₦airaland Forum

Hi All,
It's really been a while I've been on here. Came across this again as I was searching for some info online for my upcoming visit to Naija. I was in many of your shoes almost 7 years ago and did go through some of the comments on here.
I see that many people on here are using Uncles as sponsor, while there is nothing wrong logically from using an uncle or some other extended family member, please be aware that the embassy frowns at this. The question in their minds is that "Why would an Uncle want to sponsor you, doesn't he have his own kids to sponsor?" This is because they know that sponsorship from an uncle or extended family or from any source other than your direct family member i.e mom, dad, blood sister/brother isn't a reliable source. In fact Brother and Sister sponsoring you will still raise their eyebrows.
Not sure when things changed but about 6 to 7 years ago when I was applying for my student visa, we were advised to avoid used of anyone besides our parents as much as possible. I do understand that not everyone's parents can sponsor them but if you must use a source other than them, make sure your answer goes with a valid reason.

For example, I read about someone on here who used an uncle because his/her father was late and has been sponsoring their education since then, now that is an answer with a valid reason.

There is someone who applied to California State Uni Sacramento, That was the school i attended, also for MS in Mechanical engineering with concentration in Manufacturing also, you can contact me for details regarding your next appointment if you need more tips regarding the school and your future interview.

For the Person who was denied in abuja because the lady kept typing, One thing to learn from that encounter is that Americans have the shortest temper (they might not show it like we naija that frown when angered, they will smile to you even after you've angered or pissed them off), while she was typing, you shouldn't have stopped her to ask if she was listening to you, that may have come out as being rude to her (even if that wasn't your intention) and she probably blocked you off after that and didn't want to listen to anything else you had to say because she was pissed. even if they seem not to be listening to you, DO NOT ASSUME so and just keep answering the question. Believe me, they are listening to you even though they may be typing at the same time. It's their job and they have been trained to multitask.

Hopefully some of you may get a thing or two from my epistle here. I apologize for the long comment but I felt a few of you might find it helpful.

Wish you all the best in your upcoming Interviews.

imperiouxx:
Hello friends. More grace to those keeping this thread going.

To everyone that got the visa since the last time I was able to do this...cheers! https://www.mysmiley.net/imgs/smile/party/party0016.gif

Another crazy semester done. Few more to go for me....

All eyez on that white coat! https://www.mysmiley.net/imgs/smile/characters/character0112.gif

My Oga, yes oo get that coat make i see reason to come chop rice and "shicken" for NY

Hello Everyone

I got denied f1 visa in Dec 17 2018 and Jan 2 2019. Should I proceed in reapplying mid year. Schools resumed in January and am thinking of deferring to the next session.
Should I hold on for now. Because I don’t want any red flag with those guys I don’t want to look desperate. I just prefer USA as school choice that’s all

For PhD hopefuls in Engineering


Looking for Ph.D. students
The Sutter group has immediate openings for PhD students and Postdoctoral Research Associates:

1. Immediate openings for PhD students interested in Novel Materials and Materials for Energy Applications. The project is on synthesis/fabrication of new materials, notably core-shell nanoparticles and nanowires, 2D materials – graphene, BN and transition metal dichalcogenides. State-of-the-art in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods will be used for studying the properties of these nanoscale objects, and how they behave differently from bulk materials.

To apply, please submit application materials (CV, brief statement of research experience/interests) to Prof. Eli Sutter (esutter@unl.edu).

2. Postdoctoral Position in "Nanoscale Optoelectronics and Charge Transport in 2D and Layered Quantum Materials"


The Sutter Research Group (http://unlcms.unl.edu/engineering/mme/eli-sutter/welcome) has immediate openings for several Postdoctoral Research Associates in a project on nanoscale optoelectronics and charge transport of 2D and layered quantum materials. This ambitious project aims to break new ground in designing novel semiconducting materials and heterostructures, measuring and ultimately manipulating charge transport, light-matter interactions, and many-body quasiparticles at length scales below the diffraction limit.


