Study In The US & Canada for FREE...

I want to study abroad, most especially in Europe, US and Canada. How do I go about it? I do not have much information about schools in Europe. However, I do post some opportunities for Europe based on the scholarship alerts I receive. You can always visit the websites of the post I make for European schools and read more about specific scholarship. For US and Canadian schools, I can provide some information.




 I know you do not have much information about the EU but I am also interested in US and Canadian Schools. How do I go about it? The first step is for you to go to google, type in “ US Universities + your course of study” if you are interested in the US. You can do a similar search for Canadian schools by replacing US with Canada in your search. It will bring out several schools and you can go through these schools one-by-one. What are the requirements for getting into the US and Canadian schools? Kindly note that different schools have different requirements and so you have to carefully navigate through their graduate school website to have an idea of the requirements. It is not enough to just go through the graduate school website, you should also go through the website of your intended department as individual department do have additional requirements in addition to that of the graduate school. Some schools specify this type of requirement as “Program requirements”. For some schools, the major requirements for admission into US and Canadian schools are the results of your undergraduate degree, letters of recommendation, transcripts, a Statement of purpose and for most of the schools (most especially in the US and some schools in Canada), the GRE (Graduate Record Examination). What is the most important criteria out of the ones listed above? I will say that your undergraduate records and the GRE are ranked highest when schools are considering students for admission and funding. Some schools even place more emphasis on your performance in the GRE than your undergraduate record. This is because the educational system varies from one country to another. So the GRE creates an avenue to evaluate students from various educational backgrounds and finally helps the admission committee to evaluate and rank applications to their program. Admission and funding (scholarships) are given to applicants based on this ranking. Once funding is exhausted, other applicants are given an alternative to either fund themselves, or they are denied admission. Is there a difference between funding and scholarship? Funding and scholarships are the same in this context. Funding are given in form of teaching or research assistantship or fellowships (with teaching assistant, some or (mostly all the time) all of your tuition is paid with some stipends by teaching/ assisting in teaching of some undergraduate classes, while with research assistant, you work with a professor helping s/he on a research work) . This includes tuition waiver, health insurance and monthly stipend. I would like to know the admission policies of the US and Canadian universities if they review applications before the set deadline (First come first serve basis) and I would also like to know if decisions on scholarships and assistantantships are made after the deadline or prior. I will suggest that you go to the websites of the schools you are applying to as different schools have different policies as regards scholarships but they usually specify it on the department website. As far as I know I think most schools consider all applications together after the deadline and not on a first-come first-serve basis. I will just suggest that you take your time to thoroughly go through your departmental website in each of the schools you are applying to and if you have further questions, you can send an email to the graduate coordinator and all your questions and concerns will be adequately addressed. Are there schools in US and Canada that do not require GRE? Yes, there are schools in the US and Canada that do not require GRE. As a result, I think these schools receive a lot of applications from all over the world which makes it highly competitive due to their less stringent criteria (As regards the GRE). Since some schools do not require GRE, do you encourage me to apply to these schools without GRE? As a result of my own experience with this kind of issue, I will advise that only first class students should apply to these schools (even though their chances of getting into these schools might be slim due to high number of applicants from all over the world) but I will strongly recommend doing GRE should in case this doesn’t work as planned. Since the chances of getting into these schools without the GRE is slim, please tell me more about the GRE. GRE (Graduate record examination) is a computer adaptive test (I mean the one taken in Nigeria because some countries like China do have paper based GRE tests) that entrants into most US and Canadian graduate schools have to take in order to get admitted for graduate program and also to get funded. It is an aptitude test which could be a General test or a subject test. Most schools usually do not require subject test and you can always find a school that do not require a subject test. You can read more about the GRE from www.gre.org The General test consists of Quantitative and Verbal reasoning which is similar to our secondary school mathematics. So the exam is not hard. Do not listen to people that are pessimistic about writing the exam. It is all about time management. Once you have good materials in the exam, you will do very well in it. When can I write the GRE? Before Nigeria was ban by GRE, You can write the GRE on any working day throughout the year. Once you are ready, you can schedule your exam date yourself and go take the exam on the scheduled date. However, they now write the GRE weekends (usually Friday and Saturday) What is the Best time to write the GRE? The best time to write the GRE is on or before the 15th of December (in order to meet up with the application deadline for most schools). The idea is that application of most of the schools close by the 15th of January of every year for the fall (September) admission. So if you take the exam by the 15th of December, your results will be sent out to the schools you are applying after 2 weeks of taking the exam. This essence of this is to give allowance for the results to get to the schools you are applying to before the deadline. How do I register for the exam? You can go to register for the exam at the centers in Nigeria. However, I have learnt that they charge more than the exam fee (185 US dollars). As a result, I will advise that if you have someone who can help you register in the US, that will be a great idea. They will just register on your behalf for the day you want to write the exam and the confirmation page for the registration will be sent to your email automatically. A print out of the confirmation page is needed for you to be permitted into the exam. Also note that a means of identification in form of an international passport is needed for you to be admitted into the exam. You can check all the requirements on this link http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/test_day/. I have also found out that you can register yourself online with visa and mastercard. Where can I take the exam in Nigeria? The exam can be taken at First Logic, No 30 Oba Akran Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. There are also centers at First Logic in Abuja, Nigeria. Please note that there are other centers in Lagos, Abuja and Portharcourt but I do not have the details at the moment.


