₦airaland Forum

eastafro:
transfer the money with what currency?
i dont believe Ethiopian financial institutions do wire transfers or things like that.

Ok. So what would you do?

eastafro:
sup gang?
any computer science applicants here?

There are a handful of them but people like to act as guests here.

Old GRE VR 550, 213/79 TOEFL.

Happy now?

It is obvious that website is poorly presented. That requirement is not exclusive to SIU. Many schools use it. Just "Google" those numbers and see what turns up.

I am out.

http://www.pvamu.edu/internationalaffairs/iss/prospective-international-students/international-graduate-admissions/

https://www.barry.edu/law/llm/how-to-apply.html

https://www.law.umn.edu/admissions/sjd-admissions/how-apply

jelmusboy:
Response please

Your 3.10/5.00 should typically get to 3.0/4.0. If you used the free WES converter it only gives you a range besides, most schools only take the GPA of your last 60 units so if you had a decent last 2 semesters you would still make the cut.

Your publications, MSc (distinction from U.K.) and your first degree make you a good fit for the PhD in many schools like the one you are considering so fire down.

Grubber, Kaplan are not good for the GRE per se; they are significantly easier than the real thing.

Manhattan, ETS guide and Magoosh on the other hand are okay although ETS guide is the best. Personally, start with Manhattan and solve the exercises learning tips as you go. Use the Magoosh videos for light reading. They are quite interactive. Pause, solve, play and see their answers and steps. If it is easier for you, adopt it.

Then when you are close to the test study the ETS guide and practice the exercises as well as the tests. Time yourself and make it as real as possible. The ETS guide is the closest to the main GRE and you want your mind to be programmed for the level of trickery and difficulty that the GRE will pose.

Then 2 days to the test, take PowerPrep II part 1. It will tell you how far you have come and your weaknesses if any. Use that day to work on the weaknesses. Take part 2 a day before your GRE and be as serious as possible. Take both essay prompts, the breaks etc. Try to simulate your exact GRE experience. Your score here will most likely be what you would get on the main day - Either you go 3 points higher or 3 points lower.

Try to get to the venue early. Rest your mind. Don't get flustered by the goings-on around you. Make sure you come with an energy drink and a small snack which you would be allowed to take into the main hall but in a compartment. Failure to do this and you would be enervated before your 2nd section.

Do not waste time on questions you can't solve immediately. There is no point wasting your time on them. Instead, attempt questions you usually got while practicing to build your confidence. Then go back to the difficult ones and reattempt them or make educated guesses and move on.

Nobody cares how you did it or the methods you adopted. All they care about is the final score. So if you like, speak Queen's English from now till Kingdom come, if you get 131 in the VR, the testmarkers will feel you don't know diddly squat about the language.

PS: if people read from page 1 of this thread they would have seen most of these tips already.

Do some research people!!

IRella:
Hi.. . I've done that yet to receive them. And pls add me to the Facebook group.. Iwhiwhurukeme@gmail.com or Iwhiwhuella@yahoo.com thanks

It ought to be automated.

A gmail account, no content in the email, send to the addresses above. You should get feedback almost instantaneously.

dayjeee:
congratulations scholastica16, DReManuel and other PTDF scholars, am really happy for you guys.
who can help interpret this? GRE- 550/213/79

This is TOEFL not GRE.

550 is the scale in the paper based old. 213 is equivalent to it in another metric and it mirrors 79/120 in the iBT.

Dexty10:
Ow. Thank you. But what is VR? And please I registered with B.Y Mafti for the test. If I want to redo will they charge me again or I'll just reschedule another test on the ETS website?
Thank you

Verbal reasoning.

They will charge you again. GRE fees cost $205.

Dexty10:
Hello guys.
Just took the GRE test and the result is 285. My CGPA is 3.7/5.0. I intend to study Public Relations/Communication in either of these schools: Auburn Uni, Ball State, Seton Hall and Southern Mississippi.
What are my chances of getting admitted?

Nobody can tell your chances. I know for sure that your VR will be more important than the composite 285. So what is your VR?