The successful candidate will be an experimentalist with a Ph.D. in Physics, Materials Science, Engineering, or a related field. A solid understanding of the physics of charge transport and optoelectronic excitations is required. Desired experience and skills include: (1) Device microfabrication; (2) Precision transfer of 2D materials; (3) Room-temperature and/or cryogenic electronic transport measurements; (4) Photoluminescence, photocurrent, Raman or other optoelectronic spectroscopy; or (5) Transmission electron microscopy and cathodoluminescence.


To apply, please submit application materials (CV, publication list, brief (<1 page) statement of research experience, specifically referencing expertise aligned with the above list of desired skills) to Prof. Peter Sutter (psutter@unl.edu).

For those interested in studying medicine, this is a rare cool news from one of the top universities in US
The School of Medicine at New York University is waiving a complete tuition fee for all Medical Students worth $55,018
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/08/16/nyu-school-of-medicine-now-tuition-free/

wintabotom:
Hello Everyone

I got denied f1 visa in Dec 17 2018 and Jan 2 2019. Should I proceed in reapplying mid year. Schools resumed in January and am thinking of deferring to the next session.
Should I hold on for now. Because I don’t want any red flag with those guys I don’t want to look desperate. I just prefer USA as school choice that’s all

What were the questions asked and what were your replies. If you can post your transcript, we might be able to assist with a thing or two regarding approach to your situation.

angelajuni:
In case you want to pay for your Sevis and you don't know how to you can email me on emekanwosu12@gmail.com or send me a message on WhatsApp @ 937-956-3801 for assistance with that. Thanks

I can also help with visa and admissions advice.

Your name is Emeka Nwosu but you have a female username? It is well.
Anyhow, i'd advise you don't put your phone numbers up in public fora, just in the case of a future occurrence

With the high influx of people applying for the US visa, I saw a post on part 13 which I think we could all go through

