GUIDE TO GRADUATE STUDIES IN THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA (US)

There are few countries like America, Germany, Canada, and Australia that are great for graduate studies with ample opportunities and some kind of funding but most especially, full funding that covers tuition and monthly stipends. America seems to be the most promising, and this write up would be focused on planning and working your way into graduate school in the US for either an MSc or a PhD. In this article, I will explain a step by step procedure of how to secure a fully funded MSc or PhD program in America. The beauty of a fully-funded program in the US is that you won’t need to worry about paying a dime to study, rather you get paid for studying. Please feel free to send in your questions through the comment section at the end of the article.

The whole process is a jigsaw puzzle, but be assured that it can be cracked–If I can, you can also. For ease of comprehension and navigation, I have sectioned and outlined the steps into six sections.

• The Truth No One Told You
• Set Your Mind Right
• Quick One — The Easiest Option And Program For Funding
• Test Requirement for Graduate Studies in the US
• Funding And How To Get It
• Funding Types

SECTION ONE: THE TRUTH NO ONE TOLD YOU

The US is a land full of opportunities, and it has most of the best schools in the world. Much more, the good news is, you don’t need to take a loan or use your parents’ money or spend your savings in paying your fees and living expenses while you study in the US. Yeah, that is true. I got full funding of over $65,000 for 9 months study period and renewable yearly. The cost incurred during my graduate school application process is approximately $700 (this includes standardized tests and application fees). Upon securing admission and funding, my total expenses on getting a Visa and travel was approximately $3,000. If you do the math, you will notice that the benefit outgrows the incurred processing cost. The average monthly stipends for a fully-funded MSc student in the US is $2,000, while a PhD. student will earn about $2,500. Although some get lower than these average fees, also I know many others who get more than the average fee. So, it all depends on the school and the availability of funds. Whichever the case is, you are better off.

SECTION TWO: SET YOUR MIND RIGHT

Having talked about the beautiful experience you would have while schooling here in the US, access to opportunities, and fully-funded quality education, it is important that your motive is right. Clearly, you would be going to the US to study and not to partake in jamboree, neither is it a vacation. Also, entry requirements into Graduate Schools in the US can be demanding as such, you need to put in a lot of effort on your part. You would have to study hard, using several study materials, to ace the necessary standardized exams you would take. More so, you would be carrying out research work, reading academic papers, attending classes, writing exams and writing thesis here in the US. So, as much as there are benefits, there is a lot of work to do. If you know you don’t like to read or do research or go back into academic settings, this is absolutely not for you, and if you stop reading right here, you have done well, and I wish you best of luck in your endeavours. However, if you are ready for the rigorous academic work and/or research, and you want to add value to the world by contributing to the current world knowledge with your thesis and/or research, then you are in the right place. Welcome once again (with smiles).

SECTION THREE: QUICK ONE — THE EASIEST OPTION AND PROGRAM FOR FUNDING

Here in the US, PhD. programs are the most funded because most schools give priority to PhD. students because PhD. students concentrate on groundbreaking research work which generates more funding opportunities for the school. Also, a lot is expected from a PhD student knowing that they would be in the program for a longer time than MSc students. That being said, it must be noted that many people get MSc funding too. For example, I know of over 7 guys (my friends) who all got funded for MSc.

I have seen many people run the rat race of applying for direct PhD. (Direct PhD is possible in the US, that is, PhD. without MSc first) without knowing the responsibilities attached to it. This is not to scare you, but before you apply for PhD., ensure you choose a field you love to study, as PhD. is very challenging and daunting but very possible to complete if you are hardworking and love what you are studying. Interest is something important in program selection. When the going gets tough, because you chose what interests you, it is easy to fight on. You can also get funded for MSc program, so if you know you can’t cope with straight PhD. yet, apply for MSc first and reduce the pressure on yourself. With time you will adjust to the system, and if you so wish, you can proceed to PhD. But if you are good at research, have worked with faculty members and done several lab work or projects during your undergraduate program, then direct PhD. is something to consider as it gives you more chance for funding.

