₦airaland Forum

Amandrush:
Thank you Dremanuel and Prof. Scholastic I really appreciate your unreserved input.

Please can I get the contact of By MAFIT to reschedule Albeit I still have interstice of a month.

Also, please what other schools would you recommend I apply considering my stated profile.

Lastly, am considering a PhD or an MSc by fall 2018 with possible funding, which will you recommend taking note of my profile.

Thanks always.

Actually, they have 4 numbers on their website. You can Google 'BY MAFIT' to get the link to it and ofcourse, the numbers.

I really do not know much about your program but your profile is already good as it were which broadens your options for school choices.

My experience lets me know that your sister over there would have better information WRT the funding policies of the designated schools in Texas. You could contact the grad coordinators to get more acquainted with the requirements of the schools - noting that, people can give better recommendations when your profile is complete i.e GRE, TOEFL etc.

Whether PhD or MSc again depends on a couple of factors. I would tell you to mix it. The essence of the PhD is the more-often than-not automatic funding when compared with MSc where it is never guaranteed. But then again, the last admission cycle gives one the impression that schools are generally preferring candidates for PhD that already possess a master's degree. So there is that. The grad coords or potential advisors could give something more substantial than what I have here.

Anyways, look at UNL (Nebraska Lincoln), Uni of Texas - Tyler, Missouri State Uni (Springfield), Drexel Uni, Uni of Nevada - Las Vegas, LSU, Washington State, Uni of Central Missouri **, Clemson **

** plenty funding. Top school for your course.

To add to what DreManuel has said, you may want to contact BY MAFIT to know their price for rescheduling the GRE. They usually have better rates than the subsisting $ to N one.

If $50 is N18,500 at the present rate, BY MAFIT might charge you N9,000-12,000 to do the same thing which is cheaper for you.

athorello:
Won't IELTS do? Considering those if us who wants to widen our horizons to include UK, Canada, Australia, etc.

Some schools accept it while some others don't, but I think the IELTS can be used in lieu of the TOEFL. Only that US schools obviously have a preference for TOEFL seeing that it is American in nature

dayjeee:
Pls can u help me with GRE materials. God bless

Go. To. The. First. Page.

pstfrancis:
Morning guys. Pls can someone help me out with the meaning of this, I dont seem to understand what message that they are trying to pass across to me
"GRE score (General Test) – only a departmental requirement, so we do not list a minimum score requirement."

Is it that any score is acceptable in the GRE score or what?

Thanks to all the gurus in the house.

It means the admissions board do not set a minimum GRE requirement in order for your application to be sent to the department. Instead, it is the department that determines what GRE score would cut it after having compared your application to the other ones sent by other candidates.

Look at it this way, some schools say their minimum GRE requirement is 310. If you do not meet it, the admissions board will probably not forward it to the department. In some other schools 300 is the base minimum but having met that and your application is relayed to the department, if other candidates had 310+ and above, the department will most likely not accept your application even though you beat the base minimum GRE score.

Another circumstance can exist where even though the base minimum GRE score was 310, all the applications submitted in that pool had less than the score. The department would have no choice but to accept some applications from that pool even if the submitted GRE scores do not meet the minimum.

Because of the situation I described above, some admissions board allow the department to arbitrarily set the GRE score requirement based on the pool. So someone with even a 286 could be admitted in one year, yet a 305 could be bounced in another year.

Rousel:
Pls can I be registered for GRE now against November... If I may ask are you working with Walspring?cause I have quoted him twice but no response, tnx

No he does not. Walspring's offer would have been 37k but his offer apparently is 47k. Walspring's offer is a subsidy though.

PS: I am not endorsing him. Just stating the difference.

learner007:
This is so spot on bro, meanwhike I had checked up the internet, only wanted to get varieties, as information is crucial and at times people over there can share their experience with me. God bless you so much bro. One more thing, do you think I will be limiting my chances also by not writing TOEFL (in addition to GRE) ?. THE A-graded schools really demand a score of 80-90 in it for GA/TA. Do you advise I step dwon to a B- school? Pls consider my moniker and pardon my incessant questions...tanks bro

Some schools are strict about it: if you do not have the TOEFL they would not consider your application complete. Whilst some others are flexible and could let it slide for English-speaking countries like ours.

