₦airaland Forum

I think he meant he only attracts the 8s, 9s and 10s

Swagger

@ Ekt_bear

We might need proof though anyone can make claims online. Also American girls like "The D" a lot and dont really mind who its coming from. Your luck might run out if you were in a different country

Thanks for the contribution. My suspicions were closer to your observations, but I just needed someone with experience to confirm them. I will give it my best this summer and hope for the best. I plan to approach my summer research like some sort of audition to apply whichever professor I get to work for's lab for grad school. How much clout do individual professor's have in choosing who gets to work for them?

Well it depends if the professor is in the admission committee and also how good the school is. Most times though the mantra especially at places like EMmm AIiiii Tea is that "students are admitted to a program and not to a research group" .

Thanks for your expose'. It's been very enlightening. But can you elaborate on the above statement?

Most students that get into Berkeley for engineering have a very interesting background. Do some research on the profiles of their current students

Tpia don vex finish


PhysicsMHD and his fascination with huge Phalluses. Talk about Complexes.

Probably something he is itching to tell us sha

^ I think this has a lot to do with semantics and how departments are structured. In Engineering, sometimes, an MS degree is required to progress towards a PhD. I went to look at the UIUC website in Electrical?? And it seemed that they had two options for the MS- one leading to a PhD and another a terminal MS degree.

Ok, I now understand why you assumed that UIUC would be a safety. However, its a bit trickier than that. A lot of departments prefer MS---> PhD students as opposed to those going for a terminal MS degree. A very research oriented school like UIUC will in general only accept graduate students who are gunning for a PhD. Only very rarely do they accept students who are aiming for an MS. If you applied for an MS leading to a PhD though its still the main concerns as someone applying to just a PhD. The only additional brouhaha is that MS to phD programs are even more stressful since you have to look for a supervisor.

@Vpersie

Undergrad matters contrary to what you have heard especially for the top schools. It matters a lot actually. I am sure you have heard the term "Ivy begets Ivy." Now this does not mean that people from lower tier schools cant get in (That's contradictory since the undergraduate profile of most Phd students are all over the place). It just means that their is a cluster of people from top undergrads. Also you must do more than usual if you are from a lower tier school to get noticed.

Seems you have done that already so try your best. Also apply broadly. Frankly, I dont know why everyone is fascinated with the top 10. Apply broadly and relax, even if you dont make MIT its not the[b] end of the world[/b]. As you grow older you become aware that life is too short to care about such things .


@ Someone who is applying to Berkeley
Its easier to pass through a needle than getting into Berkeley for a PhD in engineering straight from Naija. Cross it out, Try Georgia Tech, Austin et al.

I mean literally, this is no figurative talk

Hey guys hope all of you are doing ok. Just wanted to make some quick statements:

1) I agree with the Ceze guy. SOP are kind of personal. For SOP examples look at http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~natalia/studyinus/guide/statement/samples.htm

Personally not my style of writing but some of you might find it helpful.

2) Design projects ideally are not what I would call research but I think its field specific. However play out whatever advantage you have. If the design relates to the research of some of the professors in the department mention and elaborate on them.

3)

Disclaimer: My essay-writing skills are pathetic; I don't know how MIT and Stanford were OK with it.

You seem to write well online u sure? Or just being selfish

@flo_path: I don't understand all the rejections myself; Maybe its God's way of reminding me that the race is not to the swift, or the intelligent for that matter. I'm sha thankful for the MIT at least.

Actually they are really self-explanatory. st zero elaborated on them quite well to be frank. 1) No research experience

What people here are glossing over is the fact that your MIT and Stanford acceptances are Masters degree acceptances. Your rejections are likely PhD rejections (in which research is very very important). You would make an excellent Masters degree candidate based on your academic record but there is no indication in your record that suggests you would pose an excellent researcher which is what you would need to do a PhD.

2) Also you are an international student. International student admissions is fierce and Africans do not register in the talent hunt compared to Asians or Europeans. Not because we cannot do it but because Asia (in the broadest of terms) have students who have engaged in research that makes them competitive candidates. Imagine people from continental Europe or Asia with two years of research plus a first class plus first author in a research paper plus similar GRE scores competing for the same spot with you. Sucks I know because I am sure if you had these opportunities in Nigeria you would have taken advantage of them. But most people on the admission committee might not see that as sufficient grounds to reject such a well qualified candidate and take you.

If you get funding at MIT (I really hope you do), take it and I am sure you will be more than capable of completing the rest.

Hmm not as much as I wanted, Well fstranger, I have to say that although I thought you were ok albeit a bit cuckoo, you have decided to piss me off to the extent that I have put you down on my "I dont like you list"

Congratulations you are number two on that list.

FYI tons of people on NL know already. The same way I know tons of stuff about people on NL. However they don't mention it in my face. Its called privacy and courtesy.