Your chances of getting admitted depend on the whole package you put forward and not just your GRE score. So give it a good go.

eastafro:
sept 15 and i still haven't registered for GRE. wtf!
the payment is not as easy here in Ethiopia. basically there is no way in hell i can pay from here as far as i know but its getting on my nerves.
i have to study anddddd reck my brains and cell phone minutes for a possible way of payment?!
so am i late?

Have you figured out if that Nigerian company I listed can help? I mean if you can transfer that amount of money to their bank account after opening a GRE account, they would pay for you.

Their rate is better than $205.

adedammy009:
Pls where can I register for TOEFL in Ibadan or Lagos.
Thanks

Google that company above, get their contact numbers and call them. Simple.

eastafro:
what do you mean exactly ?

To get top scores you need Atleast 3 months of concerted preparation.

But everyone's ability to assimilate is different.

HOYINDARMORLAR:
thanks for the prompt response boss. I actually studied economics, hoping to apply for a masters in financial economics.
undergraduate CGPA is 3.03/5.

Then that Q must go up.

Pace yourself well. Solve questions you are very sure to get first and foremost and only attempt the harder ones after.

Employ tact; there are always 4 options. Estimate in your head what the answer can be by common sense and then eliminate the totally crazy options. The ETS testmakers set questions this way all the time.

When you are in the 2nd section (which would be harder if you did well in the first) flip the script at the quantity comparison questions. If you easily prove that Qty A is bigger than B, go for B. LOL.

If they easily look the same, the answer will definitely will not be C. Don't make assumptions. If you need any detail to solve the question just mark D and move on.

Caveat: I am giving quick fix methods that are not fool proof.

Topiipii I see you bro. How is it over there? Still move to Vanderbilt or you are with Colorado State?

Give us gist na.

gokuu:
Thanks people. I've finally got it. This ETS people almost gave me a heart attack.

What was it? I am curious because I expect you to do a 5 or above.

HOYINDARMORLAR:
Hello everyone.
Special greetings my gurus and egbons in the house. I have been thinking about applying to graduate schools and writing gre for a while now. i have basically just been researching schools and not paying enough time to the actual test prep, i felt i could just do a few weeks rush-rush prep and ace it. Of course that quickly changed when i started going through this thread. I am looking at fall 2018 admissions, already have a list of schools and all that.
As advised on earlier pages of this thread, i took the powerprep test today, i haven't been preparing for GRE before, i just wanted to get a feel for the test.
V 161 Q140
I obviously need a lot of work on my quantitative aspect. I only have about 6 weeks to prepare. I have gone through the thread top to bottom(took me a week and several sleepless nights). It was totally worth it, the wealth of information here is just amazing. I have downloaded some of the materials and have links to others.

Here's my important question, what materials can i use to prep for these 6 weeks to strengthen my quantitative aspect?
I know this question has been asked over and over in many different formats, but i would greatly appreciate a response to mine too.

ETS guide. Study it carefully and attempt the examples and exercises. You can't go wrong doing this.

Magoosh Q Videos. Watch as many as you can actively. Pause it, attempt to solve it first then play the video to see their approach and solution.

Mahanttan exercises if you have time after doing above.

Great V score above. What is your discipline? Your V might count more depending on your discipline.

DreManuel:
Have you seen top schools that admit for Spring 2018 for your desired program?

Would Fall 2018 be too long a wait? Well, it all depends on what your goals and aspirations dictate and your gut feeling. And by all means, that's what I feel people ought to follow.

Personally, given the awesomeness and generosity of the PTDF, I've managed to convince myself coupled with a piece of advise from a senior friend that waiting till Fall 2018 is worth it if I must attend one of the choicest school on the planet. Although Fall 2018 will make it 7 years after finishing BSc but one more year of work experience with the assurance of attending a top school in the coming year can be re-assuring. Yet, I have no intention of pursuing a PhD but an MBA afterwards so my case may be different.

All in all, the kind of "problem" at hand is what many won't mind having . So it's somehow a good one.

I thought long and hard about it and if I did not see some top 30 schools that had my option for spring I would have been forced to take the same decision as you.

