QUESTION AND ANSWER ON GETTING ADMISSION INTO U.S. GRADUATE SCHOOLS WITH A NIGERIAN FIRST DEGREE

Hello Dr. Taiwo,

Good day, compliments of the season to you, and I hope you’ve been enjoying the festive season.
I am Olu, and have been following you since-I-can’t-remember-now, but I can recollect that I came across your post on “Winning the Wrong Race” on Jarus Hub; for me, it was an inspirational read, concluding that I should set standards for myself, and that, at the end, the wins that matters are those I’m comfortable with, not what others are currently going after.

Thanks to you for that.

As it stands, I just completed my B.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering (OAU, yet to go for NYSC), and intend to be a Fall 2016 applicant to the University of Arkansas Chemical Engineering program.

I got to know about the school from you since you finished from OAU as myself. I have studied your Linkedin profile and I think I like the prospects of Chemical Engineering, especially after PhD studies.

1. I want to know how possible it is for me to ‘cross’ from BSc Agric Engineering to PhD Chemical Engineering program.

2. I had a GP of 3.45/4.0 (in US scale), so I also want to know my chances of getting funding/scholarships from the school

3. Since grad schools place strong emphasis on research experience, I will like to know how I can convince the grad school of my capacity to do  independent research

4. Is there any way that my BSc background will affect me, either during admission or when I eventually get admitted?

I’m yet to take the GRE.

Thanks so much for helping me out, as I await your reply.

Best,
Olu.

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Dr. Michael Taiwo, one of JarusHub’s contributors and mentors, holds a first degree in chemical engineering from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, and PhD in same discipline from the University of Arkansas, United States.

Hi Olu,

I’m proud of your accomplishments. A GP of 3.45/4.00 is impressive! The first step right now is the GRE. For admission purposes, the GRE is more important than your GP because it is a standard exam and therefore they can use it to measure the relative strengths of all the applicants to a program irrespective of what school they go to or what country they are from.

Admission officers know that a GP of 3.45 in School A may be very different from a GP of 3.45 from School B, therefore they rely on GRE to compare candidates. Hence, the GRE is more important than your GP. Please take it seriously and score as high as possible. The nearer to the perfect score you have, the better your chances at getting into any school you want.

Now specifically concerning the question of moving to Chemical Engineering from Agric Engineering: I will say it is quite difficult though not impossible. If you really want Chemical Engineering, I will advise that you apply to a lot of schools (10 is a good number) and one of them might grant you both admission and scholarship if your GRE score is high enough.

But I need to ask: why Chemical Engineering? With your Agricultural Engineering, your options are limitless if you come here to study. You can still apply to a lot of industries, get a lot of jobs and make a lot of money with Agric Eng. So you might want to consider sticking with Agric Eng since that will grant you easier access to a school here.

Lastly, for a PHD program, they want to know if you have done research before. Your final year project in school counts for research so if you did one, then you are fine.

Everything I have said so far applies not only to the University of Arkansas but to all the schools in the US. I wish you the best.

Thanks,
MT

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