If you are adamant about not writing the TOEFL, then you must apply to schools that are flexible about it or else, they would not process your application. University of Utah and Houston are 2 of such schools that would not process your application without the TOEFL.

But if you have the resources, still take the TOEFL. It bolsters the application and it could earn you that TA/GA especially when only hairs split your profile from another applicant's.

learner007:
Hello everyone

I intend to take the GRE exam but I am not sure which of the schools give good funding for stem/ Mathematics programmes

I have a BSC IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION with a 4point CGPA and I want to further foe an msc mathematics/ phd if possible

Can someone help with possible additions to the list below

Univerity of Illionois, Urbana Champagne(msc maths)
Case western reserve uni (mSc maths)
Purdue (phd)

Your critiquea and additions are welcome o. Plssss

Your school choices are good, and mathematics is very well funded in the US. Someone mentioned Missouri (either Uni of Central Missouri or Uni of Missouri) as one school that funds most if not all of their Maths post grads.

Ideally, you should have a tentative list of 8 schools in your head before you write the GRE because your score would eventually affect the schools you can meaningfully expect to accept and fund you.

UIUC for example might get applicants from Asia that would score 165+ in the Qs and if you do not have that, your chances of getting in would be slim.

Instead of looking for handouts on which schools to apply to, get to researching via usnews.com, msinus.com, gradcafe.com and the likes. You could even type "Fully-funded MSc USA" in the Google searchbox. Get creative.

One thing is for sure: Mathematics is very well-funded in the US. The consensus posits that.

Congrats Warriboy21!

pretimina:
PhD in biz admin with account majors or PhD accounting.

GRE is better.

tizentos:
UPenn state it clearly on their website that they don't provide funding for masters but for PhD only. Which I will put in for PhD if UPenn make my final list.

Cleveland is cool, I'm inundated by the programs they offer. However, I would like to ask if its compulsory to read a professor's/potential advisor paper before contacting him because most of their papers are paid which is not free. What should I do

Don't. Apply. To. UPenn. Please.

No, it is not "compulsory" to read a potential advisor's paper but it definitely helps if you can. The reality is, if he takes interest in your initial/introductory mail he could send you a copy of his paper to read and tell him what you feel about it.

/holarwhaley2

How did it go? Did you get your Q-165 V-150?

tizentos:
Thanks y'all for the congratulatory message. This is my profile

GRE: 312

TOEFL : will give soon

GPA: 4.68(3.7/4) plus a paper to my name

Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering( Interest in VLSI,embedded systems, IC or communication)

Work experience: Internship during UG and NYSC PPA(Teaching line)

After the test I sent scores to the following schools

1. Montana state university
2. University of Texas,Austin
3. University of Pennsylvania
4 University of Tennessee, Knoxville
5.Stevens Institute of Tech( Haven't reported scores)

Please I need ambitious,safe and moderate schools that fit my profile with funding/scholarship for MS/PhD.

Make una help una boy o biko..

Consider Cleveland State Uni as one of the possible safe schools. I got this information from someone on-ground. They have funding for EE guys like you.

Please, take UPenn off that list so as not to waste your application fee.

You should look at NCSU. People got admitted and funded with same GRE but less GPA than you so you can give it a try.

Someone else recommended Colorado State and I agree. Look at Clemson as well and UT Dallas.

And getting into PhD programs with Nigerian BSc in ambitious schools is equally very difficult except you can prove that there is an Einstein in you.

This is very true.

DreManuel:
In the days of PRESSID with guaranteed funding, those schools would have been easier to go, too. We don't know what PTDF is doing now. The hustle is more real now. We all need a reality check.

Very true.

The emboldened is the message I preach.

OtorHope:
Thanks Scholastica16...
Will check out the schools
Yeah.Gatech is the top school I was looking at too..
Checked out Toledo too(what's CE pls)...
You a chemical engineer too right?.
Pls do you know much on university of Minnesota... The chemical engineering program looks really attractive and highly rated.. But I don't know much om their acceptance rates and all

CE is Chemical Engineering and yes I am a Chemical Engineer too (Word to COREN and NSE )

Uni of Minnesota Twin Towers is a top school for us. They are a deeply selective school too but you have a competitive GPA so you could still try. I would advice you to email the grad coordinator first and find out if they admit direct PhDs into the school as not all schools do that (Uni of Florida and UIUC come to mind).

