What a container can take is limited by its capacity.

My advised is that you seek for more knowledge and information. Through this, you will be enlightened.

vibrant99:
Don't misunderstand me brother...

My problem is with 2.2 and HND lower getting a FUNDING.....

It sounds like a Convert prostitute, ...

I have no issues with your high flying status.

@vibrant99.

Why are you this negative? No grain on positive. Why are you discouraging others? If it is not working for you, you don't have to drag others down. Are you been paid to be an obstacle to others. I pray that God touch you.

I wish you a blessed day. Regards

US has over 5000 approved universities. Not all the universities requires you to have 2.1 to get admitted. Did I made mistakes? Yes I did and you learn from your mistakes. Have you ever asked why you have many Asian in US/Canadian universities? Why do this universities have so many Asian professors in STEM departments? Are they superior to us in knowledge? No they are no but they believe in helping themselves and sharing information freely. You need to see how they live as a community. Nigerian? We are wonderful made. We hold information to ourselves just because we want everyone to see us as the boss. What is so bad in all of us been at the top?

Below are few universities with admitting with GPA 2.75 (2.2) Mathematics Department with full funding at at least $10k stipend. Check it out.

1) Georgia State University

2) Georgia Southern University.

3) University of Akron

4) Minnesota State University, Mankato.

I am overwhelmed with gladness that there are well meaning Nigerians coming to my defense. I am touched beyond words.

@vibrant99, don’t start with questioning the motives but try an open your mind. With God’s grace, great opportunities are possible. The focus of the story was not about me but to encourage people and debunk some untrue believe systems that we have in Nigerian.

Yes, I had 2.2 from Nigeria. Yes, I was almost 40 years when I left the shore of Nigeria with my family and I got fully funded scholarship. My tuition was waived till $25, therefore all I have to pay every semester is $25 and fee which was less than $800 every semester. I was paid $15,000 stipend every year for 9 hours/week tutoring students in Maths Lab. Yes, i subtained my family with the stipend by knowing what to spend on. So you are wrong, I did not attended a low rated university in US neither do I graduate for Arabic language ( what is wrong if I graduated in Arabic, it might not be a good program to you, but that might be the strength of others). For your information, I graduate with Masters of Science degree in Mathematics (Option in Statistics) with a very good GPA. I left US not because I was unable to get admitted into US universities for my PhD. In fact I got over 5 universities admissions fully funded with the least stipend of 25k per year. I left because of the broken immigration laws in US and because my wife could not work but can do so legally in Canada.

Again, your statement about Canada regarding me is incorrect. I got a very generous stipend for my Ph.D program in top 10 university in Canada. I had a stipend of 36k per year as Research Assistant and extra 18k working as a Teaching Assistant. Yes, I finished my coursework with GPA of 4.0/4.0. I don’t believe for a second that I am extraordinarily. All these is possible with the assistance of God and it could happened to anybody.

Few people had contacted my over the years through this platform. I have been able to render my assistance as much as I can do. They even have my contact details which shown the authenticity of my story.

Again @vibrant 99, please do not tie people down because you don’t believe them. If you have not seen witness it, that does not mean it is not happening. My story is not unique, I have countless stories of Nigerian with merger beginnings achieving impossible high.

Lastly, the crux of sharing my stories is that nothing can stop you for achieving your dream. Not your starting place, not your age, not your accent. Only you can stop yourself.

Please hold on, keep working, keep believing. God will surely make a wake and you will smile. See you at the top !!!!!!!!

Good day All,

I will like to encourage sometime with a little about my story.
I graduated from a Nigerian university with a second-class lower division degree in STEM at 24 years and finished NYSC at 25 years. Unfortunately, as peculiar with Nigerian environmental, I got my first job at 28 years after 4 years in the wilderness. The delay in getting a job was my mediocre degree (i.e., finishing with 2.2) and lack of working experience at 25 years (how will I get the necessary work experience when I have never been employed).

Fast forward to a decade later, after working for over a decade, got frustrated with Nigeria society placing a limited to what you can achieve, I decide to make a change to my family situation by returning to school in US/Canada. Initially, there were few obstacles, I got admitted into a fully-funded master’s degree program in the US with an average stipend by God’s grace. I left the shore or Nigeria with my entire family and started the program at 40 years. I graduated with a master’s degree with a GPA of 3.56/4.0 at 42 years. Fortunately, I was admitted into a fully-funded Ph.D. program in Canada’s top university with a very generous stipend and started the program at 42 years. I have currently completed the program required coursework with a GPA of 4.0/4.0, passed candidacy exam, five publications, and 3 manuscripts under review in top peer-review journals.