And kobokoed

^Whatever be a good omo odua and remove the SDN reference in your post.


Lol. I talk primarily to oyibo people so I generally write like them. I guess why you might have many issues though.

Never you make fun of me here on NL again ok! Grin Grin

I have you by the balls now!!!!!!! Grin

Well if you say so.

fstranger needs to be caned

^

, where is my chick?? 


Anyways tbh, the topic actually makes sense- Nigerian history is rarely taught intensively in Nigeria. I think there is a sort of political correctness in the curriculum which prevents the addition of very sensitive topics. However, I feel secondary school students should be mature enough to understand the realities of living in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society as Nigeria and the issues that can arise when one group begins to think they are superior to another.

The Biafran War aside, there are still a lot of things that need to be taught in Nigeria. If I remember correctly, a significant part of the curriculum was dedicated to the Colonial Era- especially knowing and understand the british policy in Nigeria and the names of the Colonial rulers such as Lugard. Inbetween cramming crap like Mungo Park and the name of the wife of Lord Lugard- Flora Shaw- I always wondered if my time wouldn't have been better spent learning about Precolonial Nigeria.

Nigerian History Can be divided into five parts:
Precolonial Nigeria (Where the Noble and Organized Yoruba lived in well kept towns, the Savage and Kingless Igbos lived in mudhuts and dispersed villages and the Nomadic and Cattle-rearing Hausa-Fulani roamed the savannah, with some other minority groups which are basically visitors in Nigeria- Urhobo, Nupe, Ijaw et al. Currently the comprise what is now known as Modern Day Nigeria

Colonial Nigeria: England was bleeping everywhere up in the world and had just finished bleeping up india so they thought: Why not just bleep up some places in Africa too. Lets put all these people with different cultures and identities together to form one country. They would all get along being of the same color. All black people get along quite well you know.


Post-Colonial Nigeria: The British started to pack their bags out of tropical west africa. After being thoroughly walloped in World War II they figured that their foreign operations were no profitable and that managing an empire from such a small island might not be really a good idea. Nigerians who had been fighting for independence thought they had won. More rational people knew what really happened.

Nigeria began her unsteady journey to nationhood. A couple of coups happened, there was some s/h/i/t going down based on ignorance and primitive group-think and ethnocentrism. Everything culminated in a Civil War in Nigeria. S/h/i/t hit the fan and Nigeria got her first headline news.

The civil war put us on the map to international stardom and notoriety.

Civil War Era: An era of propaganda, pointing and blaming people. I dont know too much about this three years. The problem is that the story changes depending on who is telling you. But there are a 1000 threads on NL about this.

Naija Era: Nigeria begins to find her identity. We might not be as tech savvy as the japanese but we have learned to adapt to our environment. We became known for 419 (Till now most people conder me an awesome letter writer based on my nationality, and lots of oyibo people ask me to write letters for them to their friends because they have seen so many good samples from their emails), Lasgidi, Lots of oil and wealth all wasted. First Country to be ruled by a walking-dead president. 

I would like to say something though about the effect of the absence of history as a core part of the Nigerian educational curriculum: Recycled Leadership. Whats so unique about Nigeria in our history compared to other countries is our ability to recycle leaders. Every new election rumors of IBB running for presidential elections emerge. People are currently contemplating another recycled leader Buhari. Obasanjo F/u/c/k/ed up several years ago in the military and had the opportunity to repeat his f/u/c/k up again.

So while other African countries have life long dictatorial leaders like Sese Seko these are largely absent in Nigeria. In Nigeria we repackage the past and present it in as something new in the future. The fact is that our collective memory is so short that we cannot bad leadership.

How does this tie with your question: Well for one Nigeria has altered democracy to fit her own environment and culture of the people. Its no secret that Africans rarely kept historical accounts of their past until the incursion from Europeans (Before I get flamed, trust me if we argue on this I will win hands down). So its not surprising that even now in the 21st century we still repeat that mistakes and practise a democracy that is turns a blind eye to the past.

PS: I think you are honestly looking for trouble.

Nigerian History is taught both at the primary, secondary and tertiary level

In Primary Level- You learn stuff like about Afonja, and like Oba Kosoko of Lagos and the slave trade, Usman Dan Fodio and his Feminazi Daughter Nana Asmau and Jaja of Opobo. Obviously, they are not going to teach much about a civil war in elementary school.  Igbo people do not feature in this part of history, I dont know why though.

At the secondary level-You dont take core history per se but your do social studies or civilian studies or whatever till Junior secondary level. At secondary school level students who study Art Subjects (Since I was smart and my friends were smart, we all studied sciences, and I did not interact with many of these) you are required to take history and government.

