₦airaland Forum

IstandWitBuhari:
Please connect me to a trusted agent.

cc Pon Pon

Epithet:
Direct PhD is the route I have decided for now. I had to streamline these schools based on research interest and available research laboratories. Scholastica16 you've been an example to us all, reading through the forum, I can't but appreciate your efforts and contribution Gracias

You definitely have the GPA for it. Are you talking to potential advisors?

IstandWitBuhari:
Please how can I subsidize my gre payments ?

Please help me. Thanks

How did you think of paying for it before? Are you paying via PayPal or an agent?

The answer to the question is important as Walspring's offer which helped subsidize GRE payments to 37k has elapsed. But there are others on here that can do it for 45 or 50k depending on you which of them you are willing to trust.

gokuu:
Hello fam,

So I have my first decision.
In at Vanderbilt; still waiting on interview decisions at Duke and UT@Austin.

Anyone here in Nashville?

Congrats. Hardly surprised though. Did you still apply to MIT Sloan?

UT Austin will be the best value for money considering Texas is cheap to live in and I doubt the tuition will be as humongous as Cambridge, Boston and the Durham environs.

TheZed:
I wrote my Gre for a third time today all thanks to someone I will forever be grateful to glitteringstar and those wonderful people that used walspring to subsidize gre payments for us all. May you all always be favored by men and God. I had a composite score of 304 (V-148 Q-156).

You always came back. I wish you all the best. Sometimes, that is all a man needs.

Cheers.

abid4akin:
Pls, can anyone help with reporting my ETS test scores to schools.. None of the payment methods here works.

Use B.Y MAFIT.

Google them.

adeyinka09:
While we wait for positive feedbacks from all GRE test takers today, Let me quickly identify myself as one of those people. I gave it a trial again today at JKK. I think I saw the score coming. My preparation has been so erratic due to work pressure. I just have to write this and let it off my mind. GRE is all about enough practice and dedication. However I never have luxury of such. I believe my score truly belie my academic capability and i must find a way to defend that in my SOP. How I wish I could have the time, its achievable but I know I dont have it.So I have to make do with the little time I have.
My Little profile
Intended Course:Msc Food science
GPA: 4.5/5.0
TOEFL:93
GRE: 301
Selected schools(I was forced to change the schools)
University of Arkansas
Missouri state University
Oklahoma State University
Iowa State University
Ccc scholastica,Drhopeful, Time2shine,Ndawe Adetola007,Femi12 and other egbons. Thanks all

I understand and the adcoms do too. Not many people have the time to give the GRE the dedication it demands. Nevertheless, your GPA is strong and like we always say, the GRE is just 1 aspect. Work on the others and the GRE would hardly matter.

I wish you the very best.

PHEEEMMMY:
Hello scholars,
I sent an email to a professor for a graduate assistantship position. I got this email in return :
"Thank you for your interest in my research and lab group. At this stage, I am still in the first stage of evaluating the pool of applicants for the position. I will keep you posted about how things evolve, and whether I think it’s worthwhile to apply for the position. It may make sense to have a phone or skype conversation at that point. Thanks for your interest"
I was trying to interpret what he meant. Does it mean I should be preparing towards an interview or something?. Thank you

Someone rightly explained it; he is overwhelmed by the deluge of applications he has received and until he works through it, does not feel the need to accept more. But if you are willing to Skype with him, you can make his job easier as it serves as a better means of assessing you.

geejayjax:
i just learnt i'll b needing my internationa passport for the exam, as the one i av is expired, who can help with steps and cost of renewal. thanks

They are only going to check if the face and name match yours. I doubt the proctors take note of the expiry date as it means nothing to them. The International passport is only a means of identification to them nothing else.

That being said, still work on getting it renewed.

Epithet:
Exam day, I consider myself a staid person, so I was pretty relaxed maybe too relaxed, after check in procedures that took almost an hour. The essays were easy to tackle, I had VQVQV the quants didn't seem as hard as I expected maybe the Manhattan prep had raised my level, I guess I made a few mistakes though because I expected a better quant score. Reported my scores 162V 164Q 326, maybe I used easy a lot in my post don't mind me, and surprisingly after the exams I was not tired. Thanks to everyone that has contributed to this story and if you haven't gone through the forum from page 1 until date you're missing a lot of valuable information.

Sent my scores to four schools
Purdue, Pennstate, Louisiana state university and University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Profile
GPA: 3.75/4 Wes conversion
Course: Chemical Engineering
Research interest: Renewable Energy
TOEFL: Yet to give

#Fall 2018 Yes we can

I am not surprised by this at all; Your contributions here have been immense and I sensed you were preparing well. Very competitive schools you have there but you would match most of the profiles there so I am expectant for you.