Furthermore, all course of study or department have some means of funding, but engineering and STEM courses have a better chance of funding. Although I haven’t seen or heard of anyone who studied LAW with full funding here in the US, that doesn’t mean it is not possible. Just a little tip to Chemistry students, Chemistry is a field with so much funding, and I am yet to know why, but that’s not mine to find out (smiles).

SECTION FOUR: TEST REQUIREMENT FOR GRADUATE STUDIES IN THE US

You are required to take some standardized tests towards application for graduate studies in the US. I won’t be mentioning them in any order as you can write them in whichever order you please. You would need to take the GRE/GMAT (Graduate Record Examination/Graduate Management Admission Test), and if you are not a native English speaker, you may be required to take the TOEFL/IELTS (Test of English as a Foreign Language/International English Language Testing System) also. A lot of people would ask me the importance of taking the GRE/GMAT test, and here is my answer, there are many reasons why graduate students must take the test, and also there are myriad purposes for the test. But for clearer understanding, I would explain why the test benefits you this way. Imagine a Chemistry student from Nigeria with 3.72 of 5.0 GPA, another student from India with 8.9 of 10.0 GPA, and yet another student from US with 3.8 of 4.0 GPA all applied to the Chemistry department of a school in the US, how will the admission committee determine who is actually qualified for admission knowing they can not admit all students that apply? It would be wrong for them to say the students with the highest GPA are the best fit for the program because they are considering with students from different countries, taught by different people and experienced different issues during their program (sickness or emotional challenges may have been the cause of some students poor GPA). Hence, a need to test all students on a standard and generalized platform (GRE/GMAT) is required to know the best fit for the program. The scores on the GRE/GMAT tells a lot about the student: student’s ability to learn fast, think fast and process information; student’s ability to read and understand academic papers; student’s ability to catch up with graduate program responsibilities within a short space of time and more.

You can take the test over and over again till you reach your desired score, and that is allowed. Some say it feels unfair, but it’s not. The test makers know that, if a student can take the exam and improve in score within a short space of time, this shows that the student has developed the ability to learn quickly and learn to quickly understand and cope with new things they would encounter during their graduate studies.

Now about TOEFL/IELTS, I won’t be going too deep into this as it is not as challenging as GRE/GMAT but must also be prepared for. Most US schools prefer TOEFL, but some US schools would accept IELTS scores. My advice is, if you’re targeting the US, take the TOEFL.

SECTION FIVE: FUNDING AND HOW TO GET IT

This to me is the most important section (smiles) because it explains how much money you would get here in the US while you pursue your studies. I have ranked GPA into classes so you can know where you fall into, opportunities open to you and how much work you need to do to get funded.

CLASS ONE: First class student or top students from the college. Around 4.5 to 5.0 GPA on a 5point scale (Nigeria). Around 9 to 10 on a 10 point scale (India)

CLASS TWO: Students not topping class, not first class but not with a low GPA. Around 3.4 to 4.3 on a 5point scale (Nigeria). Around 7 or 7.5 to 8.5 on a 10point scale (India)

CLASS THREE: Students with a GPA below 3.5 on a 5point scale (Nigeria) or below 7 on a 10point scale (India)

WARNING: Please note that my classing and GPA is just my own view and classification

If you belong to CLASS ONE, congratulations, your GPA would make things easy for you and speak for you. Because your GPA is strong, you can easily convince Professors to reply to your mail for funding (I will talk more on this later) even long before admission starts. Yeah. Professors would most likely reply your mails. I belong to CLASS TWO. When I send 50 emails and get just 1 reply, my friend who belongs to CLASS ONE would have received something above 10 replies for the same amount of mails. That’s what your GPA can do. So it means you can reach out to Professors even before you take the GRE. I will share samples of mail content to send to professors later. Even if you wait to send mails after taking the GRE, you will still get a better chance, even with a low GRE score (but that doesn’t mean you should have a low GRE score). Normally, it’s good to reach out to Professors in August/September if you are applying for Fall before they choose someone else who mailed before you. So for Fall semester, you can start reaching out to professors anytime in August (same applies to CLASS TWO and THREE).