Even if I wait till 2019, CALTECH, MIT and Berkeley will most likely not admit me- PTDF at al. I barely crossed 4.0 in GPA, did not get 335 in GRE and do not feel I have the profile for such schools with respect to chemical engineering MS.

Let me add at this juncture that I am 10 notches more optimistic than the most hopeless optimist you know- but I am not delusional. Even Alawode had to use Environmental Engineering to get into MIT as they did not take him -initially- on his mechanical engineering first choice option. And this is 4.93/5.00, faculty and university best, 8A1s in WAEC, McKinsey before NYSC, 1520/1600 GRE Alawode.

Then I could have considered GAtech but they do not have my option for MS as the thesis option this spring and would only take me next fall if I applied as direct PhD (which PTDF would not fund). Purdue falls somewhat into the same category as above. Northwestern, UCLA and Wisconsin all eliminated themselves one way or the other. Austin, if I remember clearly did not have MS for spring and considered only direct PhDs for chemical engineering against fall of next year again. I am showing you I have been scouring various lists looking for schools.

At this point, let me say I get into College park, USC or Boulder (as all 3 have what I am looking for) this spring instead of trying my hands on UMich or UIUC would I lose too much? I don't think so especially if I have PhD ambitions that could still lead me to those places and beyond. That is one way I am viewing things. The second way is, I believe the thesis-based, rather than the professional masters, gives me more options after graduating as I could still try for that MBA if I don't get a job or opt for a PhD whereas the non-thesis option leaves me with either a job or an MBA. Fin.

I agree that it is a great problem to have and although I hate mentioning names, I had to throw one up there to show that we are about the same set albeit from different schools. I know (not personally though) the BGS of your dept went to Arlington and should be doing a PhD if not working by now. Amiright?

paulbets:
Boss Congratulations. Am so happy for you.

Please if the scholarship will still be viable by FALL 2018, I would advise you to target it.
Unless the scholarship condition is that you must use it before February next year.
But even so, I think some US schools FALL applications have opened and it's even possible to get the admission before December. .. which you can then ask for grace to resume in Spring with this FALL Admit.

Am just permutating, don't really know if this is practical but what do you think.

One, No school would give you an admit for fall to begin in spring. Two, the scholarship is not binding on Spring and would still be available for fall if I do not use it now.

Fall 2018 resumption is somewhere between 10 to 11 months away. Not that I cannot spare the time but sometimes the euphoria of getting something that feels unlimited like the PTDF could make one lose sight of what truly matters in the grand scheme of things.

So let us say I stall and get into UTAustin in fall 2018, will the concomitant benefits of getting into UT Austin escape someone else who went to Arlington? I doubt it.

I know 2 graduands from both schools working in Chevron who got in about the same time. I know someone else who went to Cornell and Austin who had to come back to Nigeria before securing an IOC job. Sometimes one has to weigh the expected benefit with the time sacrifice that might go into it.

And the schools I am still looking out for are not as unequally yoked as I did with Austin and Arlington above. University of Maryland, College Park for example has thesis-based option for MS chemical engineering and I think Delaware has too. Those are definite top 20 schools for my program and are great fits without being MIT, Berkeley or CALTECH (that are need blind schools for my discipline anyways).

Need blind meaning, they don't care to see if you have the money to pay before admitting you. If you don't have the profile they are looking for, they would simply say no PTDF or not. A true story is of the 4.96 Unilag guy who had between GRE 320-325 GRE and was fully funded by GAtech and Austin yet MIT and one of the schools I mentioned above gave him a cool...fat...regret mail.

Thanks for the congratulatory message.

jelmusboy:
Please, can anyone recommend a safe school for MSc/PhD in Biological/Biomedical Science or related courses for someone with 3.10/5.0 CGPA + MSc distinction from UK? Looking forward to writing GRE in November

I am doing my own research now to get at least 4 schools to apply to for this Spring. I can bring my list here to ask for more advice or to prune it but I won't saddle anyone with the responsibility of doing that research for me.