What is my point?
Despite where you might have started from, the environment you live might not be favorable to you, age or family commitments might be barriers. However, do not give up, please hold on to your dream. The grace of God will see you through. If you quit today, you have failed tomorrow.

Please note
My story is not unique; I have seen many tremendous journeys of beautiful people who do not quit/give up and achieved great heights. I am sharing my story to encourage you that no barrier is big or strong enough to stop you from achieving your dream.

I hope to challenge someone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JustMellow:


Hello Neverlosehope,

There is no need for the apology, I absolutely get your point, spot on. However, we both share our opinions based on two different perspectives. I gave mine from the viewpoint of Nigeria's academic system. I honestly appreciate the enlightenment. It would be educative and helpful to prospective applicants if you can give a detailed outline or break on the points that the reference letter should contained. This would enable prospective applicants guide their lecturers/professors on how to go about it.

Some might dispute, but securing admission these days isn't that easy as it may seem due to some minor or other hindsight.

Stay blessed sir.

Hi Ayodeji,

Break the reference into three sections as below

1) Academic excellence

This section should discuss your grade, awards/scholarship/recommendation you received during your degree(s). This section should highlight how good you are academically and there is nothing as been humble but blow your whistle as loud as possible.

2) Research potential

Here, the reference should focus on your ability to conduct research. Discuss the title, objectives and results of your thesis. Do you have any published article? Discuss it here. Also, if you had attended any conference/workshop, you should discuss it here. If you applying for a program that is thesis based, those reviewing your reference want to know your ability to successfully conduct research, which make this section a good place to shine.

3) Leadership quality
This section should focus on your work experience, volunteering activities within the community or sport activities that you had received any award. Also, this is a place to showcase your leadership quality such as part of students' leadership, part of an organisation in the community. If you have adequate and quality work experience, this is the place to highlight them. Discuss what you had done which made a difference. As little as selflessly assisting someone/community to overcome a difficult challenge might be the main reason the admission committee decided to accept you into the program

To assist your referees, I will suggest you write a draft and forward it to them. This ensure that anybody writing a reference for you can adequately do justice to it. Please take it as important as possible since it might be the main deciding factor in your admission

Regards

JustMellow:


Hello Jarulecole,

You are still not getting the point. If after you've approached the Department and has agreed to assist you, you would be automatically assigned to a lecturer who will send a reference letter on your behalf with the institutional email. Your academic or research ability can be determined by the lecturer through your transcript or academic records with the Department.




Hello Neverlosehope,

In some cases where certain situations proves difficult, other means would improvise. Most times, in the absence of a said familiar lecturer/professors who taught a student, a reference letter can still be well drafted to quantitate the student's academic and research ability (not necessarily the student's aptitude) by another lecturer/professor that would be assigned by the Department using the student's transcript or academic records in the Department's archive to re-assess the student.

So, there is nothing like vague and inappropriate.

All the best.

Hi,

I was just stating my opinion based on experience and knowledge. I had a masters from US and PhD from Canada. Also, I have add opportunities to review graduate admission with professor and peer review of scholarship applications. So, I know a little about how graduate admission works. Especially for thesis programs, the quality of reference is one of the reason for application rejection. In some department, the weight given to academic reference is as high as 30%. I worked for over a decade before applying for masters and I fully understand your points. I had to be proactive on how my letter of recommendation/reference was written after 5 rejections. I learnt more about the mistakes students makes on this topic after starting masters in the US.

Again, I was just trying to correct a misgiving about the weight of letter of recommendation/reference. If my earlier response was harsh, I do apologize. Regards

JustMellow:


Hello Zoeeee,

I don't know who might be available or open to vet your letter for you, but you can as well ask here openly or check with Obehi44, Stevensen, Raufudolf etc

Good luck

Send it to me so that I can assist you. Regards

Stevenssen:

I think half a page is okay. Go straight to the point, catch her attention early. Good luck.

