₦airaland Forum

Gokoyer0:
Hello good NLanders,

I have BSc in Chemistry ( 2nd class division) and I have Msc in Materials Science with a very good grade as well. I have some working experience before I went for my Master's degree. I tried to go to Canada to study but I was denied the Visa 2 times last year after I gave all that I had. So, I am planning to do my PhD in Chemistry (may be related to Materials or Inorganic Chemistry) in US of A.

I suggest you talk to Imperiouxx. He got his MS in Chemistry and may be able to guide you through the application process.

Good luck.

Fellow earth explorers:

Please pm me so we can rub minds together or share ideas. You are also free to drop the questions here and trust me to respond at my first convenience.

-OjaP

@ Life in America.

Sufferings to some may mean enjoyment to others.

Enjoyment to some may mean sufferings to others.

Apparently, everything in or about life is relative.



Everyone is correct about their views about America.

lobito007:
Heart-broken! Got a rejection mail from univ of rhode island, Msc mech eng. So devastated right now, as it's the only school I have applied to. Now, I'm not even motivated to apply to any other. However, I cant imagine my dream of studying in the US forfeited. Cant just jump on any school's page now to apply. Suggestions on schools that are safe for my profile would be appreciated. GRE: 300, CGPA: 3.63/5.00.

Safe schools:

California State University, Northridge.

Fresno State University.

Good schools:

University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Michigan Technological University.

The two good schools let you upload your documents ONLY for admission purpose. So, it's worth trying.

Good luck.

Mayflowa:
You flopped all the opportunities to sell yourself. You were too lukewarm. No excitement in your answer. I am sure you barely spoke loud.

I want to stress here that VO are tired of hearing about online research for school. How many school can you truly research online? Every sch online will sell itself. Wouldn't you if you had a school. Therefore online details is a very bias means of choosing a school. You would probably be deceived and frustrated once you get to the school.

One good way to find out about the school is past experiences of students and staff of the school who are by themselves experience the school. So telling VO that a formal senior or brother of yours attended the school and told you of the numerous opportunities the school offers and saying he found employment immediately he got back to nigeria because of his acquired skill sets is a good way to impress the VO. You could say he was elevated to senior position because of his contribution to his workplace six months after returning from us.

Notice I always tie my answer to nigeria because of home ties. I cannot over emphasize the importance of that.

On why you choose the course, stop saying the curriculum or class ratio. Most school in US has same structure of curriculum. Why? They all research into best structure of curriculum and they virtually turn up with same curriculum. However, current research differs per university. So ur attraction to a named researched by prof so so will be apt for you to mention. Go further to say you are in touch with the prof. If you have a good sat or GRE score. Chip in that he was happy with your CV and GRE score.

See? You are the one leading the interview. At this stage, he would be interested in your score. VO would be impressed.

I hope I made a good point. This is a money-worth points. You got it free. So be nice to someone else.

Concise, Apt, and Brilliant.

maskid

Oga Spyder,

You are doing a great job here.

How much did you get a piece of Tilcor tile?

How much is a piece of Korea that you were suppose to get?

How many pieces of these tiles make a sqm?

Does the Tilcor price of 1.7m+ include accessories and workmanship.

Thanks.

paulbets:
bro i have got rejects from utk and usf already. Just now waiting to hear from fsu, etsu, kstate. Thanks for checking on me, really been a while but i trust you are fabulous.

UTK - University of Tennessee, Knoxville?

snazzie:
Quietly i ve bn followin ds trend,amazed at d successes of d nairalanders.I got som hitches yl applyin fr admsn into schs in US fr M. Sc in mech. Engr. My gre score is 305,sat fr ielts (7.0 in speakin nd d rest 6.5), apllied into MTU nd UT dallas bth rejected my application askin mi to improve on gre nd reapply. My concerns are;1) with my score, shldnt dt b enof to gt me admitted?. 2)best i retake my gre again(3rd tym)? Or 3)i apply to oda schs and wc schs ll b suitable nd easier fr a mech engr... Nid a candid contributions.
Thanks.
@slimmy05 @warriboy21 @imperiouxx @Msnas.. Et. Al

What is your GPA?

Do you mind schools without funding?

These are important questions to ask.

purplesummer:
To add to what OjaP has suggested, you can actually have most or all of your application fees waived before applying. Several schools offered me an application fee waiver either without or upon my asking. I had to email some of my choice schools for a waiver which they happily granted. From the pool, I chose 4 schools to which I applied.

My point is, you can ask each of the schools to which you intend to apply for an application fee waiver so you won't have to waste the money you don't even have.
I hope this helps...God be with you!

