reDazey:
My Second Experience
I will start by congratulating everyone who has an admission. It is truly an arduous journey. More congratulations to those with funding and all the best to those still awaiting funding. I must add that it is not over till you hear from all your schools. Last year, I can recall a close friend who got an admit with full funding in May. Hope still dey!

I want to encourage someone here today with my story. Never give up on yourself and your dreams. When you plan to retry, find out the actions that failed you and learn to change your strategy for success. Finally, keep trying if you believe so much in a vision till you achieve it.

This is the period where most of us sit and wait with bated breath, hoping and praying that our admission with some sort of financial funding drops into our mailbox. I pray everyone gets their heart desires.

Last year, I was in a similar position. I felt dejected, some of us can relate to this emotion. Lots of admissions with no funding. I applied to combinations of (MSc and Ph.D.) in Statistics/Maths. Got some rejections and some acceptances( without funding). It was a terrible blow because I felt I had a good profile. (GPA 3.6/4(WES), GRE 318, TOEFL 109). However, I learned some important lessons. It is not always about one aspect of your profile. LORs and SOPs are very important.

Having been out of school for a while and working in an IT-intensive organization; I overlooked my IT skills which were going to be advantageous. I got some advice from several persons, I selected the ones I felt will work for me and dropped the rest. So for Fall 2018, I restrategized, applied to CS programs. Also, I realized I did not take some risk on my former school list (Sirriddy and Scholastica16 encouraged me to aim higher).

So this year, I reapplied to 5 Ph.D. programs
1. The University of Massachusetts, Amherst (pending)
2. The University of Utah (rejected)
3. Kansas State University(accepted with full funding)
4. The University of Alabama (accepted, no funding. I did not bother to ask for any.)
5. College of William and Mary(accepted with full funding, being considered for fellowship)

Also, to "avoid stories that touch", I applied to Georgia Southern (MSc Mathematics and I was accepted with a funded GTA position)

I thank God for the courage to try one more time and I pray that everyone finds a reason to believe in themselves and keep pushing.

Special thanks to the extraordinary persons that supported me throughout this journey; Sirriddy(you are just too much), divabiola, jaybiz007, Scholastica16, MsNas, dramaka). Thank you guys for being more than friends.

imperiouxx:
Hello guys. I'm back from my 2.5 weeks vacation to Nigeria. I don't know internet is crazily slow in Nigeria like this I can count the number of times I was able to open few webpages successfully.... most times it's "Error: page cannot be found". It's discouraging to keep refreshing webpage except when it's school related.

Men, I see the reasons people thank God after getting the visa...... most people walking on the streets of Lagos are really angry..... they are not smiling because the country is not smiling at anyone anymore. Lots of gas stations with no gas. Uncountable hotels in every corner you go with lots of hustlers - girls of different shape Heavy traffic, smell of burning soot mixed with noises..... men, environmental pollution everywhere. Heat wave o! .... my first full day in Nigeria, I showered 5 times but with time I started getting use to it and my showering cuts down to 2 per day, sometimes I do 3. I experienced excessive sweating throughout my staying. But I'm glad that I was able to make enough visits to old places and friends.

The intriguing story: so we took our traditional and white wedding to Nigeria after 3.5 years of marriage in U.S. The event was colorful and fantastic....... Lagosismyhome, it seems you know..... how? Well, three days later, I met Ojap on WhatsApp. He asked for my full name, date and place where the wedding was held. Then he said he thinks his dad attended. He sent me a photo proof and in the photo is my mom, his dad and my aunty........ his dad is my mom's younger brother (extended family).... my uncle It's so funny that Ojap and I are family. Ojap is my good friend which I met here in 2011 and our friendship offline has been great. I see the reason it's good to be good to everyone. We don't know where or how we will meet tomorrow.


Oh! Before I forget the combined shayo for these guys:

@ Damilare5882, Cephas0009, abeeolars, ahyoncolar, fisayoprisca, StackNerd, isaacology, lakreame, MissPezz, Pinkgodezz, josiahese (friend), lovelyonps, Oyin04, tosinooo, ABIM2016, Upandup, Damiflies, vikturaikay, oyeleye22, ekiee, Dupsaw, pareeHot, lydia19, Messibliss207, k199192, softamy, tomshach, Fabchiby, HST, Goodguyalways, Mandem101, Senate111, Yommex3, Jericho30, Titusnick, Eeffy, sirhamilton, Kheake, Wolexy1212, aanexplus, subset, FemiJFK, johnsonnob, MrAdelaja and goodemma20


Cheers guys!

gidjah:
yes na!in fact, d balance na im u go dey pay till u die enter grave and even ur grand kids wil have to kwontinue wt d corrupt tax increase pay because u want to own ahouse! Just imagine biko! Is it by force ni?

timesup234:
Hollywood has done a lot of damage to you when you can easily use google and check on a reliable site. Well I will help you but your problem is that you don't read. Americans who are first class citizens can't even save for a down payment in 10 yrs. Please take the pay to read, it will help you from being disgraced all the time.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-long-to-save-home-down-payment-2014-7?IR=T

InvertedHammer:


There is more to life than naira, kobo, dollars and cents.