I dont know much about these but from the little I know: In Government they teach you about all the crap that went down in naija but they dont go indepth into the Biafra issue. I dont blame them though. History too same thing. Teachers would give a very general overview of the Biafran war- Like Igbo people were tired of the federation (they would not go into details obviously of the massacres or assassination that went on during that period)

Tertiary Level: WTF are you doing studying History 

Why do you hate ekiti people? They are usually nice people _{I know they are my inlaws}.

Where are my pictures, I am kind of getting impatient?

The guy is lying though - as long as he does not go out in broad daylight frenching a guy he should be ok lol.

@aloy.emeka

I think you are wrong. I am madly, deeply, in love with Ileke-Idi. Its so bad that I have printed all her nairaland posts and cut each of them into heart-shaped pieces and pasted on the walls of my room.

I even wait each day waiting for her to pop up online, thats why I dont start posting until she does, havent you noticed that?

PS: Can you post pictures of yourself? You know what they say about yoruba men and infidelity . . .

Your last sentence betrays your ignorance because Orwell DID actually live in the 20th century and he dealt with britain's imperialism and paternalism towards its former colony Burma in his book "Shooting Elephants".

I meant 21st century, I am multitasking mate. Its pretty easy to infer if you read carefully instead of typing without bothering to comprehend what I wrote. I was talking about modern day paternalism or what people refer to as neo-colonialism (Thats why i used first world nations) as opposed to colonialism.

Orwell had no need  to sketch , create or build on any of his characters because Animal Farm was not a work of fiction it was a factual account of a failed utopia.  As a matter of fact the subject matter of animal farm was regarded as so obvious and so controversial it was banned in eastern europe until 1989.  If the book were merely a general story about universal human frailities why was it seen as such a threat by the eastern bloc govts?

I never said otherwise. You have failed to comprehend what I wrote. I said:

Also its not "thinly disguised"- [b]the only reason it was easy to interpret [/b]as a cirticism of marxism was because it was written during that era and because Orwell was very vocal about his opinion of Stalin's Government. If Orwell had lived in the 20th century, his work could easily have been paralleled towards the imperialism and paternalism of first world nations towards developing nations by an astute observer.

I said the fact that he wrote it at that specific time period gave it strong contetx. It was directed towards communism but that does not preclude its message about the fact that certain forms of government elevate the leaders over the followers although they promise equality. Even democracy, in which we expect our leaders to show a bit of accountability

So, I did not claim that it was not a direct attack on Marxism, but that its message can be applied inour time to other forms of government. You must be deluded if you think that the failings of communism was an inherent problem with marxism inasmuch as problem with all forms of government. It follows then that Animal Farm can be used as a parallel to various political situations. Your next action, has already being mentioned then is to point out why such comparisons are infact flawed.

The fact that Awolowo might not have created a political ideology like  is not infact sufficient evidence to discount a parallel. Let me give you an example, I lifted it straight from the internet, and I hope you can follow from it:

Pupils are more like oysters than sausages. The job of teaching is not to stuff them and then seal them up, but to help them open and reveal the riches within. There are pearls in each of us, if only we knew how to cultivate them with ardor and persistence.

Can you see the analogy? Now what you are doing on the otherhand is this: Wait how are pupils like Oysters? They are not shaped like oysters. They dont walk like oysters. They dont smell like oysters. And sausages, how can pupils be likened to sausages? You cannot eat pupils, you cannot fry pupils, you cannot e.t.c

But the pupils are not required to have the exact same properties as an oyster.

Its supposed to be an analogy not a metaphor. You seem to be mixing up the two.

^ do u wanna find out?

I will oblige you. It involves lots of practicals sha.

Oh yeah and I forgot the guy could be Ekiti. The probalem is that I am really not into stereotypes so I dont think of such stuff at all.

@ileke-idi
Well I would point out that one of the first athletes who came out of the closet were of Yoruba descent actually

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Fashanu

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1078698/Ex-player-claims-12-Premiership-football-players-gay-afraid-come-out.html

Actually I was wrong, the other person is Amaechi and he is igbo.

Kanye samples a lot and does not make original beats. Timbo is still active man. No Kanye hasnt even touched anyone, he just steals people's music. Ray Charles would be turning in his grave right now if he heard Golddigger.

You are an example of why it is important for people to stay in school, first of all you have the reading and comprehension ability of a 2 year old , therefore to attempt to even discuss and analyse a work as complex as animal farm is like expecting a mentally handicapped 2 year old to analyse Das Kapital, YOU ARE A FUNCTIONAL ILLITERATE, LEAVE INTELLECTUAL DISCUSSIONS TO YOUR BETTERS AND CONCENTRATE ON WHAT YOU KNOW BEST GANGSTA RAP AND GANG BANGING.

Actually cap28, I could analyze the works of Marx, Plato, Machiavelli at age 2. Just because you were sucking your thumb at that age does not mean all of us should.

