₦airaland Forum

Kranjar:
It is safest for the money to be in your account until you get the permit. Those guys are unpredictable. The VO might request for your statement after 3 months of holding on to your package. What do you do then if you have already returned the money?

parksg:
leave it there till your visa it approved or after printing SOA on night before you arrive Canada...although I think the latter is the best bet. My thoughts though

Well, in all these disappointments my case was still different as I took time to engage God and believe solely on him for a testimony. The same research proposal sent to the Female Professor at the University of New Brunswick was sent to another Prof at Waterloo who was even a Canada Research Chair and she also picked interest in my proposal. In fact her comment was that the topic was very interesting and that I should just make sure I meet the requirement set by the school, also asking me to send in my transcripts for review in the timebeing……. (Note: This explicitly tells that she’s not only interested in my proposal but also willing to supervise me). Walahi! My joy knew no bound when I received the mail. Hello Sir, I was extremely happy. I knew this was it, so I kept praying and believing in God. As a sharp Nigerian like you , I quickly fired-in my application with alacrity, making sure her name reflected both in my Letter of Intent and in the application form before replying her mail. My fear was that I had 3,66/5.00 which if converted to percentage equals 73.2% approximately while the school requirement was 75% for a MASc, though i had 4.00/5.00 (80%) GPA in my last 2 years.

The application I submitted was for spring 2017 and by the end of July 2016, application documents were complete. So I kept praying to God, specifically asking for admission and full funding. Isn’t that funny?!! Full funding indeed ….. but I was serious about these crazy asking even though I knew my credentials did not qualify me, but his word (…"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too difficult for me?.... I knew would qualify me. You obviously know how competitive engineering research programs are in the University of Waterloo and that their research program are partially funded for international students. This is because you have nothing left anymore once your tuition is removed from the funding or scholarship awarded to you.

So, after a fasting and praise session and I mean PRAISE not prayer as declared by my father Bishop David Oyedepo on Nov 14, 2016, I got a mail from the Graduate Administrator for the department that my intended supervisor had shown interest in my application but would prefer I begin my application in Fall 2017 instead of the Spring I applied for, asking if that will be cool by me. Immediately I replied the mail that I will be very glad to begin the program in the Fall 2017. What am using my life to do that I can’t wait till fall. :DLollsss. Though I didn’t add the latter sentence to it anyway……. !!!!lolllssssssss

As soon as i got to know this, and with the extent of information garnered on this forum, I started submitting letters to gain internship experience in some agencies that could provide me a background to my intended research. Imagine, the research that the school hasn’t even given me an admission yet. This I did because, I wasn’t working in the engineering industry per-say and to avoid that being used against me by the VO, I had to seek for internship, though the job I was doing still complemented my profile as I was working as a Research Person in a private firm as at then.

However I knew my best bet was to be in the engineering industry. So I started strategizing not knowing that my strategies would eventually pay off, in fact it was only God’s inspiration. You know how stupid it can look to leave the current job you are using to survive for an internship in a place where you are not even sure of getting transport fare. But praise be to God, I submitted letters of request to three (3) organizations that aligned with my research intentions and got positive responses from two (2) of them. The first posted me to its Research and Development Division and the Second was one of the FG-World Bank Project where I was given the opportunity to engage in a pilot data collection exercise of relevance to my intended research, travelling all across most of the northern parts of Nigeria with a nice package. As a matter of fact this is still going on and I’m still on it, It can only be God. The Third is an intergovernmental organization widely known across West Africa, in fact we were all taught its acronym in Secondary School and my request is still being processed.

It is really unbelievable to be given opportunities with these organizations without even an admission letter to prove that you are going for a research program true-true loolllsss..Only by mere making the organizations see a need for the research and how gaining experience with them will help provide me a background to my intended research at the University of Waterloo was good enough for them to involve me. This is only God’s Wisdom not Man’s wisdom.

…….See!! God doesn’t need anybody’s approval to help you out once you put your total trust in him. Colleagues in the present place where I’m running the internship still do not understand how I was engaged and wouldn’t believe my story, they think I have a very influential person at the top who slotted me in… You know as Naija Parole dey always be naa! !…Any way they are Correct! The Influential person is God…. Abi no be so? He’s the most influential person in the entire Universe.

Lesson: Without Faith it is impossible to please God and Faith without action is a dead faith. Start taking some abnormal steps in the direction of your purpose trusting in God alone. We have been made to believe that human connection is what we need to survive, but remember that man is limited and God is Unlimited. One thing I have noticed is that most people who get it using peoples connection eventually gets stuck either now or in the nearest future. They are not able to achieve or live to their full potential since they didn’t wait on God to help them out to give them the best. Most people in this category are even frustrated and are looking for how to break free to achieve what they are TRULY passionate about.

Remember…..... "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD…Jer 17:5. Stop trusting in Man and start trusting God, you may think that he’s slow but he doesn’t look at the clock as you do and time doesn’t dictate to him, he dictates to time. Even in all this, you have to put actions to your faith. Don’t just believe and sit down there and be waiting for it, go out for it believing that you will get it. You would be surprised where this will land you……Be crazy enough to go after what looks impossible to achieve in your line of purpose because Crazy faith is what moves God to step in…Yes Crazy FAITH!!!