Once you figure it out, you will understand why the U.S. Embassy is one of the busiest embassies in Nigeria.

Anyone living in US who comes in here to debate this issue with you is a slowpoke.

For the fact that you are comparing the life of a bank manager in Nigeria and a menial worker in USA says it all. You just gave a backhanded compliment to bank managers in Nigeria.
/

timesup234:
It will take an American hustler 20yrs to save for a 20% downpayment for a house. Thats just 40kusd for an average $200,000 house. It will take him another 30yrs to pay back the loan of $160,000 excluding interest. Thats 50yrs to own a single house. Enough time for even a bricklayer and shoemaker to build two houses in Nigeria

Sgttanner:
thanks for your reply.. But come to think of it... Even if those are the best results... What's my gain hiding the rest... It doesn't make any sense(maybe you didn't take your time to read and understand what i wrote up there very well) ... During my time in school, we were given some results during some semesters while during some semesters, they paste the results... I only have the ones of the semesters that we were given... For example... During my set, our 400l first and second semester result was pasted.. We were not given... So that's the point I was trying to make and if not for the *ONE YEAR PLUS AASU STRIKE* I won't be here asking this kinda question... Would have walked directly into the school and collect all the docs I need... Thanks for your reply anyways... I am not trying to outsmart the school.. I am only trying to explain the situation I find my self

OluDare01:
MsNas, I have read your post several times and I am amazed how you took out time to explain in detail. Pardon my curiosity, you applied to a lot of jobs and most of these jobs need references or recommendations from professionals; probably supervisors or advisors as the case may be. How did you manage that part of a job application? I bet my advisor can't write more than 10 references before he gets tired.
Kindly help to elucidate this matter.
Thanks and God bless

Mystiqme:

You work in the Ag industry?

OluDare01:
Imperiouxx, Slimmy2005, OjaP, MsNas, Bigfrancis21lagosismyhome

Can Y'all share some job application tips I think it would go a long way as some of us would be rounding off our studies soon.
Thanks!

Okay bro. Will do that later tonight.

Edit: Let me do it now before my small oga wakes up.


1. Try and intern before you graduate! Even if it's an unpaid internship, please try and do one or two. My oga used to harp on the importance of internships and I thought he was just bothering me unnecessarily. I did one unpaid internship and after that, I got my first job straight off the bat. This past two months, I have had the opportunity to be on the other side of an interview table (as an interviewer) and that experience is one that will for sure help me during future interview process. I got to see things from an interviewer's prospective and one key factor that I realized after a couple of interviews is that interviewers loathe when you do not have any tangible work experience on your resume. When I mean tangible, I mean something that aligns with your major in college. I have actually had a manager (he was on the interview panel with me) say that he will be deselecting a candidate (She went to GA Tech and studied Biomedical and Molecular Engineering) because all her work experience was in her sorority and how can a person go to school for four years or five with no internship or job? Which means, she had everything handed to her on a platter of gold by her parents and might not know what the real world is nor have any work ethics! She hasn't even reached the parking lot before we deselected her! Oh well!!

2. Start applying ASAP! Once you're within 8 months of graduation, start sending in those applications. Trust me, it's not too early and many a company will ask you when you want to start working. It saves you the mad scramble of applying when you're 1 month to graduation or after graduation. The mistake many leave is to leave job applications till the last minute and then everything is crazy afterwards.

3. Work on your resume. Your resume is your selling point. Utilize it well! This is what gets you an interview and it has to be informative enough to catch the attention of a recruiter before you get the actual interview. Google resume samples online and tailor it to meet your own information. Trust me, there's nothing that gives a recruiter or an interviewer more joy than a professionally written and informative resume. Drop the unnecessary crap and stick to the most important aspects in your resume. Your header should be your name and the following line should be your email address, phone number and your resident city and state. Dump all other irrelevant info. Don't use any fancy fonts for your resume. Stick to Times New Roman, Calibri or some other clean, no frills fonts.