I should use this opportunity to congratulate the lucky pundits in the house that have been offered admission. I’ve been on this platform for a while noticing things as usual. I’m indeed happy because the mission of this platform is being fulfilled. I’m pretty sure potential grad students are seriously looking forward to hearing ‘welcome to America’ but these are the few points you should be aware of before leaving Nigeria. My first question is this, are you sure you really want to accept this admission offer? Oh! You’re surprised right? I’ll explain elaborately on this based on my experience. This time last year, I got a plethora of admission offers that I became bemused on the one to accept, and the ones to let go. I got an undergraduate degree in industrial chemistry from the university of Lagos, but I have never for once cherished what I studied. Throughout my university days, I never gained anything, I was never serious because I hated the smell of chemicals which emanated from the chemistry lab. I’ve always wished I studied chemical engineering. Upon graduation, I said to myself this is the best time to fulfill your chemical engineering dream. The truth is if I had known, I would have applied for an MS in chemical engineering, but because I wasn’t advised and based on ‘do it all by yourself’ phenomenon, I fell into a trap, and it took various deliberations before I was able to get out of the trap I got myself into. I knew I wasn’t going to get into top schools that offer PhD in chemical engineering because of my industrial chemistry background. I applied into 6 or 8 schools (not too sure), I applied for PhD in chemical engineering in three low ranked schools(with research areas that I don’t even like or have a fundamental knowledge of), I was eager to leave this country because I felt this country doesn’t have anything good for the youths. My first admission offer (PhD Chemistry) was from Michigan Technological University with a fully funded, amazing stipend package. I was like ‘wawuu’ I saluted myself, and said to myself, ‘Tobi, welcome to America’ I didn’t even wait for the second offer before I grabbed the first one and accepted it. Seriously, I made the biggest mistakes of my life by accepting that offer because I didn’t do enough research before; (I) showing interest in PhD, because research isn’t my thing, I’m always and will forever be in love with calculations, (II) applying into Michigan Tech, because the research areas are not what I consider funny. Not that I don’t like the research areas, I HATE the research areas. Plus, Michigan is a cold state, I went during summer, but the weather was unbearable for me, it was extremely cold and I’m allergic to cold. There was a day I was coming from school, I cried and said to myself, ‘Tobi, who sent you here! You want to come and die in America right?’ Plus, Michigan is more of a white man state, I was the only black in my department. Michigan is one of the coldest states in US, and that would have been a capital NO for me if I had done my research before leaving Nigeria. Also, I loathe trying new species of food. I’m a typical Ekiti man who’s used to our cultural foods, but it was difficult in Michigan because I couldn’t find any Nigerian store. I had no choice but to result into consuming biscuits, burger and chips for three weeks. There was a day I instructed one of my friends in Atlanta, Georgia to buy our normal foodstuffs in Nigeria for me in Atlanta, because there are quite good African stores in Atlanta that sell Nigerian foodstuffs. By the time I calculated the cost of shipping the foodstuffs to Michigan, I lost interest.
If you’ve made up your mind to leave Nigeria, please and please consider the following piece of advice;
(I) Do a thorough research on the school you’re going to, the state, and means of transportation. I faced a lot of challenges transporting myself because MTU is located in a small town. There was no train(I think train is the cheapest means of transportation in US), no BRT bus. I was left with two options, it’s either I board a taxi(very expensive) or I trek to school. My apartment was far from school, and what I did most was to trek.
(II) Please ask yourself this genuine question, why am I leaving for US? Are you interested in going to US because you’re tired of being jobless or underemployed in Nigeria? Are you going to US because you want to get a green card? Are you going to US because you have flair for international education, and research? Are you going to US because you just want to leave this country? Let me answer the questions one after the other. If the reason is because you’re underemployed or jobless, have you tried being self employed? https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/women-enterpreneurs/affiong-williams-makes-forbes-africa-s-billionaires-list/155376.html Did you know you can get grants to finance your unprecedented ideas? I’m very sure most people know Iroko TV, the CEO got grants to finance his idea and he’s a lionized young billionaire in Nigeria. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/b02cab5e-c378-11e5-b3b1-7b2481276e45 if you’re not called to be self employed, please and please, don’t go there because many are called but few are chosen. On a more serious note, what attracted me to US was the amazing stipends grad students get, but I was wrong when I got there. When I got my I-20, I was uncontrollably happy when I found out that I would be earning close to 500K naira per month after being fully funded. I was like I will have enough savings at the end of the month. Unbeknownst to me, US isn’t Ojuelegba where you can survive on 50K per month. I was staying in a one room apartment (three persons share one bathroom. Bathroom is also known as toilet in US.) and after calculating the yearly rent, I would be paying close to 2 million naira every year in what we call face me and face you apartment in Nigeria. That’s not all, I was also responsible for my health insurance, and other payments that would be made known to you when you get to the school. I realized the pay wasn’t what I anticipated. What’s left was passion, which I never had for the course I was given and the area of research that was available. I give crocodile smile whenever people tell me that they would work their asses off by combining multiple jobs in US. The truth is as a GA or RA, you will never have quality time for yourself coupled with the fact that you have projects you’ll be constantly working on. Disregard any of such information that tells you that as a grad students, you’ll have time for yourself. Especially students with science background (Eyin omo science student) be prepared to spend most of your day in the lab. If the pay is the reason why you’re going to US, please disabuse yourself from such fallacy. If you belong to the second category of people going to US because of green card, please think twice before leaving Nigeria. My first question is, are you ready to deny yourself of true love by marrying a citizen because you want to become a denizen? The bitter truth is not everybody would get citizenship through the means of securing a job upon graduation is US. Do you know how many US citizens are unemployed? The ones amongst us that might be lucky to get a good job in US upon graduation are the ones in top ranked schools. If you’re eyeing an unranked or low ranked school, have you thought of what would become of you upon graduation. Let me share a brief story of two persons with you. When I got to Houghton, Michigan, the only good experience I had was to meet some folks that graduated from Unilag. They told me the story of a Nigerian guy that concluded his PhD in MTU and returned to Nigeria to become a lecturer in Gombe State University. At first, I was like God forbid but on the long run, I saw it coming. I was lucky enough to meet the second guy, (this one is not them say) the guy got an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Unilag and proceeded to MTU for his PhD. He graduated the semester before I clocked in in MTU. We got talking and he said he had to settle for a post doctoral program when he couldn’t secure a job. As I’m talking to you, he’s a post doc student in the department of chemical engineering. My question to him is what next after post doc? Unto my next question, are you going to US because you have flair for research? The people that belong to this category are the ones that would survive the grad school heat in US. Please don’t hesitate to accept that admission offer if you belong to this category.
Conclusions:
(1) I would advise potential admission seekers to apply for an MS program instead of the over prophesied PhD program because you can still bear unforeseen circumstances for 18 months instead of 5 years.
(2) If you’re interested in getting a good job in US upon graduation, please and please target top ranked schools in your individual programs.
(3) If you’re interested in the green Pali, please don’t lead anybody on in Nigeria before leaving because I must confess to you, black Americans are the true definition of beauty. You’ll definitely find a partner in US, but don’t ever make it obvious that you’re interested in them because of your ulterior motive.
(4) If you’re interested in pursuing a PhD program, please be sure that you love research, be sure you’re in love with your area of research because PhD is over demanding. PhD would take everything called life away from you for five years. This is not to scare you. You can do it because many Nigerians that aren’t better than you have done it. But don’t deceive yourself.
(5) If you’re more concerned about being a billionaire, please neglect grad school, and invest in your idea for five years instead of spending it in grad school with nothing positive at the end but a degree.
(6) If you have a good job or earn well in Nigeria, please and please stick to your job, don’t resign o because there’s no assurance that you’ll get something close to that upon graduation.
(7) For those interested in international education, please be very passionate about it. The end result is good. Imagine a situation where Dr would be added to your name. Oh my! it’ll be so sweet being called Dr Tobi Crowns in future. But don’t ever let go of your dreams because of grad school.
Conclusion: grad school is only interested in passionate applicants. PhD program is very demanding and be ready to pay the price. A PhD program in ABC is more demanding than BS in Electrical electronics engineering because you won’t just learn the alphabetical order but you would learn why A is A and why X has to come before Y and why B is called B and why M is an inverted W. Be prepared! Be prepared!! Be prepared!!! Grad school is interesting, but demanding.
Ask yourself this question, ‘why am I leaving Nigeria’? Please be sincere with your response. God bless you.