Do you have a topic/area you are interested in working on? Send me a message and I can put you through on how to write the research plan. Thanks

jarulecole:
Thanks, some schools only take online reference so you need official institution email, paper own can be sorted out by printing and take to the school and sort that one out and post it yourself to the school.

Incorrect response. The reference from supervisor carries so much weight in many universities. It can be a tie breaker in getting admission in so many situations. You need professor/lecturer who knows you very well and who can write about your academic, research and leadership qualities. Writing that you attended a department is a vague and inappropriate letter of reference.

Declaration: I worked in three different bankers for over a decade. My last role was a team lead in a unit of Internal Control of a bank and part of the responsibilities of my unit was liaison to different embassies.

Response to the issue: The major request for embassies is the confirmation of authenticity of bank statements (which indirectly includes the closing balance and other areas of the submitted bank statement). This confirmation of authenticity is as at the last date on the submitted bank statement and not the current date. If the last date on the banks statement was July 31, 2019 and the request was made on September 16, 2019. The confirmation will be genuineness of the statement as at July 31, 2019 (note: not direct stating the closing balance but the response indirectly includes if the closing balance is correct or not) and nothing related to September 16, 2019. Again, banks will not state the closing bank, but rather to answer yes or no to the authenticity of the statement. This role is part of the statutory duties of banks and it is taken with extreme confidentiality and seriousness. Staff had been sack for sloppy job on the confirmation of authenticity.

Regards

benque:
Sir I went to banking school, even though I nor finally work for bank, to the best of my knowledge the bank will not disclose your current closing balance to the embassy, only confirm what was printed in the statement since you printed it and gave it to them.

From what I see, the only way the embassy can get your current closing balance is if they suspect that the money was put there just for show and they request an updated bank statement.

This is why it's still good for people to leave the money there or even add to it until they have been approved and received their passports.

Also, if you have a study visa which is a just a temporary visa, you can apply from that country.

Thanks

trishaben:

This is very wrong I.e the example you gave. If you're on a visiting visa in any country, you cannot apply for visa from there. The only instance you can apply for visa from a foreign country is if : you have a residence permit. Or work permit. Other than that. They will reject you based on immigration status in country of residence.

Medical was exempted for mine family since we have being in the US for more than 2 years when we applied for Canada visas.

Thanks

Higherground1:
How did you do medical in the US? Did your wife do medical too?

I am an example. I applied with my entire family at the same time and we all got the visa. I did not support my applications with any landed property whatsoever. The only financial support which I included was my PhD funding, however, I wrote a very detailed SOP. Also, I wrote a detailed SOP for each member of my family with reasons for us to travel together. Most developed countries place so much value on family support.

I have advised others after mine to apply with their family at the same time and I have seen few success over last year.

Thanks

DMerciful:
Perhaps they have other strong home ties. We are not saying it's impossible, we are only talking of increase in probability of being granted.

This thinking is incorrect.

I am presently in Canada studying with my family. We applied together and our visas were approved together. Also, I have many of my colleagues who applied together with their family and their visa were approved.

A family of mine started his program in UBC this January. He applied for his study visa along with his family at the same time and all the visas were approved. He came in for Masters degree and not PhD.

Thanks

Frankrobbn1:




Hi gig1005,

As other members of the thread has suggested. In her next application, she should apply alone. Once she has successfully gotten her TRV, she can then file an application for her accompanying dependents to Canada. This process will boost her chances of securing a TRV as well as showing that she has significant ties to her home country. Having said that, It's very difficult for her accompanying dependents to be refused a TRV (kids) and SOWP (spouse) after she must have received a study permit because the Canada’s commitment to family unification clearly stated that international students and their families have the opportunity to experience Canadian life together. Whether it is for a few months or for several years, international students will be comforted to know that their loved ones can be nearby as they pursue their dreams of obtaining a Canadian education. Above all, she should start now by putting up a cogent letter of explanation that will address the reason for her visa refusal and convincingly demonstrate that her current situation has substantively changed and why she is a bonafide applicant that would merit a study permit and depart after her visit.

Hi,

That your wife going with her kids for studies is not a reason to decline the application. I can speak from experience. I relocation from Nigeria to US for Masters about 4 years ago, my visa was approved along with my family. Lastly year, I moved to Canada from Us for PhD and I got my visa approved along with my family. I got a student visa while my wife got work permit. I always apply together with my entire family. I did not even show all these documents which you listed and our visas were approved, though, I got funding for the PhD program.