Direct PhD or MSc apps?

akatovic1:
thanks bro , I have taken the TOEFL already and my scores go thus;
Reading: 28
Listening: 25
Speaking: 26
Writing: 22
I will try and use it in my defence. I can only hope that the schools I'm applying to don't have these automatic score filters as I never saw any minimum AWA score on their websites

Order of importance;
Speaking
Listening
Reading
Writing.

Congrats. The writing is last because TOEFL requirements for top writing scores are kind of facile. The speaking and listening are what they want to be sure you can do because it is important for TAs. The reading is okay, but your VR of the GRE is more important to them.

Ask the grad coord for minimum AWA. Michigan State was 3.0. Some other programs are 3.5 and others 4.0.

akatovic1:
na so this guys send me my AWA score :3.5 ( 42 percentile)
this thing dey pain, if I have the finances I will rewrite this GRE, sha I expected it somehow I only prayed I could get atleast a 4
please future test takers don't neglect that section while preparing.
I will have to look for a way to explain it away in my SOP

I understand the need to re-write but like MasterforceII said your Q-score of 166 is the most important aspect of your profile after which is the V-score. The AWA sadly, is dead last and will only be used to eliminate one in a close call (which usually involves toppest schools).

Don't forget that time is important in the admission cycle. You are better of applying now with your score than say January with a 330 with AWA - 5.0. I know what I am saying.

Geedhey:
Good evening Bosses. Plz I need some guidance on school I can apply to that accept unofficial transcript for admission processing & doesn't require external evaluation from WES & co. (Reason m looking at Fall 2018 & my school has been on strike like forever)
Elect/Elect (B. Tech) ( 3. 45/5. 0)
IELTS: (R:6.5, L:6.5, W:7.0, S:8.0 overall:7. 0)
GRE: preparing to write first week Dec.
Thanks

Most good US schools do not ask for official transcripts for the review/evaluation process. The same can be made about the WES. So do your own research about schools based on your anticipated profile.

frostsc:
Bro, you have helped me in a number of ways through the various posts you have posted on this platform. I envy your mercurial and congruous effervescence and the amicable and non-puerile way you handle comments and suggestions. It is lucidly clear without need of circumnavigating the prognosis that you will surely burgeon to the apogees way more than you have ever imagined. You are one of the few selfless people who truely care about the success of others

All these big words for me?

I am honored.

mikeayus:
boss please explain more on the bolded..thanks

When you are practising your AWA, the keypad of a Macbook will ill-prepare you for the boxy-type keyboard JKK or Oba Akran will provide for you. If you are not skilled, it could slow you down.

Also, when practising, as soon as you are done typing your argumentative and issue-based essays, search for the topic of the essay via Google. You would see various links depicting other people's essays on the same topics. Try to study theirs and see if they raised certain points you did not. You may also see the linking words they used and adopt them in your own.

The more you practice, the better you'd become.

frostsc:
Like my fore fathers here, I registered with B.Y Mafit and that was the singular wise choice I made cos everything revolves around them. I attended the free TOEFL and Free GRE classes. Got the Magoosh account, Kaplan Text, Official Guide and other materials given during lectures and group studies. Took the TOEFL classes for a month and the GRE classes for 6 weeks. Though free, they were very very vigorous. Wrote the TOEFL first. I'll share that experience another time since this is a GRE forum. I scored 110 though (There was a guy at Mafit who scored 115. Couldn't beat that target ). I did not read lots of textbooks. I just used the classes as my main study and did the additional practice recommended by our instructor (Enitan). Since that worked, I decided to use that principle for the GRE and it worked as well.

At the end, I scored 164 on the verbal and 162 on the quant. I know of a guy at Mafit (Dada) who scored 166 and 158 respectively. I already mailed my school and I was told I have the chances of getting full funding. I have sent other documents to them prior to this.

I genuinely envy you small for reasons not clear to me. Congratulations, your both scores are very good and you had enough knowledge to know when to apply etc. I am also happy you gave back to this thread. Some others got the same information you did and after using it they left without saying anything. holarwhaley2 For example is one of such people

I am not clairvoyant but I would be gravely surprised if you do not get 2 solid offers atleast. Cheers.

hirschfelder:
I guess I can say it has been nice, thanks. Some of the classes are rather fast paced-we practically covered an entire (Nigerian) semester's work in 3 weeks or so. The lecturers are very nice and super helpful-so far. The classroom experience is nice, we are like 4-6, so everyone must contribute.
The research is nice, but could be better. Abstract concepts dumped on one, with little time to get to fully understand before the next research meeting. Loads of homeworks, some of which can pass off as mini-projects back home, to do. But the professors will generally help if you ask for it. The exams we have done so far are very fair, but of course one has to prepare well
There is a nice-sized and helpful African community here. Helped with the integration. I can't offer much commentary on the social scene, I don't go out much, but I guess it's pretty chill (or so my housemate says). Kansas is a very laid back state anyways, and the locals seem nice.
Overall, I will say the experience has been nice, kind of what I expected.