Very true. Application waiver is another important thing that would help. Thanks purplesummer.

cosxzbay:
I was just wondering why someone should apply to 100 schools.please funding is not the same as LOTTO (seriously),it is usually meant for people with exceptional academic performance, but on the flip side others can as well get funding based on some stochastic factors. However, If you desire to study abroad please take your time and plan very well, look for schools that are best fit for your research interest or career objective rather than randomly applying to all schools. Maybe you should spend more time to build and increase your competitive advantage, do independent studies, get some publications and finally, ace your standardized test. At this point you will not only apply to fewer schools but rather, good and ranked schools.

"100" as used in my comment may have been exaggerated. It is an hyperbole and I was thinking that the readers would understand that it is just a figure of speech.

You have also made good points just like others and I would encourage the guy to follow or use them for a better result.

Thanks and God bless.

cuteconnec:

To be honest with you, I think you are so lucky today (no fighting or blaming or people cursing you out) and something tells me that whatever info you get from here today would be so beneficial to you. As a matter of fact, all of the comments here are valid and I would advice you make good use of them. As it has been said by others, there's no magic to funding; just research well and have good credentials.

In addition to what others have said, here are my suggestions:

- Find a list of all the schools that offer your course at PhD level in the USA.

- Email the grad coordinators of each of them (even if they are up to 20,000). At least half would respond and quarter would be positive about funding

- Apply to all of the schools that think you may qualify for scholarships or would give funding (even if they are 100 in number).

- At least one out of the over 100 schools that you applied to would give funding.

This is your last chance and I think it's a risk worth taking. So, spend all of your remaining money in paying for the application fees for these schools. The guy that WON the LOTTO recently in California played with over $10,000.

Simply, not only do you have to play the lotto to even dream of winning, you have to put in more money and permutate well to increase your chances.


N:B - Your first email to each of these professors would give the first impression. You don't want to get it wrong at all.

Good luck!!!

slimmy2005:
Public Administration.

I thought as much. He wouldn't attend all career fairs if he is into IT.

slimmy2005:
GC is OK too. But ehn, I have a friend who has attended all the career fairs. The last interstate career fair I saw his face in one of the ad posters and TV and called him immediately. My guy don tire.

What did your friend study?

aadeyi:
Currently accepting applications, u all can apply. Lol

Are you a citizen?

imperiouxx:
Good. I met GboyegaD for the first time at Paris airport. We flew together to Nigeria but we got separated without any contact during immigration checking in Lagos.

What or who separated you and GboyegaD ? Did you take Air France?

We were in Nigeria for 3 weeks; I didn't want to come back.

Good development !! However, development of solid minerals or oil and gas is much more than its availability and abundance. It is more of it being economical. You may have plenty of limestone or copper or clays; but will the investment worth it? If in doubt, ask any of the companies that won the bids for bitumen exploration in Agbabu, Ondo State. They rushed into bidding at the mention of bitumen, extra heavy oil and tar sands. By the time they did their economics, they found out that it wasn't a good investment (at a time the price of oil was over $100). Now tell me why a reasonable government or business would put his/her money in bitumen exploration when the price of oil is at $30 pbbl. It just does not make any economic sense.

profkehinde:
Hello intending students of the US,
I greet you and I have been studying this forum for quite a while, and couldn't figure out I could really ask a question until just recently where I discovered I could sign up and ask questions.
Yes, I am a professor of Internal Medicine from one of the Nigerian Teaching Hospital and I will like to ask u this question.
My wife who is a teacher recently ( in December 27th, 2015 ) travelled to the US with my last child who is just 5 years old to celebrate the christmas with a friend of hers in the US.
I actually bought their flight ticket ( delta airlines ) where her return back to Nigeria is supposed to be Jan 25th.
Besides, she suddenly decided to stay longer during this visit, probably she planned to take longer rest. Her intention has been that she will spend around 5 months before coming back to Nigeria, she was given 6 months at the POE.
Based on the above, I phoned the airline about changing her return data to May 2016, but the airlines refused, they said her ticket type does not support such lengthy extension.
Since my wife has decided to stay till May, and she might have to forfeit her return flight, meaning I will have to pay for their ONE WAY ticket back home in May, 2016.
However, I intended visiting her in a week time, right in the US where I plan to spend just 4 weeks.
My question:
Won't I have issues at the POE if asked why my wife and child still remain in the US and why she decided to forfeit her return flight. I hope you understand my question sir. Remember her i-94 indicated she has to return back to Nigeria around June, 2016. Won't I have problems at the POE as why she suddenly choosed to forfeit her return flight ?
Thanks

They haven't overstayed so I doubt if you would have any issues at the POE. If asked about your family, you can say you guys were suppose to come to the USA together but couldn't because of your tight work schedule. This means you will be joining them and hope to return to Nigeria together. In all, be honest with the POE officers.

imperiouxx:
Are you guys back in US?