I will suggest you work on your SOP. Make it as detailed and readable as possible.


Thanks

gig1005:
Hello house, please i need advice as my wife application was declined last month. I have been following this thread silently.

After careful review of your study permit application and supporting documentation, I have determined that your application does not meet the requirements of the IRPA and IRPR. I am refusing your application on the following grounds:

1. I am not satisfied that you will leave Canada at the end of your stay, as stipulated in subsection 216(1) of the IRPR, based on your purpose of visit.

She apply with our two kids as she going for her PhD program and I already paid one-year tuition fee to the school, and I already make the fund needed in her account and the kids account because I have been running the kids account since they are little.

DOCUMENT SUBMITTED

ADMISSION DOCUMENT FROM SCHOOL
RECEIPT OF 1 YEAR TUITION FEE PAID
MY HUSBAND COMPANY CERT, SHOWING MY WIFE AS ONE OF THE DIRECTORS.
MY WIFE STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT OF 10M BAL AND MY SON ACCT SHOWING 10M BAL AS WELL
CV.
SCHOOL CERT
SOP
POLICE CERT
AFFIDAVIT OF SPONSORSHIP
SPONSOR LETTER
CONSENT LETTER
KIDS PASSPORT AND
BIRTH CERTI
MARRIAGE CERTI
HUSBAND PROPERTY DOCUMENT
HUSBAND BANK STATEMENT

Please I need advise on how to convince the VO. AND WHAT DOC DO YOU THINK I NEED TO SHOW IF AM TO PROOF THEM WRONG THAT I WILL COME BACK

I will really appreciate ur help

I will like to encourage readers with my abridged testimony. Please never lose hope regarding your dream.

My profile:

In 2013 after working in different Nigerian banks spanning over 10 years, I became frustrated and need a better life for my family. At close to 40 years old, I decided to leave my banking work and pursue Masters degree abroad. Yes, you are right, if you think that I am crazy because so many people thought I was then. However, as I said, I need a better life for my family.

Previously, I had an undergraduate degree in sciences from Nigeria with second class (2:2). In 2013, I applied to 4 universities in Canada and I was rejected in all the universities because of low GPA. A Program Administrator in one of the universities told not to waste my fund applying to universities because of my low GPA but I should focus on my job. I was depressed for a while but I decided to pick myself up and move ahead.

In 2014, I took both GRE and TOEFL and applied to 5 universities in USA. Again, I got rejection letter from all 5 universities. I was depressed but I picked myself up and moved ahead the second time. I applied to another set of 4 universities in USA and to the glory of God, I got accepted into all 4 universities. Fortunately and as God will have it, I got full tuition waiver and stipends in one of the universities. In 2015, my wife and I applied for F2 and F1 visa (US study visas) which was approved together by the grace of God. Please note, this is the same guy with low GPA and 9 rejection letter.

Fast forward to 2017, toward the end of my Masters program, I applied for PhD programs in both USA and Canada. Although, I had a few rejection letters from my PhD applicants but I got admitted into 4 top universities, 2 in USA and 2 in Canada. To crown this testimony, all the universities were funded with very generous stipends which are adequate to take care on my family living expenses.

Today June 15th 2018, both my wife open work permit and my study permit were approved after 3 weeks of application (since we are applying from US).

Lesson to learnt:

1) Never lose hope. Miracles do happens. Always believe.

2) Never let your past define your future. Your past is gone and you don't have control over it again, however, your future is still ahead and you can control it. Therefore, focus on what you can control.

3) Never let anything or anyone stop you from achieving your dream. Obstacles are part of life, nobody, low or bad GPA should not stop you . When you fall, please stand up, dust yourself, reload and move forward. Quitters never win and Winners never lose.

4) Never let age put a limit on your dream. I started my masters degree at the age of 40 years and 16 years after having my BSc degree. Now, I have master degree from a reputable university and should complete my PhD degree in next few years. You can always achieve your dream at any age if you are resilient and persistent.

5) Follow your dream no matter the challenges. Redirect your steps if one is not working and keep pushing forward.

6) Above all, HOLD ON TO GOD AND KEEP BELIEVING IN HIS AMAZING POWER, GRACE AND MERCY. His is a miracle working God and He will always come through for you.

I do hope that I am able to encourage myself with my abridged testimony.