So as I was saying, before I know it, I checked and Spring had been changed to Fall 2017 on my Quest (the student/application portal for Waterloo Students) account, so the waiting continued and my believe and prayers for full funding did not stop as I know of a surety that my case was ordained to be different. I sent in mails to the graduate administrator as to when letters would be sent out and she indicated that decision letters would be sent out by April 1. …..So I kept on praying and engaging in kingdom advancement prayers…. Matt6:33…..Seek yee first the kingdom of God and every other thing shall be added unto you!! ; knowing fully well that God is ever true to his covenant and words…In the process I applied to UBC as well since the application fee is free. Abi? Why shouldn’t I apply naa?! since the awoof application waiver is good and in no dey run belle, but I really didn’t put my mind to it.

To cut the long story short I checked my mailbox on April 1, 2017 and God did it, I was offered admission into a (MASc) in Civil Engineering at the University of Waterloo and was funded by the University, the department and my supervisor as well. funding package amounted to 22880 CAD per year.

********Very Important Note*************
The preceding paragraph with all other write-ups excluding the bible verses and peripheral adjustments was written between March 14 and March 28 and on March 29 (instead of April 1) I got a mail that I have been offered admission into uWaterloo and the funding if calculated sums to 45760 CAD for 2 years without tuition waiver. So all i need is to prove living expenses alone

As the word of the Lord says…… Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay….Hab 2:2-3. This was impossible to believe but God loves doing what is impossible to Man . ...He loves it when you do the foolish things he tells you, because he uses it to confuse the wise. He qualified me despite my CGPA before the graduate committee and extremely favoured me with generous funding. Who’s is the doer of all this? GOD!!!!! Another gist is that the person I’ll be working with administrates the Society that regulates my profession in the entire Canada… I’m sure you know what that means………

God wants to do more than this for you if you will only go after impossible things and hold on to him ALONE. Do your own part and then leave the rest for him to handle. He’s a very faithful God.

To all Admission seekers, you case is also ordained to be different.

….Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path….. Prov 3: 5

My case is different!!!! So is yours, because we are the redeemed of the Lord and as a covenant child, what affect others is not permitted to affect us.

Congratulations!!!!!!!

Disclaimer: Why don’t you let Jesus help you with all your worries, accept him into your life and he will make you a covenant child. …..Jesus Loves you!!….

My Case is Different (MCID........Continued.....)......

........How e come be for me Shey?!!! Errrhhhhh!! what do you expect ? With my 3.66 CGPA I resumed my applications to schools in 2016 as I couldn’t spare alawee during NYSC in 2015. Early 2016 I got a supervisor in the University of New Brunswick who saw a potential in me. In fact he even commended the way I put forward my research proposal, he was from a Chinese origin and concluded on accepting to supervise me for my intended masters in Civil engineering. I was very happy but cash no dey to apply immediately (Lesson: Please let me say this now, once you get a go ahead from a supervisor, endeavour to fire-in your application with alacrity). You can thought out what that resulted into already. I didn’t have the financial resource to fire in on time and only if I knew the application fee was 50 CAD I would have submitted an application immediately as my thoughts, just like many on this forum was that the application fee is 100 CAD. So if you don’t know pls know today that the application fee to UNB is 50 CAD and not 100CAD and above. Unfortunately, when I had the money to submit an application in April 2016 or so, and I informed him that i was about submitting an application, he advised that he couldn’t accept me as a student anymore and that his quota was already full. In other words, …..I should park well and go find another supervisor . I really don’t have the time to describe how I felt but I made sure I learnt from my mistakes.

So I geared myself up to resume sending mails to prospective supervisors but many did not respond. Most of those who responded said they weren’t interested or aren’t accepting graduate students for now. Being discouraged by these responses, I decided to start looking for MEng opportunities which were course based. I stumbled on the University of Manitoba and submitted application immediately knowing fully well that I qualified for the program, I had a 4.00/5.00 in my last 2 years in school which exceeded their requirement but I wasn’t offered admission solely on not having a supervisor. Angered by the fact that I very well checked their departmental website which didn’t specify that a supervisor is required for a Course-based MEng admission as at that time and having met all requirements, I started sending them appeal letters detailing how disappointed I am with the school. In fact, we exchanged up to like five mails based on various queries in a hope for a positive reply. But no justice was done and I knew I’ll just keep wasting my time if I continue with the yeye correspondence. I’ve been denied already and there is nothing anybody can do about it, but it was so painful !!. After a few months the requirement on their departmental page was updated, explicitly stating that it was mandatory to have a Supervisor prior to admission into a MEng course based program in Civil Engineering.

Lesson: Always try as much as possible to find out why you are being denied an offer of admission or even TRV (GCMS), learn from it and move on.

As a Naija boy i had to move on, no shaking!!...i stated checking out other schools and even if it’s a Meng I want to apply to, I try as much as possible to secure a supervisor first hoping that this should be easy for the supervisor since I wouldn’t be engaging in intense research than just a final year project. But this wasn’t easy to come by either.