Yes boss.

ProfTPE:
This is actually a good time to study oil and gas related courses. A lot could/will change in the next 18-24 months, and I think it's good someone is done with school when the industry picks up. Oil price volatility didn't start today, I think the IOCs and NOCs got too comfortable with oil above a 100 USD. It's understandable departmental funding will be reduced, but the truth here is this; research is a continuum. Oil at 35 today doesn't meant research will stop. I read the post that recommended switching to another discipline...That's not easy when you've put in five years for UG. We may not see oil at 100 for the foreseeable future; but it'll definitely rise above the current situation.

Okay. Good luck !!

haffikem:
It's a simple advice take it or leave it !

Shine your eye well well

While I agree that this may not be the best time to study anything oil and gas related, telling people to run away from the petroleum engineering department at University of Louisiana, Lafayette without any justification won't convince anyone or make prospective applicants to follow your advice.

I have friends who graduated from the geology and petroleum engineering departments in the school working for good oil companies. I have also met many ULL alumni in several oil and gas meetings/conferences including the AAPG and SPE. I have also attended industry trainings with several of them and they all seem to know what they are doing. Few of my co-workers graduated from ULL as well and these guys are very smart.

Many other reasons for your hatred of the department maybe unavailability of funds to international student or favoritism as you may call it. I need to warn you to expect these kinds of treatment even in real life and at your work place; these are not enough reasons not to enroll in the department. I am still curious to know why you think folks shouldn't apply or enroll in the petroleum engineering graduate program in the school though.


-Ojap.

haffikem:
OjaP, if you come to the dept you will be like ; huh (your jaw will drop )

What will make it drop? Is it that there are not enough professors? Or you guys attend classes under trees? I am lost.

haffikem:
I won't advice my enemy to come do petroleum engineering in ULL.

Why?

haffikem:
Greetings to you too !

First thing you have to do is to get a WES evaluation of your 2 2 transcript .then get a good score in the standardized exams of both GRE and TOEFL. Before now applying for schools.

But in my own opinion I will strongly advise you leave petroleum engineering for now and try either mechanical which is a broader engineering and will give you limitless opportunities.

The industry is really down and diversification should be what you should be looking at. Abi you no dey watch cnn ?

I am talking from my opinion as the hype about petroleum is highly exaggerated. I was doing masters in petroleum but with the current market situations most companies don't fund schools again. Nobody told me to run without looking back. I am now in Electrical department.

Just do the needful .

You're making sense. Mechanical or Industrial Engineering would be a good alternative.

Anyone here at Cal. State, Long Beach? I'm on campus and would like to meet with NL'ers here if any. Maybe we can do lunch or something. Please let me know.

marshal02:
Started making my school preparations already. The passion of the students in my school is amazing.. I am already a part of the team.
Go Crimson.

Congrats. Are you going to Harvard?

godG:
Prof! E ma jo ke. I be your boy o. When you write, some of us wey be learner go dey read ni o.

Just keeping it in its 100 though

godG:
To avoid that, always write in simple sentences. Quite a good number of people tend to get prosaic with complex structures.

I always respect your mode and style of writing. Since a mirror won't see himself; permit me to highlight some of your qualities:

- No run-on sentences.

- No redundancy (You hit the nail on the head and move on).

- You match your verb tenses always.

- Logical flow

Your strongest point is your ability to use very few words in driving home your point. You are able to summarize a-100 page book in two pages without leaving out or missing the most essential details.

I want to be like you when I grow up.

OjaP:
Yes.... and a U.S citizen or LPR can't file for someone who jumped the fence or wasn't inspected at the border to adjust status while in the USA.
Thank you.

LagosNIV:
The keyword there was 'results.'

The keyword in my comment above was "Yes" meaning I agreed with you but also raising another point.

I only asked for you to also talk about the issue of past sins forgiven for people who weren't inspected at the border and who wants to adjust status in America. I asked you to explain better so people don't get it twisted since the subject of discussion was "you can get married and adjust status even if you jumped the fence". You get?

LagosNIV:
Right... and they are not legal permanent residents or U.S. citizens.

Yes.... and a U.S citizen or LPR can't file for someone who jumped the fence or wasn't inspected at the border to adjust status while in the USA.

Thank you.

Lagos NIV,

I think you should make this issue of "sins forgiven" clear so people don't get confused.

The USCIS states that illegal immigrants "who jumped the fence", who were not inspected by the border officials, were not admitted, or paroled into the United States do not qualify for AOS. In this case, I would say their past sins are not forgiven.

Unless they go back to their home country to file(?)