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 Do I have to go to an institute for lessons on the GRE? You do not need to go to an institute for lessons on the GRE. All you need are good study materials that will help in adequate preparation for the exam. I will recommend the following materials for you: I think based on reviews, Gruber's GRE is the best. you can also use BARON and Princeton. you may be able to download these materials from libgen.info or en.bookfi.org I have been to the website of some schools in the US and Canada and they do require TOEFL. Do I also need to do TOEFL? I will advise that you contact the school you intend to apply to first. They will be able to tell you more about the TOEFL requirement. I will say no because Nigeria is an Anglophone country and you can always let the school know this before you make your applications at all. If the school insists that you do TOEFL, then you can kindly search for other schools because most of these schools will always waive TOEFL for Nigerians. I have a 2:2. Do I stand a chance of getting admitted and funded? I will tell you a story of a friend who had a 2:2 from University of Ife and He is now in the US with full funding (Tuition waiver and stipend) from His school. What most school requires is a CGPA of 3.0 on a US scale of 4. This guy had a 3.4 on a scale of 5.0 from one of the Nigerian Universities which is a 2:2 and it is directly equivalent to less than 3.0 on the US scale of 4. There is a body in the US called WES (World Evaluation Service www.wes.org). What they do is to evaluate transcripts from other countries of the world on the US scale of 4. When the guy did His WES evaluation, the report showed that He has a CGPA of over 3.0 on a US scale of 4 which gave Him an advantage of getting into a US Graduate program. What now strengthened His competitiveness was his score in an Exam called the GRE (Graduate Record Examination www.gre.org).The GRE is like the most important criterion after one’s undergraduate result that schools in US consider in admitting and funding students. This Guy had a very high score in the GRE and this helped him. That was how He was able to get admission and funding The Scenario of the person you described above is a scenario of someone at the border of a 2:1. I am in the lower 2:2. What is my fate? The essence of my story is that you can follow the same process. There are some schools which require a CGPA of 2.5 to get into the graduate program. So I am optimistic that by the time they finish your WES evaluation, you will have more than 2.5 which will give you an advantage of getting into the programs with the 2.5 CGPA requirement. If you now do very well in your GRE, you will stand a very good chance of getting funded (Tuition waiver, health insurance and Monthly stipend). How do I search for Schools? You can search for schools by typing “Department of Forestry US Universities” if you are searching for Department of Forestry in US Universities. For example, if it is Canada, you will type “Department of Forestry Canadian Universities” What choice of school would you suggest? I will suggest that before apply to schools, you should look at the program ranking of schools that have your department. This will help you to reduce the amount of money spent on application fee and also increase your chances of getting admitted and funded. As a student coming into US or Canada for graduate studies, you need to understand that there are differences in education standards. So the fact that you made a first class in Nigeria does not guarantee that you will get into the top 10 programs in your field. I also want you to understand that program rankings are different from University rankings because a University might have the 50th ranking and be the number 1 ranked program in Chemistry. By program ranking I mean departmental ranking. So University ranking is different from program ranking and employers do recognize this fact. So in situations where other Universities are recruiting faculties (lecturers) in a particular field, they usually shoot for Ph.D graduates from top ranked programs. Now that you have now understand the difference between University ranking and program ranking, I will now explain how to make a choice of school when you are applying afresh from outside the US or Canada. My own advice is that students that are applying afresh from outside the US or Canada should apply to medium schools and not top schools. This is because the chances of getting into these top schools are usually very low because our educational system in Nigeria is usually not considered as “strong”. Please do not misunderstand me when I say that our educational system in Nigeria is not as strong. I do not mean to downgrade our education. What I mean is that we take a lot of irrelevant courses that are not supposed to be taken so that at the end of the day you cannot fully boast that you are a competent graduate from your field of study. For example, Agricultural Economics Students take a lot of classes from Animal and plant science that makes them more qualified to be an Animal or Plant scientist than being an Agricultural Economist. This is because Agricultural economists should take more of quantitative classes which we do not and at the end of the day, our transcripts are not internationally competitive because we do not usually have the skill sets the schools abroad are looking for in an Agricultural Economics graduate. I do have someone who made a 1st class in Agricultural Economics and applied to University of Alberta in Canada for Masters but was only admitted without funding. He finally got into an average school in the US for his masters and later applied to University of Alberta for his Ph.D. Because He now has the required skill set that Alberta needs, He got into Alberta with full funding. With this illustration now, I think you should now get my point. 