And you stand a good chance of getting into a good PhD program if you post good VR scores to add to your U.K. Distinction and first degree.

Engrczar:
Greetings to great scholars in the house.

I am a graduate of Chemical Engineering with above 4.7CGPA on 5.0 scale. It's nice seeing a platform where I can get insight directly from those who have done things I sincerely aim to do.

Please, I have few questions to ask and earnestly await your responses.

1. Which trusted agent(s) can I use for my GRE registration and if possible, the amount they charge?

2. I have some materials at the moment (Kaplan, Grubbers and Manhattan), but I believe the Magoosh videos will definitely be useful if I can find them. Please, how do I get Magoosh videos and other necessary materials you think I should have?

3. I am currently attached with a company for now, and I intend writing the exam early November. The truth is that I have been struggling with combining my study and work, please I need your sincere advice on how to effectively combine both activities.

Thanks so much and remain blessed.

Great GPA you have there.

Cutting straight to the chase, if you have not started preparing, don't risk taking this test in November but if you have registered, please, ETS guide, Princeton for the verbal and general tips, Manhattan for Quants, Princeton and Kaplan for AWA, Magoosh videos strictly then practice practice practice full-length tests.

B.Y MAFIT would cost you N50k but Walsprings would cost N37k if still available. Register your GRE account yourself before contacting any of them to pay.

If you work, then You must make your weekends count like numbers. Give your weekends entirely to the GRE in terms of practice tests but you can use 1 or 2 hrs before you sleep in readiness for work the next day for light reading.

Practice tests help improve scores faster than plenty reading or studying. Fact.

Yildiz:
Congrats to Scholatica16 and DreManuel.

I just saw my TOEFL results
Speaking 24
Listening 27
Reading 29
Writing 25
Total 105.
Alhamdullilah am happy. Atleast I have 24 in the speaking section.

Great Yildiz. Congrats.

Quoran:
Hello everybody. I have been following this thread for a while and I have read majority of the pages. I just need your candid advice.
Here is my profile

Mechanical Engineering B.Eng 3.8/5
Masters degree UK Mechanical Engineering Merit Average of 68%
GRE scores of 303. Maths 153 Verbal 150
No publications

I wrote my GRE before my masters degree program.
I am interested in a PhD in the USA. What can I do please? My GRE score is low and funds to take another one isn't readily available.

Candid advice please.

Contact potential advisors with this GRE score. You can withhold it at first and just tell them your passion for a PhD. You should already know by now what you want to philosophize about WRT mechanical engineering.

If they respond, most will tell you that you may need to present GRE scores. You can now tell them you have written it before your masters and don't have money to retake it (only if they say it is low).

I have said it as nauseam on this thread because there is a plethora of evidence to support this - if they like you already, the GRE would hardly matter. After all, you have >300/340 which most ask for.

Be smart to approach Young profs (associates) and not the emeritus guys as those ones are like mannequins in the department. The people who actually have the funds to disburse are the vibrant associates (I got to learn this from my good friend over there). Also know the right schools to approach; I would say 2 or 3 A- schools, 4 B+ schools and more B/B- schools. msinus.com has a list showing which schools are which.

Safe!

Engrphilips:
Please were in enugu or Edo states can I register for GRE exam and how can I register gre exam without using agent people

Use B.Y MAFIT if Walspring's offer is done.

If you do it on your own the GRE would cost you circa 78k in Naira.

Edo and Enugu may not have ICT venues worthy enough of the ETS folks so you might consider taking the paper based option or consider PH as a venue.

Hope this helps.

NB: register the account yourself only use B.Y MAFIT to pay. They charge N50k.

Glocal1:
Congrats bro, wish you greater success in your future endeavors. Hope you can still meet up with this fall's PhD admission.

PTDF won't sponsor a PhD app for me. They have their own mechanism for doing that and my scholarship letter reads MS OSS. As for MS, fall is gone bro - painfully. I am eyeing Spring like cyclops. UK to me is a no-no and August of 2018 is almost 1 year away.

Thanks.

DreManuel:
Congrats bro. What state?