Minnesota is well endowed fundingwise ($30k a year) but they can be selfish and expensive especially to international students. They don't seem too dependent on GRE scores as well - 162-165 Q scores have been accepted and rejected. I have seen grad cafe reports of 3.87/4.0 GPA + Master's degree get rejected and also another similar one get accepted. So I can't tell if already having an MSc is important.

OtorHope:
Vr-157.. Qr-162.. Awa-4...

Need advice generally
Considering MS/PHD in US
Chemical engineering
Cgp: 4.78
Gre: 319
No much work experience and little research experience..
Ambitious and safe options all welcomed

Congrats OtorHope, great GRE score with an even greater GPA. You are ripe for Georgia Tech. Apply for Direct PhD here - they encourage it in their chemical engineering program especially for top performers like you.

I have not really looked at Washington State but someone recommended it to me here. You should look at Auburn University as well. Let me just throw a few more schools that you should look at;

UC Davis
Uni of Virginia
U Wisconsin
Uni of Toledo (Safe..Plenty funding for CE)

Nothing is guaranteed.

holarwhaley2:
Good Evening.
My exam is on Wednesday
This is the summary of all my practice tests.
Quan always > 165
Verb between 140 n 149. I do have 5 questions left unanswered. Am afraid!!!

Make sure you do your SEs and TCs very well. They are about 10 in both VR sections. If you can get 16-18/20 of them, you already have 146-148/170. It is the only aspect you can work on in such short notice.

BTW, a base minimum of 165 in the Quants is phenomenal and would count more for you if you are on the Maths/ CS/ Engineering train so don't sweat the VR.

Mathano:
Good evening

Let me also share my GRE preparation experience and the test experience.

Bosses in the house, Please I need safe schools that grant scholarship for Msc/phd computer science in the united states.
My GRE sore is 316, CGPA(4.43/5) and I have one year working experience.

Congrats Mathano, I can TOTALLY relate with your experience and I know others can. I am being very real with you: you did well. I know you wished you did better in your quants (going by your practice scores) but these things happen.

Now, straight to the matter and here is the tricky part;

CS is very well-funded in the US but it is very competitive. I was going full throttle on the direct PhD route but my experience is making me tell you to mix it. Submit some direct PhD apps and 1 or 2 MSc apps as contingency. You would most likely be admitted for you MSc apps but funding will depend on luck and how easily you can gain audience with some POIs in your considered schools. If the PhD app pulls through all the better.

You have a great GPA working for you so leverage it in discussing with Advisors or even applying to schools.

Kansas State
UMass Amherst
North Carolina State
Arizona State Uni
Rice University
Ohio State
Michigan State
Stony Brooks
UT Arlington
Sunny Buffalo
University of Illinois Chicago
UT Dallas

LOL. I don't expect you to apply to all of them but you may see interesting options from this. People with profiles in a way less than yours got admitted and funded into said schools. By Profiles I mean < or =316 GRE, < or = 4.4/5.0 and for the same CS albeit some were for MSc and some for PhD.

Cheers.

tizentos:
Verbal : 152
Quant: 160
#teamFall2018

Congrats Tizentos and don't apologize for your post as that is the reason this thread was created. Trust me, your score is good. Now it will help direct you to the schools that - armed with other aspects of your application - can admit and maybe even fund you.

Good thing you have started early. If you have time and money please take the TOEFL as well so that you would not be wanting in anything. I have a good feeling about you.

khadijat2015:
Thanks for this.


I have another question.
Is it possible to meet up for spring 2018 admission
And how soon can one start preparing for it

Yes and No.

Yes if you have all your documents ready (including LORs, SOPs and GRE) you can definitely make it in time for Spring.

There is a little hitch though, most funding opportunities bar a very few exist in Fall as against spring so it is always recommended that applicants from our side of the divide considered Fall above Spring except you have your own external source of funding.

Fall admission cycle begins in Oct. I think you should aim for it whilst you prep for your GRE. US can wait.

afroxyz:
How long does it take for GRE results to come.out?

Immediately?

Although the Analytical writing aspect comes out in 10days.

This is for CBT.