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 Based on my experience, I will advise that when you look at graduate program rankings , do not apply to top schools. Apply to medium schools and I am sure that irrespective of the deficiency you may have in your undergraduate in Nigeria, you stand a better chance to be admitted and funded in these programs. After you might have gone through your Masters in these medium ranked programs, you can now apply to a top school for your Ph.D and when they see consistency in terms of your performance both at undergrad and masters, they will be optimistic that you will do well in their program. This is the best way to go about it when applying for graduate studies. However, I want you to note that when you check program rankings, there are some programs that are not ranked. They usually write “NA” in front of these programs. That does not mean that those programs are not good. It is because only graduate programs that has Masters and Ph.D that are ranked. So once a program offers only Masters, it will not be ranked. In fact I will advise that you apply to such programs because most of them have good programs and fundings (scholarships) are more available to masters students because they do not have Ph.D students. In programs where they have Ph.D’s, they usually prefer to give their Ph.D students funding rather than their Master’s students. How do I carry out the program ranking search? Go to google search engine and type “Graduate program ranking in Agricultural Economics US universities”. You can do a similar search for Canadian Universities. If I am admitted and not funded, would you advise me to pay from my pocket? I would not advise you to pay from your pocket except your parents are extremely rich. Come to think of it. Average school fee per semester is over 11,000 US dollars and average living expenses (housing and feeding) is an average of 6000 to 9000 US dollars a year, depending on the part of the US you are. You are not allowed to work in the US except you work on your school campus and getting a job in school can be quite hard because everyone scrambles for the few jobs available on campus. Also it is hard to combine school work with job. It is a little easier in Canada though. If I am admitted and partially funded, would you advise me to pay from my pocket? I would not advise you to pay from your pocket based on the previous explanations except your parents are extremely rich. You also mentioned Statement of purpose as one of the criteria for admission. What is required in this statement of purpose? Statement of purpose is the same thing as statement of research interest or personal statement or letter of motivation. In some schools, they tend to distinguish between personal statement and statement of research. If they do so, they will let you know what is required in each one. In a broad context, statement of purpose is a written statement where you “market” yourself. I said market yourself because the people that are taking these admission decisions have not seen you or known you before so the extent to which your statement of purpose is convincing goes a long way in telling them that you are worth investing upon because the funding they are giving you is a form of investment and when you invest in something, you hope to get good result. So your statement of purpose is used to predict whether you will be able to meet up with the requirements of the program. By requirement in this context, I mean that whether you will be able to carry out all your assigned duties (classes, Teaching or Research Assistantship) without any problem. Specifically, Statement of purpose should include the following: It should not be more than two pages at most. The first paragraph should be focused on your motivation to study the course you studied as an undergraduate. I will advise that it should not be more than 8 lines and should be captivating. It will determine whether the admission committee will read through the whole statement or they will just drop the application. The second paragraph should be a follow-up on the first paragraph and should be focused on your experience as an undergraduate and you should link it up with your undergraduate project. The third paragraph should also be a follow-up of paragraph two, linking your research interest in your undergraduate project with your interested research area for your graduate studies. Kindly note that your area of research interest must be in line with the area of research interest of the faculties(Professors or Lecturers as we call it in Nigeria) in the department of program you are applying to. Trying to come up with new area of research does not impress admission committee here in US or Canada, it only disqualifies you because they will tell you they do not have an advisor (supervisor) for you. As a result, I suggest that before you apply to any department or write any statement of purpose, you should go through the profiles of the lecturers of the departments you wish to apply and fashion your statement of purpose or your research interest along the current area of research interest of the lecturers in that department. The fourth paragraph can be focused on your leadership, extra-curricular and other qualities you think could further make you more competitive for the program (like the conferences and symposiums you have attended which is in line with program you are applying to. You should also include the papers you have published in case you have published any). 

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 The fifth paragraph should indicate the reasons why you are applying to that particular program. The sixth paragraph should be the concluding paragraph and should be focused on what you intend to do with the degree you hope to obtain from this school.