52 steps ahead.

jsleekysleeky:
Many many thanks for making out the time to write a very very helpful response. I really appreciate it.

As per the schools, I didn't get admitted into any of those three schools (WVU, LSU, and UW). From my research, All candidates admitted into the MS Chemical Engineering programme in the aforementioned schools are offered funding. Selected the schools for this reason.So it was an all or nothing situation. I applied in Jan 2017. I got admitted into USC though but I can't afford their $60k tuition. Thought of funding the study thru a loan but i would have to work and live frugally to pay it off in 4 yrs. Any tips on how to package a strong application (SOP, LORs etc)?

Once again, thank you very much sir. I will put the tips to good use. God bless you

I am still learning these things but I think the afore schools did you a favor as I doubt they would have funded you for an MS admit. I am saying this because they said they would not even on their website.

That aside, UW (Wisconsin?) were looking more direct PhDs if I am not mistaken. So, I think that is another reason they may have turned you down.

I understand at USC and California as a whole. The ROIs are good but $60k is still a lot to cough out or secure a loan for.

As for SOPs, personally I think they are way more important than we want to admit. In fact, I think MS apps getting fully funded is contingent on the SOPs, GPA, GRE, LORs in that order. I am not an authority but the few people I know who got it, wrote mind blowing SOPs even when they had average stats to go with it.

See it this way, the adcoms have every reason to question your first degree, to some degree GRE and maybe even LORs (as they don't know the school, GRE center or Profs recommending you) but for some reason, they buy into whatever your SOP contains as long as it arouses their interest in you.

So my advice is, make it creative; avoid clichés and overused sentences. Write introspectively- maybe even personally. Show that you would be a good fit regardless of your diversity or shortcomings. And speaking about shortcomings, if you have them, scratch that, since you have them, mention them in the SOP and show how you are steering your life away from them.

I saw this sentence by someone who got admitted into MIT and It got me interested in reading what he had to say. He started, "Sometimes I close my eyes, fold my arms and clench my fists. Then I think about a world where this man did not exist"...

The person who wrote this ended up talking about a drunkard father who beat him a lot growing up and hated the fact that he was a bookworm. Somehow the guy almost blamed his father for where he was at in life, but then flipped it in between and discussed the positive aspects of it and how ironically, it was responsible for his academic success and need to get into MIT.

Of course, he got technical at some point and talked about his field of study and passion but I was engaged reading him and I still remember aspects of his essay - even when I read it once, 4 or 5 years ago.

Nobody is asking you to go all flowery and poetic but you should tell them something about you, peculiar to you that they would want to admit and if you dig deep into you, you would find it.

For instance, you could explain your 3.76/5.00 by saying that anyone who judges you solely on that would be akin to a blind man who touched the trunk of an elephant and concluded that elephants themselves were like snakes. In other words, such a person would not get the whole/true picture of your acumen by your GPA alone. They would need to see you in your element; how you get epiphanies by analyzing life forms and thinking up ways to improve them or how seeing basic elements transform into complex machine fascinates the hell out of you.

I am talking too much. I got 7 rejections so maybe I should shut up at this point.

Cheers.

ponlear:
Hi guys !

I have been preparing for the GRE exam all along, however, U dont ever seem prepared. What amount of preparation will be enough? Although I sometimes do pretty well in the quantitative but am still not pleased with my verbal. Just did Manhattan test and got Q162 V148. Am scared and still feel am not ready for the exam. What method can I apply to get better in the verbal section? I intend to write next month.

Thanks and regards !

SEs and TCs are your best bet in such short notice. After them, try the short passages as they are easier to read. One strategy that helped me in the short passages was to pretend in my head that someone I know sent the message to me as a text or an email. If you can feign interest in what you are reading, you would understand it.

The other tips others gave you are great but next month is around the corner and developing reading stamina for long passages this quickly would not work even if you read a lot of involved articles.

PS: great quant scores and if you are engineer or economist, they count more. Trust me.

gokuu:
Nope I have not. Did you write at JKK Ilupeju?