DreManuel:
I'm kinda laid-back, so I never bothered to go through the entire thread myself save from the page 250Something upon which I stumbled on this thread -- and that's long after I had written my own GRE, so I learned the hard way, but I found myself here somehow perhaps to cheer others up as I pass along. So, I took the pain to scan through the thread today, and I can see valuable inputs/testimonials from great minds here. I recommend that "newcomers" and/or intending test takers should do the same.

And you - Scholastica16 - have earned your props. I read through your valuable contributions, magnanimous gestures, personal aspirations and hopes. And all I can say is that you deserve the very best and nothing less. Why? Mary Anne Radmacher was right: “As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way.”

Thank you brother. I appreciate. I wish you the same WRT PTDF. UMich is a biggie. The admission cannot waste. Besides, you have been mega-helpful on this thread as well.

Seen man.

khadijat2015:
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Hello house..
Am new to this thread..my question is that...is it a must to make use of WES for calculation of one's cgpa

No. Some schools ask for it whilst others don't.

It helps in guaging one's profile though, especially when trying to communicate with POIs. They relate better when you say, "I had a 3.7/4" than say, 4.4/5 (even though both are stellar). The former appears to them as 92.5% whilst the latter mathematically is 88%.

But, like I said before, it depends on the school of choice. WES costs $212 to process but using the free converter can help with an appropriate estimate that would not stray too far from the actual conversion.

Bebebella:
thank u. pls what can I read to get a good score n where can I get d good GRE exam past Questions?

Read from page 1 of this thread. If you get far enough you'd have 70% of the information you already need.

I gather you are aiming for a PhD which is splendid because with a good GRE score, you could be admitted into a top 100 US school fully-funded.

Bebebella:
will you re pay for writing another GRE exam?

You will.

Yildiz:
Georgia Tech biomedical engineering program coordinator just mailed me that their acceptance rate is less than 20%. I got to change tactics

LOL. You should find out what UMich and UIUC have to say. You'd understand why I placed GTech at number 1 and filled the rest with those schools I listed.

GTech was listed for their generosity. You already have a strong profile. I think you should aggressively pursue POIs. If your 314 is not good enough (some usually only care about the Q) they will let you know. Which would not matter too as you are already planning to retake it.

Oga HisVoice,

Congrats. I forgot to respond to your post earlier than I should have. I am sure you already have schools in mind but incase Mississippi State Uni and UTK are not, they should be on your shortlist. You might even want to add Iowa State.

Believerspraise got into LSU's petroleum engineering MSc with a 2nd class lower and 304 GRE. I may be breaking protocol by mentioning him but his testimony resonated with me. It could do same to you as well even though I know you are opting for a PhD.

Congrats again.

Yildiz:
Well I was hoping am done with the research. Lol. I don't want to exceed 300k for application fees and standardized test

I spent more than that between last year to this year but the exchange rate was really bad then and I wrote GRE twice. I also applied to 8 schools.

However, I understand you fully. ETS will let you send 4 scores free of charge. I think you should send 2 additional scoresheets making it 6 schools. "Had I known" is something you don't want to say.

Personally, I would say pick only 2 out of GTech, UMich and UIUC. Then look at the others sent to you that is, KSU, CSU, DU, UTK and UTD.

This would have been my list though; GTech, UTK, CSU, DU, KSU, UTD.

UMich & UIUC are deeply selective schools especially at PhD level but if you could get external scholarship and indicate that you have it, you would most likely get the admission even with your 314.

US schools like money too.

Yildiz:
I will look at other schools but my problem is I dont want to apply to many schools (why, I cant say). Secondly, I dont mind going to other countries. I will try the free WES conversion

Applying to many schools can help. Besides, you are still doing research on schools. LOL. You may end up not applying to some of the schools you are considering.

Yildiz:
Hi Fam. I have done alot of research and read alot of pages on this thread. As you know I intend to apply for a PhD in EE or Biomedical Engineering. I have short listed the following schools; University of Michigan (Ambitious), Georgia Tech, University of illinois Urbana and Kansas State University. I have contacted their grad program coordinators. Some are yet to respond.

My question is since am planning to re-write GRE, how long can I delay it with the hope that results reach the school before 1st Dec?

The schools I have short listed, how generous are they will funding (under grad GPA 4.26/5, masters 3.5/5)?

Apart from application fees and cost of sending hard copies of documents are there other fees I have to pay?

Finally, to what extent do I stand a chance to gaining admission in any of these schools?