4. Apply to as many places as possible. I think I mentioned it sometime ago that I applied to as many as 200 places. No kidding! I swear. How I kept track of them all? I had an excel sheet where I logged all my job applications. I keep documentation of the job title, the job description, company, the link to the application and the resume I used. If i get a reject, I highlight with red. If I get an interview, I highlight in green. It made it easy for me to track, cos i don't want to be confused about what company is inviting me for and interview or what position I applied to in the company. So, apply to as many places as possible, because if you apply that way, you're bound to get as many interviews of which 1 or 2 will result into a job.

5. While you're applying to numerous places, please spice up your resume. Tailor your resume to meet what the job you're applying to is looking for. I don't know how many versions of my resume I have but I'm sure its more than 10. I have the generic resume I use but I also adjust my resume to fit whatever job I was applying to. Don't submit the same resume over and over to different companies. Tailor your resume to align properly with what whatever job you're applying to needs. Sell yourself well, give them a reason to be interested in you and eager to call you in for an interview.

6. Learn the act of interviewing! See, nothing pisses me off more than a person who messes up their interview. There was this guy I interviewed. Before he got into the room, I was already in love with his profile. Went to Cal Poly SLO, studied Ag. Business, 3.88GPA, had Ag. related work experience and was bilingual. He pissed me off so bad in his interview that we deselected him on the spot. His offense? He was not articulate!! We could barely understand or hear what he was saying. We would ask him a question, he will reply with a question. Gosh! There was another one from GA Tech, black kid with an engineering degree. Top of his class. He was so nervous and gave very short answers. I was trying to engage him and get him to talk more and deeper cos I know that was what they were looking for, but this guy did not take the bait. to make matters worse, he said his ultimate goal in 5 years was to get a PhD and teach afterwards. As God will have it, the recruiter was present in the interviews and after he stepped out of the room, she deselected him because according to her, no need hiring him because our company was not a long term goal for him. I felt so dissapointed because the population of black skilled workers here is about 1-2%. And we have a workforce of at least 1000 people on site.

This guy was flown in from Georgia as a second round of interviews, put in the best hotel in town for four days, given a rental and all that. The interview was just a formality and was supposed to be a slam dunk for him and he messed it up. On the contrary, he had a classmate who also interviewed and boy! This girl can talk! She captivated us, sold herself to the T. She got recommended right after and she got the job. A lot of the people we interviewed did not even know anything about the company when asked. Like seriously?? Just google the shit out of the company before your interview. Out of the around 120 people we interviewed, only 8 made the cut. Sadly.

7. Be professional. Never badmouth your ex-employers, your ex-coworkers to ex-colleagues during an interview. I interviewed a guy who put all the blame on his professor for a bad grade he got (a D) because according to him, the professor was not good a teacher. Yet he went to a Community College to retake the class and still got a C. This is to show that the problem is you and not your teachers. He kept badmouthing a former group member as well and we just concluded he's not a team player and will always find someone to blame for his failures like Donald Trump. Lol

8. Be articulate. Yes we get it, you have an accent, we all do. But please, speak as concisely and as clearly as possible. You don't want your interviewer to keep telling you to repeat what you said neither do you want them to space out cos they don't understand you. Speak very clearly and loud enough for everybody to hear. Be convincing with the way you express yourself.

9. Study your resume and your transcript very well before the interview. Most of the questions they're gonna ask you is on that resume. Nothing screams unprepared more than the candidate that constantly has to consult his/her resume constantly during an interview so he can be reminded of what is on there (jobs, certifications and whatnot) You might get stuck with a crazy interviewer who will dissect your resume back to back before you interview and go off tangent during the interview proper and starts throwing questions at you left, right and center based on what he saw on your resume. One of my team members is notorious for that and he did it to the girl I mentioned earlier from GA Tech. This girl handled herself beautifully and was able to parry all his questions well.

10. Dress the part. I know Nigerians won't slack in this aspect because we love dressing well, but just thought to put this out there as well. One interview while I was in college, this girl...my classmate actually showed up in jeans and sneakers and as God will help her, the interview was at the career center. The employees were the ones who sent her back and told her to go dress up more appropriately. SMH. Even if it's just a plain dress shirt and pants, make sure it's ironed, hair tamed, shoes not scuffed and you're not smelling musty. Greet everybody as you enter the room, be polite and let you body language put everybody at ease.

11. Don't be discouraged. When you apply, rejections will abound. I was getting as much as 3-6 rejection emails per day sometimes and while it can be depressing, don't sink into the depression. Apply more and there will be light at the end of the tunnel, and you'll definitely get that interview and subsequently that job you desire.

Sorry for the long ass essay. Una bye bye oo. Small oga is awake, before him scatter all I don type.