Excerpt from a friend's experience

Source: https://www.nairaland.com/4225931/general-u.s.a-student-visa-enquiries-part/116#64852032
credit: Gunnerson

Olalekank:
With the high influx of people applying for the US visa, I saw a post on part 13 which I think we could all go through




Source: https://www.nairaland.com/4225931/general-u.s.a-student-visa-enquiries-part/116#64852032
credit: Gunnerson

This is why I was asking that lady the other day if she's really ready for a 5yr investment. Moreso,she's going for CS

CuteRedd:
Secondly, i have reached out to alumni's in my proposed program on linkedin for tips etc, I found out for Boston University the rate of Africans applying to that course is very low. Infact 2016 set just had 1 African a Sudanese.... Spoke to her and found out she didn't even have the "top notch GRE score needed" Same with a friend who just got into Harvard but diversity, etc played a part.

Hi,please can you give pointers to how you easily locate this people on LinkedIn. Been trying to connect with current students too,I just don't know how to find them with LinkedIn

BikeMan:
This is why I was asking that lady the other day if she's really ready for a 5yr investment. Moreso,she's going for CS

It's not easy man

Except you're willing to commit 5 years, even 5 years here in Nigeria is not easy...

Olalekank:
It's not easy man

Except you're willing to commit 5 years, even 5 years here in Nigeria is not easy...

It's necessary if you're like studying Biology or something and you want to go into academics but some roles might just do good with just MS. 5years isn't a joke for the weary. Another thing the OP hammered was top ranked schools,we must give it our best shots.

Hello everyone. Please I need your input on this...the school I want to apply to requires me to upload a softcopy of my transcript first but I don't have it. My school can only send directly to them but not softcopy. The school says they need my unofficial transcript, will request the official one when it's time.
How do I go about getting the transcript from my school (UNN)? I mean how I can get it handy. Please I need your assistance.

