the gurus in the house about the following schools based on your experience and knowledge

New Mexico Tech
Louisiana Tech
University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Funding and cheap tuition is a major consideration. I am going for MS Chemical engineering.


I appreciate the 2 nairalanders that responded to my earlier enquiry which has made me fine-tune my search. God bless you all.

From what I know, UL Lafayette don't fund incoming grad. students but their tuition is around $20k per year I think.

sirRiddy:
Scholastica16 your response is very insightful.
Emailing grad coordinators would help eliminate schools that you
should not waste time and money on. Of all the four schools I sent my scores
to during my GRE in 2014, I only eventually applied to the one I am attending
now. I was very inexperienced and only got better with time.

I got to know that funding chances are low for one, the other one, ASU, just
chop my application fee (90 dollars) and Utah State said they waive only out of state. So it
is pertinent grad coordinators are contacted way ahead of one's GRE like you suggested

In my research group, my
lab head is very inclusive and gives PhD students a lot of free-hand. We have access
to a lot of info like faculty recruiting, grants situation and even students' admission
package since he is in the adcomms. A Nigerian who is applying to my department
was able to get first-hand info on admission requirements because of this privilege.
She had a subpar GRE score, I talked to the grad coordinator and he rarely revealed
to me the minimum cut off of the GRE. She took the test again and made above the
score and hopefully she will be accepted.Funny enough, the requirement on the website
is 297 while the actual requirement averagely is 310. I asked him why they did that.
He said they do not want to scare away exceptional students who do not have the most glamorous
test scores. According to him, requiremnts are requirements. They can
help identify good potential through the admission process but cannot identify for sure who is going
to complete a PhD. Some gifted students just cannot score highly in the GRE but have
really commendable research acumen and experience.

To add to this, contacting current grad students can be a deal breaker too. You might
be lucky to form a rapport with one who is willing to divulge information about
admissions and funding situation in the department. I was able to know about TOEFL
requirements from an alumnus of the department who was a grad student at that time.
Candidates should try to proactive as this is the least one can do to stay competitive. The
Indians and Chinese are not smiling. Many of them can do everything possible including
cheating just to gain competitive edge.
So applicants should go to LinkedIn and find current students in their prospective programs.
One can type "GTA Chemical Engineering Harvard" if you are applying to the Chemical
Engineering program at Harvard for instance.

Nice one sirriddy, you always do good.

I want to add that, when contacting GTAs, you might want to contact International students instead of citizens. I always first look if there is an African in the department, incase no Nigerian. If no African, I look for persons from developing countries too that's would understand my plight.

jaybiz007:

I read civil engineering too. Likewise, I have written the GRE and TOEFL exams. Can I reach you via email? I would have exploited the pm route but my nairaland email is no longer active.

Alright, kinematicguy at gmail. com

doziej84:



how did you register for GRE search service?

I cant find such a link from my ETS account?

You register for it prior to writing the Gre. ie in the process of registration.

Scholastica16:


I struck them off a day after I made that post as the grad coordinator finally replied me on said day. I was looking at the school because I saw that most of their Chemical engineering research projects had a lot of funding so I was hoping to benefit from it.

What you said is very correct because the Grad coordinator pretty much reechoed what you said. I believe the message said something about 150 applying for the PhD last time but they took only 15 of them. I just decided against throwing my $100 away. Thanks.

Yes boss. I have a friend currently there. He thought he was going to get funding with his very good profile, he didnt. Thank God he got an external funding.

Plus I did mail the grad cord of my dept. He said no funding for M.S. and Ph.D maybe they are going to fund just 1 ( I enquired about spring then).

aanexplus:


Wow. Thanks bro. This is very good. I sent you a PM. Kindly reply. Thanks

I have replied bro.

aanexplus:
Guys score has been reported. I flop sha based on the way I prepared.

My profile
Msc hopeful
Bsc civil engineering
Cgpa:4.58/5
Gre score:306

Can anything good come out of this? Thanks guys for making me go this far. I will surely retake gre but can I still do something from this profile. Thank you

Yes something good can come out of this. In my opinion you dont need to rewrite, just get a good SOP, LORs. And make sure you contact potential advisors, talk about their research area and why you are interested in it. Tell them problem solving is a thrilling experience for you. Attach your cv to the email.