LagosismyHome:


At bold.... . Largest tree

imperiouxx:

LagosismyHome:


Twoods needs to go out more often .... i mean seriously

I worked in big global companies mainly because of my line of IT implementation....... It requires me engaging with several stakeholders across the organisation and one of my hobby is as i deal with high or low stakeholder i read their linkedin. ..... how many self have been to MIT., Yale or such. Some but actually very few and i have read several linkedins...... Most of the profiles are cut across all schools and these are people from all levels of the organisation

I agree aim for Top schools, it makes job prospect easier especially if you need H1B... however as you said many who didnt go to top schools are even doing better or same with those who did

sirRiddy:
OjaP msnas get a room and stop derailing.

OjaP:


Please slide in as much as you want

Fatezee:


Wow i envy you, i have always wish i could put signs on my yoruba compositions

sirRiddy:

see the slay mama flirting with married man. I pirry you

Fatezee:



Lol... Maybe he does not like girls sliding into his dm, the other way round instead

sirRiddy:

OjaP:


UT Knoxville is a great school just like Oludare rightly said. The engineering school is also associated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). ORNL prides herself as the largest science and energy national laboratory in the Department of Energy system by surface and by annual budget. One of their most funded research areas is Energy Science and Nuclear Engineering. Depending on what your research interests are; you may want to go for an energy science concentration for the PhD in Electrical Engineering.

I am in my 3rd year of PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering at UTK myself. I am researching energy systems and climate. ORNL is so big on this and would suggest you look into energy science too - that's the future. Alternatively, research on data analytics or big data and see yourself working in one of the biggest financial institutions or IT companies upon graduation. You can thank me later.

Go Vols!!

adundayo:
[
200k house in atlanta is considered a good neighborhood with good school district.
Pls be specific with your arguments.

bameyi:
Empty barrel make the most noise and this is my zip code 9212 1 those of you that can use Google look it up. I don't live in ghetto..
See me on Google Maps! https://maps.app./RHznb325q09cVwzj2..
When Nigerian gives bad advice instead of the to back off they want fight to dead. I just shared my location make the too share their local @MsMa's and @SirJeffry

egbabiekperemo1:


Naija people and bragging. .. smh... you look like someone living from hand to mouth. Seriously.

bameyi:


MaMa's this trend was started by Sirjeffry how another person post come take concern you..I went and looked at the trend there's no place I quoted you.. so how does SirJeffry wahala come concern you.

SirJeffry:
You must live in the East Coast to have bought house at that price.
Even Condos in some part of SoCal aren't sold at that price now.

bameyi:


Let's address this do I have to drive a $45k car to be comfortable in the US With a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $23,905, the 2017 Toyota Camry holds its starting price from the previous year. At $24,675, the Camry SE model is also a solid value with more distinctive looks. XLE and the sportier XSE begin at the same price, $27,145.. am comfortable with that.

I live in a $200k house three bed room you wand the detail of that too .. so when we Nigerian try to make things look different let's stop it most Nigeria drives Camry. Which is good enough for me.. woman that refuse to marry me because I don't live a $400k house na her problem be that..

Guys make we stop to dey show too big.. this woman wey we dey show big boy for. Nigerian statics they will arrive here and live your ass after 5 years.

InvertedHammer:


Like I said, even if you have $800k to throw down, they will give you so much wahala that you may think it is a crime to have cash. IRS will get involved. Franchise Tax board gets in on the game. The paperworks alone will be out of this world. You will have a whole lot of explanations to do. Let's assume you saved all your money, you better have a paper trail to prove it. If you wire anything above $3000 from your account, the agencies will be alerted. The system is set up that way. It is a win-win for the bankers. US hates people who hoard cash.

Can you rent an apartment without credit? Yes. Throw down six months rent. The problem is that most people don't have it.
Just about any well-meaning organization bemoans the fact that finance and money are not taught in High Schools to educate people. If they do, it will be bad business for banks. Banks do not count on your interest rates to make money. They are hoping for one late payment(even if by one day) to jack up interest rate from 2% to 21%. They bait slackers into financial slavery. You finance a car and miss a few months. Thanks God. They repossess the car and all money paid is lost. It is a win-win for everyone involved in the finance industry. The best part is that you become a slave at work. You will not want to rock the boat to avoid domino effect in your lives.

Thisnut:
bro with due respect,
someone living in America will not be so ignorant to write this trash. You must be one of those African analyst who sit back home and know all what's happening all over the world.

Btw, 800k will give you a manson any where in fucking southern cali.

SirJeffry:
My dear, the mortgage I pay for a standard home in this same SoCal, my newly transfered colleague pays for a mansion in Texas. City of Carson jagaja walahi.

I wish I have time to take a front view pic of a rat house somebody bought for nearly $800k in my neighborhood last week.