NB: For ChE guys coming, if you can make out space in your luggage, come with your Fogler and BSL textbooks, they will most likely be your recommended texts for Reaction and Transport.

Thank you very much for this. Very enlightening!

briliantsak:
Thank you for the reply sir.
As you've rightly said, I have pinpointed my weaknesses. The Quant section was due to silly mistakes, I got all the RC correctly...TC and SE are the challenges ( especially 2/3 blanks, I do get part of the answers...which doesn't count).


Please, do you have the link(s) to download the aforementioned preps ( CrunchPrep, Magoosh, Manhattan's and Kaplan's)?

Gracias!!!

You'd have to go to their websites to see how you can gain access to their free online full-length tests.

As for Kaplan, read Seeker88's 2 posts in this link.

https://www.nairaland.com/1832477/how-achieve-high-scores-gre/141#51008853

MasterforceII:
Thanks for this insight. I'm applying for Masters in these schools. I figured there was not much to lose from applying to these schools that waive app fee but on seeing that I may need to send official scores and transcript, I'm beginning to reconsider applying. Northeastern university however allows one to upload unofficial docs and scores. And they had for long been spamming my mail so I emailed grad cord requesting for an app fee waiver. A quick search on gradcafe revealed my profile is sufficient for an admission. Funding is what I'm not sure of. I hope it turns out in my favour. Praying for a miracle. #YesWeCan

Yea, your profile is good for most of those schools the only issue is sending score reports which will cost N16k (B.Y MAFIT) for both GRE &TOEFL or ($47) if you do it on your own. I know some schools let you upload the pdf copy for review whereas some others insist the app is incomplete (hence, will not be reviewed) until they receive the official copies of both exams.

Once admission is out of the way, funding (albeit difficult) could come especially if you are early. On grad cafe, did you see any Master's admit that got funded? If you did, then chances are the same grace could befall you.

I noticed that most schools will not change their funding policies for anyone so I use history to understand them.

#YesYouCan

athorello:
Thanks Scholastica, their deadline is actually Jan 5. The only research area Imma consider is environmental physics cos I even check their earth science dept but no specialization in exploration geophysics.
Please how do I get my recommenders to respond asap? I tried pre-informing them about a week to the school sending request, called and mailed like twice thereafter but no response over two weeks now, only excuses. And every time they will be giving assurances. Sir, I will need your help for some series of applications.... No problem, anytime. Mehn I'm scared. Is that your experience. What's the go around?

Modified
I no it could be hectic though. I remember helping one of my guys in US now to get LoR. I had to go meet the lecturer, open his email and complete the online recommendation form my self.

If you are close to the location of your recommenders, take your laptop and internet modem/hub with you when they are seated. Help them open the link sent to their portals. Create the account for them. I would also recommend you had your draft with you already as most Nigerian faculty do not know how to write good LORs.

The fuss over having high-ranking Professors in the department is unnecessary if they will not write something glowing. You can use any average Joe with a PhD or even a Masters as long as they can;

1. Ascertain your bent for research
2. Rate you intellectually and socially
3. Tell a distinguishingly refreshing story about you.

So, that puts paid to the myth that heads of departments or project advisors pull greater weight in LORs. They don't if what they have to share is the basic "I am hereby recommending Mr. Athorello".

Generally, Adcoms only take the recommendation more seriously if the recommender is known to them or is an alumnus of the same alma mater. Other than that, the story in the letter has to persuade them without being contrived.

As for me, after waiving my rights to see the LORs submitted, I casually asked one of my recommenders to show me what he sent. Let us just say he called me a "she" at some point which to the adcomms will mean, he either does not know me well enough, or was too lazy to edit the generic letter he used.

I got wiser this time around and let us just say; the results are generally more positive than the last time.

athorello:
Please do anyone have experience applying through contacts from GRE search service? How does that help in your admission process? Got a mail from the physics and astronomy graduate program director at UCR to apply but my interest is in geophysics. So, enticing because it's straight PhD and funding is available for all graduate students. I have MSc in geophysics already and wanna pursue that line.

If the department recommended is related to yours, they would accept you. If not, they could still reject you. ETS only sold your profile to those schools for money so the search service is not binding on them if you catch my drift.