Also you can check out. Uni of Notre Dame; the grad cord has sent me about 3 emails to apply( I registered for GRE score locator). I have a similar profile to yours. Although I wont be applying because I dont like their research concentration for my discipline.

Below is the mail I was sent. You can check the school out.

Dear ********

Greetings! I am the Director of Graduate Studies for Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, and am writing to encourage you to consider our graduate program. Notre Dame is a private university located about 90 miles east of Chicago, in the city of South Bend, IN. Our students come from every state and from around the world.Our doctoral program in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences (formerly Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences) was recently ranked by the National Research Council (NRC) as one of the top programs in the United States.Over the past 10 years, our M.S. and Ph.D. graduates have obtained high-profile positions in industry, government, and academia, with about 25% of our Ph.D. students placed in teaching-and-research faculty positions across the U.S. and around the world.We place great emphasis on the total education of students through coursework, research and personal mentorship. This is reflected in our low student to faculty ratio (4 to 1).Allstudents in our graduate program receivefull financial support, which consists of a stipend and a tuition waiver. Our standard stipend is over $27,000 special fellowships with stipends as high as $37,500 per year are offered to the most outstanding doctoral applicants.  Our department has a vibrant research program, with 24 full-time, teaching and research faculty and over 80 graduate students. Our department's research is grouped into four broad areas:Structural EngineeringEnvironmental EngineeringEnvironmental Fluid DynamicsEarth SciencesT
he department has decided to waive your application fee, which means you will be able to submit your application without being charged


May God crown our efforts. Search wide. You should be good.

Scholastica16:


Thank you.

Michigan State Uni~
Iowa State Uni (PhD Jan 1 deadline)~
Uni of Florida (Deadline for PhD was Dec 5, for MSc is Jan 8 )
Texas Tech Uni (Jan 8 )
Uni of New Mexico (Jan 15 Msc)
L.S.U Baton Rouge
Mississipi State Uni
Kansas State Uni

All for fall 2017 (I think all have deadlines in January bu not sure of the exact dates). All Chemical engineering. Funding is important. I think it is criminal for anyone to spend a dime of his own money doing research for a school. So yea, Masters of Science or PhD. If the school want a dime from me, they can take their admission and shove it where the sun don't shine.


~ signifies still unsure. First one are yet to reply any emails. 2nd say they sponsor only PhD.

I noticed you mentioned that funding is important. if that is the case, I will advice you to strike out Texas Tech if you are applying for M.S. there. As the school hardly fund incoming M.S. students. But Ph.D. can get funding.

OjaP:


What do you think about mechanical engineering? I think petroleum engineering is too specialized. With a degree in mechanical engineering, you can still work in the oil industries. Just make sure you take some petroleum geology or reservoir engineering classes as part of your electives. And with the current crisis in the oil sector, your mechanical engineering degree will be valuable and would open doors for you in other sectors.

Thank me later.

Thank you very much for the advice. Although, I am a geoscientist.

michaelbelgium:
i got a mail from dragnet asking me to fill a form to be scheduled for test on 17th.....but i've not gotten feedback from them

Same with me.

Ebenezer9:


I was scheduled to write the exam in Jos on 13th but I failed to meet up, I got the second mail yesterday, so I decided to reschedule it to IBADAN which is closer to me. I just login, change the location, the date and time is already there.

Thanks. I appreciate.

Ebenezer9:
Please, my scheduled time is 3pm on 17th in IBADAN, is there anyone writing before that time on the same day? if yes, can I join them before my 3pm scheduled time?

Please, how did you get the time for yours. After feeling the surveymonkey, I still yet to get my exam time and venue. Although I chose lagos as venue. pls enlighten me.

ruxxz:
CSM has low acceptance rate. pls, think it through. Cheers

Yeah, thanks. I am only going to apply if I have a potential advisor willing to take me in.