For people in CLASS TWO and THREE, you would need a little extra work to get more opportunities. Because you know your GPA isn’t strong enough to compete with CLASS ONE folks, then it is imperative to fight the good fight in the GRE and get a stellar score. With a high GRE score, you can mask your GPA weakness and backlogs. You must desire and work very hard to have a stellar score, 320+ if possible. With that, a Professor can reject a CLASS ONE guy with say 300 GRE score for you a CLASS TWO with 320 GRE score. Also, your work experience and research experience would be helpful. In short, you just want to use everything in your power to convince the professor you would be working with that you are capable of the task.

SECTION SIX: FUNDING TYPES

There are several means to get funded here in the US, and I have done justice to explain them and how to get them.

1. FUNDING THROUGH FELLOWSHIP: Have you heard someone tell you they didn’t mail any Professor but got full funding in the US after applying to the school? Yes, that’s true. It could be a Fellowship funding. Fellowship funding is a generous funding, and you are most likely not going to be asked to work for the school to receive it. Every school tries to secure grants through Fellowship for their students. It is always MERIT based, that means you must have a good GPA and/or GRE score to get it. Some schools will make it clear that students with a particular GPA would qualify for it; some schools would use GRE scores instead, while others would take a combination of both. In all, the CLASS ONE folks enjoy this more, and few GRE toppers get it too. Efforts are made to encourage minority group like females in STEM disciplines, hence females have huge chances for getting Fellowship funding. So, if you are a CLASS ONE folk, you might enjoy this without even needing to send emails to professors. If you are CLASS TWO with very good GRE score, you might qualify for it too, but this is at the discretion of the admission committee or the school.
2. FUNDING THROUGH TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIP (TA): TA is another means to get funded. TA position comes with the responsibility of assisting with office hours, proctoring exams, grading, recitation classes and other task assigned by the department. Funding from TA would cover tuition with stipends. Most times, the admission committee, department or graduate school decides who gets this. But from my experience of school search (I think I deserve an award on school search, smiles), there are specific TOEFL scores needed for this. Some schools would require a minimum score of 26 in the speaking section, and some would require some certain score on different sections of the TOEFL and GRE. It all depends on the school, so you would have to get information from the school’s website. My intent is to orientate you about that opportunity, and I think I have done that well. So, this is why it’s good to also work well for your AWA and TOEFL — who knows what you would qualify for? Just as I stated earlier, the whole process is a jigsaw puzzle. You may not need to reach out to professors for TA; most schools decide who gets it themselves while reviewing applications, while others would ask applicants interested in TA to indicate their interest during application and fill out an application to that effect in some cases. Refer to the school’s website to know better on which way they prefer
3. FUNDING THROUGH RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIP (RA): Landing a RA position is the last means I know of getting full funding. This is the one that involves the sending of emails to professors — my funding was through RA. A brief background on how research is funded, the US government, companies, and organizations give funding to novel research work. Professors get lots of money to do research (you now see why research is sweet, smiles), so they look for active, knowledgeable and skilful students to work with. So many people would be reaching out to them all over the world just like you are doing and they have to pick the best. Here, grades have a little to do (mind the word “little”); it’s more of skills, experiences, and interest in the research work. You would send a lot of emails to professors and may not get a reply, don’t worry or give up, send to someone else. If they don’t reply, after like two weeks, you can send a reminder mail. If no response still, then you do not need to mail that professor again. It means he/she is not interested, has no money to fund you or not taking new students. Your intent is not to talk about money first. You want the professor to know you have relevant experience in the work and would be of help. If he/she needs someone and loves your profile and CV, he/she would reply.

Note: This would lead to you having an interview with him. Don’t worry; don’t be afraid, the professor just wants to know if you have the experience you claimed to have. If the professor finally schedules an interview with you, then you’re 90% sure to have the Funding.

CONCLUSION

I hope it was an interesting read. I had to squeeze out time to bring this out as my desk is full of work and responsibility here in the US. In PART TWO https://bit.ly/2AE66yL, I would be giving more details into how best to prepare for the GRE, TOEFL, and write your Statement of Purpose. Also, I would be giving samples of emails to send to professors, how to send reminder emails and Statement of Purpose. You can use the samples but do well to change some of the contents because there would be thousands of people who would be reading this article and who would have access to the samples shared. Feel free to reach out to me through the comment section with your questions, and I would do my best to reply.