Pardon my English and stupid questions (if any)

I recently discovered that Cleveland State Uni has a lot of funding for EE students. The sharing formular based on specific project interests is what I do not know.

Georgia Tech encourages PhDs with over-sufficient funding though my research was based on Chemical Engineering- my undergrad discipline.

The GRE takes about 5/7 days to get to the school from the time you hit "send" on the test day. It could also take a more extended time- say, 10-14 days incase of delays. That way, your AWA that becomes available to you only after 10 days would get to the school about the same time.

Nobody can determine your chance of getting admitted. I wager it takes a tinge of serendipity and submitting early (without relegating having a good profile or faith).

Someone else recommended adding more B+ and B- schools and he is right because presupposed safe schools are becoming precarious these days. Just based on NL, I would ask that you looked into University of Tennessee Knoxville, University of Texas, Dallas and maybe Drexel University.

Don't get caught in the hype of assuming meeting all the admission conditions of your prospective schools will automatically translate into an acceptance. It works that way more often than not in Master's applications but becomes unpredictable in PhD apps.

See for e.g, someone on here got admitted (and fully funded) into University of Virginia Charlottesville & Penn State Uni but same profile was rejected by UConn. Compatibility with POIs and timing could do the trick. I would only recommend you submitted your apps earlier than Dec or atleast before the stipulated deadline for early bird admisisons in your considered schools.

DreManuel:
We are speaking from our limited experiences that are not hard and fast. But could you clarify what course/ program the person that got into UC Berkeley with 307/309 is doing and if they got full-funding? And what year they got in, and what their GRE score breakdown is, and overall academic profile? That can help people here make informed decision and not run the risk of making hasty generalization.

And before someone understates the importance of GRE, they might dig more into their program/schools of choice. I applied to University of Michigan and on their site for Mech Engr., it was stated that GRE scores of min 85 percentile in Verbal and Quant is required with a CGPA of 3.7/4.0. So anyone who doesn't meet the initial criteria won't likely have a chance talkless of funding. Well, that's for Mech engr @UMich, i can't say for other schools.

In a nutshell, in this age of overwhelming complexity, accelerated change and tremendous competition, I would have no weak link in my profile, such as my GRE score, when I can do something about it. When the push comes to shove, every aspect of admission req is essential and you can't predict which would undermine you in the face of your competition.

GRE like every other aspect of an applicant's profile contributes some weightage but the lionization of that weightage is what I am fully against.

If you have been here long enough you'd have known I am a second-time writer myself. Heck, I even advised others to re-write and aim for toppest scores so I believe I am giving a well-rounded, rather than a hastily genaralized purview on the issue.

It was not long ago that someone with a great first and 2nd degree asked for prospective schools for her PhD and when I sighted her <300 GRE I asked her to retake it.

Some other guy saw it and gave contrary advise but to cut a long story short she got 2 fully-funded offers from both schools he recommended. And both were top 150 US schools FYI. In fact, one of the schools that accepted and funded her bounced me yet I more than outdid their GRE, AWA, TOEFL and GPA requirements.

If I was to take the argument that increased competition was my undoing, you may want to delve deeper into the accepted profiles in that school and juxtapose it with mine to make sense of that argument.

You referred to UMich's website but even that is neither here nor there. With your reasoning, GRE scores of 324 and AWA scores of 4.5 or greater are the only stats that would be entertained by the school but a random search on Google can easily disprove this. Take this for e.g someone got accepted into UMich for EE Masters 2017 without GRE and with a 3.68/4 GPA

http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=University+of+Michigan+engineering&t=a&o=p&pp=25

And I singled this example out because I have reported on this thread in the past how my own cousin in Canada contacted a Prof in UT Austin that was willing to help him waive the GRE requirement just so he could take him on as his PhD Advisor.

My synopsis is as it were; while the GRE plays a role in strengthening the profile of an applicant it will not tip the scale in a close call thus it is overrated. If 2 people being considered have 324 and 332 GRE. But Candidate A either spoke to an advisor, or had better research experiences or significantly better GPA, he would be considered over and above the guy with the better GRE.

That is why I implore people to talk to POIs and Prog coords to make informed decisions based on the feedback they get rather than rewrite GRE to score really well, when doing so may only get you through the front door and not a step further.