BikeMan:
Hi,please can you give pointers to how you easily locate this people on LinkedIn. Been trying to connect with current students too,I just don't know how to find them with LinkedIn

it's easy you can type the name of the school click on alumni (it's in the left side of the page) after clicking on the school.

LinkedIn uses an algorithm which helps show people from you country before other people. So scroll down you will see Nigerians that are attending or attended the school. Viola connect and chat with them. You can also go further by chatting with people from other countries.

Another thing you should note during your research on LinkedIn, when you click on the school and select alumni, look at the places where they work, especially international students. While everyone is different with different graces and favour, it will at least give you a feel of how the alumnis of the schools fair in the job market.

Also drill down because several factors can sway the job market, they could have taken additional courses/programs. So keep that in mind.

good morning everyone, please for those who has knowledge about GRE registration should please kindly educate me on how to go about the registration, I want to take GRE for Fall 2019, please

1. which time of the year is the exam is taken to know if I can meet up for my admission?
2. how much is the current GRE fee registration?

Thanks all in advance for your contributions, I do appreciate,

chukky6443:
Hello everyone. Please I need your input on this...the school I want to apply to requires me to upload a softcopy of my transcript first but I don't have it. My school can only send directly to them but not softcopy. The school says they need my unofficial transcript, will request the official one when it's time.
How do I go about getting the transcript from my school (UNN)? I mean how I can get it handy. Please I need your assistance.

Apply for a fresh transcript there using a Nigerian company address. A firm that is well known e.g. banks and all. Make sure you have a contact in such companies that you can easily get the transcript from after it is sent there.
That's how most people collect theirs.
I wonder why Nigerian universities still do not release the transcript to us. Although I hear UI gives by hand and I also known UNIBEN gives PG transcript by hand.

Enasdan:
good morning everyone, please for those who has knowledge about GRE registration should please kindly educate me on how to go about the registration, I want to take GRE for Fall 2019, please

1. which time of the year is the exam is taken to know if I can meet up for my admission?
2. how much is the current GRE fee registration?

Thanks all in advance for your contributions, I do appreciate,

check [url]ets.org[/url]

align360:
For those interested in studying medicine, this is a rare cool news from one of the top universities in US
The School of Medicine at New York University is waiving a complete tuition fee for all Medical Students worth $55,018
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/08/16/nyu-school-of-medicine-now-tuition-free/

For citizens or holders of green card only.

[quote author=walex57 post=74960655]My Oga, yes oo get that coat make i see reason to come chop rice and "shicken" for NY[/quote
@imperioux, are you a medical student? Please let me know.

Any US nursing student here? Please signify by quoting me. Thanks.

nelem:
check [url]ets.org[/url]

thanks so much

Any applicant to Florida A & M University?please respond

As an HND holder is it compulsory to evaluate my transcript?

what school are you in and please do you have any advice to getting a school there for Msc program

domex007:
Why are people not applying to University and colleges in New york and New Jersey

I need new Nigerian friends especially female friends

Obyknow:
Any applicant to Florida A & M University?please respond

I see you applied to FAMU.
Did you get in?
N.B- I don’t go to FAMU.

CuteRedd:
it's easy you can type the name of the school click on alumni (it's in the left side of the page) after clicking on the school.

LinkedIn uses an algorithm which helps show people from you country before other people. So scroll down you will see Nigerians that are attending or attended the school. Viola connect and chat with them. You can also go further by chatting with people from other countries.

Another thing you should note during your research on LinkedIn, when you click on the school and select alumni, look at the places where they work, especially international students. While everyone is different with different graces and favour, it will at least give you a feel of how the alumnis of the schools fair in the job market.

Also drill down because several factors can sway the job market, they could have taken additional courses/programs. So keep that in mind.

Gracias! Been trying to use the mobile app,I guess the desktop version would do this. Let me find out.

BikeMan:
Gracias! Been trying to use the mobile app,I guess the desktop version would do this. Let me find out.

well I don't use the app I use the Web.

CuteRedd:
well I don't use the app I use the Web.

I guess I gotta