Mayflowa:


Oh! You have defended me already! You are a wise man. Austin gets more recruitment than college station. Both schools are top school with very competitive admission why LSU ha's high acceptance rate. Thanks my guy

Mayflowa:


Oh! You have defended me already! You are a wise man. Austin gets more recruitment than college station. Both schools are top school with very competitive admission why LSU ha's high acceptance rate. Thanks my guy

Haha, much thanks to you rather. Austin is the apotheosis. Yeah, LSU has higher acceptance rate.

Mayflowa:


Is Texas A & M in New Orleans. Is Mobil Headquarter in College Station ? Mtchewwwwwww. I actually know what I am saying!

Agreed, like LSU, Texas A & M has great opportunities. However University of Texas at Austin even has better opportunities than Texas A & M. But getting into these two schools is not beans. Admission is like hell. In contrast, LSU has good acceptance rate with same opportunities. This is the attraction.

Exactly, you nailed it. Getting into UT Austin and Texas A&M is tougher, a professor has to be willing to take you in.

Infact I have been trying to get a potential advisor at Texas A&M, the only two profs that have replied, said they're not taking new grad students. The rest after multiple mails, nothing yet. I guess I will try CSM now.

ChemEngr01:

Bro, I think you're confusing LSU with Texas A&M College Station

LSU is also like that, infact their petroleum engr dept. is the only school in the US, with a full scale well facility, like a live well.

Although I will add that, Tx A&M college station has more alumni in the oil and gas industry. Companies also recruit heavily at LSU.

Please, has anyone who missed the test been able to reschedule. I was at a place where there was little network. Hence, I didn't get the email on time.

I will be glad if such a person can walk me through on the rescheduling process. Thanks.

seeker88:
Hello my good people. Please I need your help...

I've finally decided to go for Mechanical Engineering with concentration in Energy Systems come fall 2017. Using google, I discovered some schools that offer Mechanical engineering with option in energy system....schools like University of Louisiana Lafayette, TAMU, Northern Texas University, university of Alabama Huntsville....is there any chance of securing admission and funding in these schools for my profile?

Please can someone help with more schools that offer mechanical engineering with option in energy system in d us, n possible funding too (very important for me). School ranking isn't a priority, I just need safe schools for asmission and funding...

Below is a summary of my profile:
GRE: 305(Q&V), AW 3.5
CGPA: 3.57/4.00 (conversion by WES). 4.23/5.00
Bachelor: Petroleum Engineering
Intended major: MSc (thesis option) in Mechanical Engineering (concentration in energy systems).
TOEFL: 92. Expired, intend to take another TOEFL soonest.

Please, I'd really appreciate if those experienced gurus in d house could kindly assist with reviewing my SOP. I've written one for one of the schools identified and would appreciate ur pieces of advice n suggestions....

Abeg make una help me with schools where I can get admission and funding with this profile in mechanical engineering. Your assistance will be highly appreciated.


Cc: all d gurus in d house.

Thank you all....

My advice: strike out TAMU, that's if it's College station, your GRE doesn't quite cut and also you will need a potential advisor willing to take you in. Also UL Lafayette doesn't give uncoming students funding from my findings. Although you can get GA after your first semester. Don't know about the others.

Please, after submitting my application. I logged in to check my profile. To my surprise, my higher institution is no longer showing on the profile, although its showing "pending successful application"...please anyone facing similar dilemma? ? I tried re-inputting my higher institution but its not going through.

Hey house, for those that have potential advisors at various schools; please make sure you inform the professor after making your application to the graduate school. Some of these guys have possibly accepted more than just you as a potential student, hence might forget and you will need to remind them.

And for those looking for potential advisors keep emailing them. If you're applying to top tier schools in your program (Top 20-30). Some of the professors won't reply you. Don't mail just one, though you might have a favourite, be a bit flexible. Best, you will read journals tire. But I pray our efforts get rewarded.

Good day guys, Please a school I am applying to, is requesting for proof of financial statement in the application. I actually have a potential advisor in the school who has said he would check his whole pool of applicants and hope I get a TA, hence I get funded.

Please, my question his, has anyone faced such dilemma? How did you go about that in your application?

Thanks.