[quote author=tpiah! link=topic=616372.msg7853709#msg7853709 date=1299369521]not the first time i'm hearing this type of analogy [ie nigeria and animal farm].

even fela sang a lot about similar stuff, so i doubt most would find it so offensive, really.

maybe because specific names were mentioned?[/quote]Beast of no Nation Egbe ke egbe na bad society  

He did mention names though actually just not with ethnic undertones

This has more to do with the fact that people see it as an insult to their ethnic group- they are really not interested in looking for meaning into what is being said. Even if bkbabe99 made it to piss some people off (which he obviously did  ), I think there is still a lot that could be taken from his analysis.

LOL Dont insult my wife abeg lol

^ Hmm interesting maybe a menage a trois is in order, one of my to do list before I leave this earth- whats your is mine too.

Let me check her pictures out first.

Oh yeah I now remember  , ahh I would have to put our menage a trois in abeyance

Yes i would agree with you on that because you are the living embodiment of it.

first of all a literary work can only have a universal appeal if it deals with basic themes which apply to ALL people irrespective of race, culture language etc for example themes like, love, courage, hatred, greed.

Animal Farm does not fit into that mode it is a thinly disguised account of Stalin's brutal dictatorial regime  - it deals with a specific issue - the failure of marxism.

You have reduced the diverse themes in animal farm into one thesis. That is your underlying and fallacious assumption. Moreover, what drove marxism if not the greed of the Russian Monarchy? To build upon his general criticsm of marxism, Orwell had to sketch characters that represented all the vices that plague human kind, vices of greed, of hatred, of group think (something that is common in all forms of government from democracy all the way to fascism and monarchy). Thats is where the universality of literature comes from and that is why they are termed the humanities because they are reflection of human behavior both the good, the bad and the ugly.

Also its not "thinly disguised"- the only reason it was easy to interpret as a cirticism of marxism was because it was written during that era and because Orwell was very vocal about his opinion of Stalin's Government. If Orwell had lived in the 20th century, his work could easily have been paralleled towards the imperialism and paternalism of first world nations towards developing nations by an astute observer.

Try again. I am seriously disappointed.

True My bad. But the framework for that corruption was that of communism while that for Nigeria is a mixture of other things one of them being the exploitation of ethnocentrism and religious fanaticism.

Low IQ is definitely a major problem in Nigeria  

@cap28
There is something in literauture called universalism of a body of work. This universalism indicates that some works are so timeless that they could find application and meaning to any society and to any time. Animal farm is one of those books. When drawing an analogy it is not required that the characters should be fit for fit in characteristics, I think its fairly ok, if there are some general similarities in the characteristics and ideologies of constructed character parallels.

The fact that most people are seeking a match for match parallel between the book (one written to satire communism) and the Nigerian situation (one of deep rot and corruption) is quite to put it bluntly daft.

@Ezeuche
Search time took me 1.8 seconds

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-381133.0.html

Bro U serious?

People, people

Stop calling yourselves racially derogatory names

You can call each other ethnostereotypical names though:

Name one Igbo person who has the time to worry about you Yoruba?

Seems you beat me to it. But honestly be subjective and think outside your personal prejudices for once-

Are you serious??

Weird comparisons and mismatches, no time to go through and debunk it all.

LOL, must you debunk am na, its called trolling at its finest

Andre Uweh:
@The mods, please transfer this thread to the rightful section-Tribalism section.

I personally see it as a well thought off analysis of the current political situation in Nigeria although it is full of anachronisms. Although you can argue that some of the analogies are infact spurious, it does not detract from the fact that a lot of them are dead-on.

Sorry if I sound a bit like Dede1 using superfluous grammar, but I could not find more direct words to succinctly convey my point.

[quote author=EzeUche_ link=topic=616372.msg7847785#msg7847785 date=1299277917]bk.bastardo [/b]has took it upon himself to declare a jihad against the Igbo race. A tall task for anyone. 

[b]But I am ready for him.

https://www.stefanoforenza.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/screenshotaa64_crusader_tn.jpg[/quote]Arochukwu warrior, I expected a picture of a man dressed in leaves, with a sharp cutlass and a lot of charms, odeshi and bullet-proof juju.

You disappoint me.

Timbaland>>>>>>Dr Dre

No basis for comparison at all in their abilities to make beats. Just check out one republic man or even Kate Perry.

Dr Dre should just stick to rapping.

LOL

bros, becomrich is taking you on a ride. He knows anything he makes up will bring out comments, and that is what he wants. He is not trying to prove a point.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-617015.0.html

You guys have pissed becomrich

So is M.ENG post secondary school education or post first degree?

Canada and to a lesser extent the US- Postgraduate
UK- undergraduate
Nigeria- We dont do this s/h/i/t

Anyways the more I read Becomrich's post, the more I am impressed with the depth of his analysis