Sometimes the email could delay. Check your account without being prompted and if you still have not seen anything then you may need to wait a bit. Sometimes ETS could decide to withhold the report because they noticed discrepancies in the center at the time you wrote the test.

Fret not if that is the case; they would still release it. Drhopeful had a similar issue.

adetola007:
Congratulations once again. I also got the scholarship. I applied for petroleum engineering during the application and I already have petroleum engineering admission with Imperial College. But my ATAS will be very late to get (5th October) so it's likely I may not enroll. Now, the problem is I'm a chemical engineer and would prefer to continue in that line. Can I backtrack and say I want to use the scholarship for chemical engineering?

Yes you can. As long as the course you are switching to is approved by PTDF which chemical engineering is.

Congrats too. I know you got it as I saw your post on the PTDF thread. I am happy for you too bro.

I have really been busy and I would still be... till the 15th atleast. I am grateful for all the congratulatory messages and I would endeavour to respond to each and everyone of them in due time.

Kakashi12, I responded to your message. Check the email you used to register on NL as I have responded twice even.

I would respond to the rest of the enquiries here when I am chanced.

DreManuel is right; most heavies do not have Spring admission for my course of choice so I am scouring the net trying to find good schools, for MS Chemical Engineering (Thesis-based option), with reasonable deadlines (most are September 15-30 ).

So far I have found 4. I would have to get everything done in record time whilst still travelling to Abuja (12th-13th) for the Induction and getting documents signed etc. It is not easy but it is worth it.

Like I said; I would be myself by the 15th. Please bear with me.

PS; Fall of next year is too far for me.

DreManuel,

Yes bro I saw it. I am ecstatic. Number 1 in my state!!

jsleekysleeky:
I have been reading thru this thread for the past 1 hr and I am amazed to put it lightly. The amount of information about graduate education in US and Canada is breathtaking to say the least.

Please I need advice on how to secure funding for an MS Chemical engineering programme in any good US university(which school should I apply to and when to apply). My GRE test score is ; V:159, Q: 165, AWA: 4.0, TOEFL: 106, CGPA: 3.76 on a 5.0 scale (royally screwed it up in sch). My 4th and 5th year were shit, mans was just getting 3.2 till graduation. I somehow feel that has been the archilles hill of my application.

Note: I applied to West Virginia Uni, Louisiana State University and University of Wyoming for Fall 2017 but didn't get into any. Please any advice you provide will be greatly appreciate.

CC: Scholastica

When you say you did not get into any do you mean WRT an "admission" or "funding"?

I am asking because your GRE, TOEFL and GPA are good enough for most MSc programs in the US. What is dicey these days is funding for MSc programs and there is no hard and fast rule towards securing that.

One method people use is to apply for a direct PhD. If you get in, more often than not it comes fully-funded with a good stipend.

Another method is to apply for the MSc early enough (Oct of the previous year - in this case Oct of this year) and then apply for GA/RA or TA positions within the faculty or more specifically dept. This method depends on POIs responding and they may or may not respond - it all depends on luck and how you package yourself.

The other method is to apply to schools that have a habit of funding their MSc students. Most heavies for some reason do not do that. But the tier B schools are always more likely to fund their MSc students so that is another option you can consider.

The last option I know about is when they apply for the MSc, secure it, get the visa and step into the country and school itself then they approach profs one on one. This method usually works in 2 ways; 1) the Profs give you the funding on the spot or 2) they may tell you to chill for a semester so they can observe you and then give you the funding after they have confirmed that you know your onions.

Nobody has them totally figured out. I would ask you to search for a moniker named "PonPon". He gave 2 robust posts on getting across to POIs and his method seems fool-proof. When you see it in his past posts you would definitely know and you can use them as guides towards reaching out to POIs.

I don't have a long list of schools that funded both MSc and PhDs for chemical engineering but I am sure that Auburn, Toledo (especially for Chemical engineering) and South Carolina did so. If you are patient enough to reach out to students in your preferred discipline in other schools, they may be gracious enough to let you know how available funding is in their school. Their word is good because they would be honest.

Another senior on this forum mentioned Washington State to me. You can check them out as well. All the best!