Anyways, you can, because of this, check for your course in the school. It might indicate that they have sufficient funding and will accept you. Earlier the better.

briliantsak:
Hi,

My GRE is less than 10days to go... I did the first Powerprep today (as a result of job hunting coupled with research papers writing) Verbal: 149, Quant: 156. I'm targeting 160:160 in the real test as compared to this... Kindly help me out with suggestions

Books that I'm using

Quant : Barron, Manhattan, Grubber and ETS official

Verbal: Barron, Grubber, ETS official, Maghoosh word list

AW: Kaplan, Barron and ETS official

What are your weaknesses? You should know them by now. I don't need to say more but you should forget the Long passages and focus on your shorter passages since it is easier to read them. You know what? Read the question first in the short essays, then go back to the passage and read it. This will train your mind to be alert in knowing the answer to the question you had just read. Once you think you have an idea, go back to the options and read through them. You should form a habit of writing options down on your answer sheet. A B C D E. If A is not what you saw in the passage eliminate it...till you arrive at your answer or the last option you have not struck out.

You should be getting your TCs and SEs right to do well in the V. The skill needed to excel in the long passages needed to have been acquired over time (which you don't have).

As for your quants, practice like PonPon said.

At this point, only ETS guide and Princeton or Magoosh can help with the VR. Same ETS, Manhattan can help with the quants.

Look for as many full-length tests as possible. I would recommend the ones in the ETS guide, your 2nd PowerPrep, (if you have money purchase the PowerPrep Plus), CrunchPrep, Magoosh, Manhattan's and Kaplan's as well. Kaplan's verbal is good - close to but not exactly the ETS GRE good.

The materials for your AWA are good but you should be practicing it as well with a desktop. Don't use something sleek like a Macbook as the keypad at Oba Akran or JKK look or feel nothing like it. When you practice the AWA timed, go to Google and search for the same topic or essay prompt. Compare your essays to what people have online and tweak yours to mirror the essays with the best form. You would do well.

Hirschfelder, how is it over there? What is your experience thus far?

MasterforceII:
Thank you. Rensselaer mailed me saying I qualified for a waiver. I'll mail Notre Dame and check out the other schools you've listed.

Are you applying for a direct PhD or Masters in either school? Be careful; even though the app fees are waived, you'd still send official score reports of GRE and/or TOEFL.

Schools that habitually waive app fees tend to reject apps the same way. They have an angle they are working from which has been discussed on this thread in the past.

Miracles happen but as a matter of principle, try to guage the profiles of those rejected and accepted via Grad cafe to know if it is worth the headache. Without a Masters these days some of those top schools are hard to get in. But you could get the masters admit and be fully-funded. It is not unheard of.

All the best.

Guitarlife:
Do you mean the GRE or GPA when you said 90th percentile ?

He meant GRE. But yea, some schools use GPA to waive the app fee. Boulders is one of such schools.

Adeolaraji:
I have HND distinction in Electrical engineering... Can I apply for masters in the US. I heard its possible if I evaluate my transcript with WES. I want to know where to start from and the whole process

1. So evaluative the transcript.
2. Write GRE and TOEFL (depending on school)
3. Send score to 4 schools on the test day (GRE) and a day before the test (TOEFL)
4. Complete applications on schools portal if not already completed.
a) you'd need a statement of purpose (sell your HND here and need for a masters)
b) letters of recommendation (atleast 3)
c) international passport page
d) an Academic CV - emphasis on Academic.

The only thing that differentiates your application for a Master's from the one of a BSc grad is just the mandatory need for the WES transcript.

denniece1:
No, I paid through an agent.

Which agent?

EZEIGBO1OFIMO:
please read my signature.

EZEIGBO1OFIMO:
funny how folks here are picking schools based entirely off ranking and safety; no research compatibility, no personal journal reviews,no research budget check, no nothing

You know when you recommend a school to someone it means look it up or consider it? Or do you get off playing devil's advocate?

akatovic1:
Thank you sir I will consider what you have noted,
Please do you how the funding situation is for Ohio state university

Mehn, they will easily give the PhD admission but it seems the funding is contingent on getting across to the POI. It will not come automatically.

hirschfelder:
Congrats! Nice scores. You could still apply to top top schools like MIT and Caltech if you have considerable research experience. Just make sure you reach out to potential advisors.
I don't know much about Mechanical Engineering but maybe add Vanderbilt to your list; it's free after all. Your first three schools are quite selective (you probably knew that already). Add some good engineering schools like Penn State, UT Knoxville and Michigan State for safety. Good luck!

North Carolina State too.

Akatovic1

denniece1:
Pls, how long does it take to get confirmation from ETS after registration and payment for GRE?

Did you pay yourself?