Luckily in this quest, I was able to interest another supervisor in the University of New Brunswick . She said she was interested in my research proposal and I quote, ‘…..your proposal will be an interesting topic for a research report….’ Having learnt from the need to submit applications immediately a Professor is interested in your life, I fired in my application without sending her an instant mail to even thank her for her interest in my case. It was after I submitted the application that I sent her a mail to inform her that I have submitted an application and had indicated her as a potential supervisor who i'll like to work with, but that didnt work for her. To my greatest surprise, her reply was that she was very interested in my proposal but already had three graduate students she had promised to supervise and that her lab is a new one which cannot take more than 3 students for a start. She was sincerely Sorry and advised that I inform the graduate school to change the application to a MEng. At this point I thought my village people had appeared to this woman over the night as I couldn’t believe what i was reading from my mail. It was very strange. So, I asked the grad school to change the research program to a MEng but was told the program also requires that i have a supervisor. Unfortunately the department did not have a lot of professors working in the area of interest/specialization indicated in my application. I got to know this information because I was always calling to speak on phone with the Chair of Graduate Studies in the Department and he deemed it fit to keep briefing me on the status of my application. To cut the long story short, He informed me during one of my calls that all the departmental faculty had assessed my application and none was interested in accepting me into the program.

Lesson 1 Clearly find out from your potential supervisor, his or her willingness to supervise you before applying. Don’t ever dwell on just their interest, let them state it on the mail they send to you that they want to supervise you.

Lesson 2: Always write a research proposal that highlights areas of common research interest among at least 3 Professors within your intended department, especially if you are not required to have a supervisor before the submission of your application. Don’t stereotype the research proposal to just one (1) Professor’s area of interest.

.........(to be continued to the last part)
Kindly bear!....Its to help prospective admission seekers......

MCID

Blackanada:
I've been seeing posts about "upfront medicals" but I'm not sure I fully understand.

Can someone explain to me how that works? Also any idea of the cost of medicals in Abuja?

TWoods:
Those are weak. These are not technically significant programs that you cannot get in your own country. Why spend millions of naira studying psychology in the US when you can do the exact same here for far cheaper? Think what the VO would say...

LagosismyHome:
In the US law is not a first degree anyway.. most law programs are second degree like medicine which requires you to have a bachelors degree first plus LSAT exam before entering a JD program

texrem:
Yes...Just analyse it..US law vs Nigeria law.. Does it help in the Nigerian community? what difference will it make? So look well before you jump!

Eraytee:
Well detailed, its a letter of explanation and not a SOP (this is an essay). Though the two serves same purpose. Just that an essay doesn't have an address while a letter does.

TWoods:
how would studying US law be useful to her in Nigeria?

OluDare01:
Guy how far na

Megziflips:
UWaterloo computer science applicant here, still waiting. Following gradcafe, a few people have gotten admission.
What did you apply for?

maternal:
I agree, all makes sense. Trump is quickly destroying America's economy.

unyted:
This is spot on. While USA and Canada have similar land mass, the population of USA is 10 times more than Canada's (about 350 million vs 35 million). The reality is, Canada needs skilled guys.

maternal:
Seems like application for international students trying to get into a Canadian university has gone up due to Trump's anti immigration stance. Will Canadian universities increase prices?



http://m.therecord.com/news-story/7099954-canada-to-benefit-from-foreign-student-surge-

idogbo:
resend the Email to lovelypaulo2009@yahoo.com thanks

idogbo:
my course doesn't require securing a supervisor, I actually applied for masters in engineering in the dept of electrical nd computer engineering... I submitted my CV, 2 academic references from my university, and also a supplementary form...so what do you think and also what do you suggest?

tonzo:
more trucks

donasere:
Boss.. please are you speaking as a past awardee who used his canadian admission to receive the award or you know someone who was awarded in the past.
Now when I say in the past I mean like last year. And kindly put to cognizance the absence of Canada in the list of supported countries which appears on the ptdf website.
Thank you









Kindly infer from the above and respond to boldened. Thank you.

I think my response does judgement to your question.



Cc: dmainman your 2cents please

donasere:
Boss.. please are you speaking as a past awardee who used his canadian admission to receive the award or you know someone who was awarded in the past.
Now when I say in the past I mean like last year. And kindly put to cognizance the absence of Canada in the list of supported countries which appears on the ptdf website.
Thank you

I'm not a past scholar but i have a very close friend studying in canada and was funded by the PTDF scheme. Our main objective as applicants is to do our best in making sure we make the MSc OSS Scholar list. Any admission you have afterwards can be funded by the scheme, in fact with no hitches.

Let me shock you, do you know you even get paid for the number of years required to complete your program. Most canadian universities offer 2yrs masters program while the Uk offers 1yr. So if you can secure admission to a canadian university you get paid for two years by the PTDF compared to the UK. But securing admission to a Masters program in Canada is not easy, the competition is high but its attainable.

SURGEE





Kindly infer from the above and respond to boldened. Thank you.

I think my response does judgement to your question.



Cc: dmainman your 2cents please

pete26:
Please guys, are canadian uni accepted by ptdf? I need ans please