From Mediocrity to 4.0.–The journey to graduate school

After few years of working, I decided it was time to go back to school. Here was my graduate school strategy:

1. Apply to programs that you are passionate about or will remain dedicated to completing regardless of how hard things get – I applied to mostly Master of Science in Health Informatics programs because of my love for applying technology to healthcare.
2. Have a backup program in case you cannot get into your original program – Simple choice. My backup program had both Business and Technology as foundations since I was hugely entrepreneurial and loved technology.
3. Identify schools that meet your criteria. Ensure they are located across different countries so that you can have options. Define your list of attributes.

Schools I chose had the following attributes:

• Offered graduate assistantships or scholarships to international students.
• Were in locations with affordable cost of living.
• Provided value beyond the curriculum like a diverse international student body, opportunity to gain foreign work experience, prestige. E.g. UK, US, Canada, and some European Schools allow international students to work for an amount of time after school. In the US, it is up to 3years for STEM graduates and 1 year for non-STEM graduates.
• Offered application fee waivers and optional GRE/GMAT requirements

In all, I applied to 12 schools across 5 countries: 

• France 1
• Sweden 4
• Germany 1
• Canada 3
• USA 3

However, I only got admitted into 2. One in the US, and One in Sweden.

None of my admissions came with funding or a scholarship. However, I settled for the US because I had friends there and they had informed me I was going to be fine.

In searching for schools, I cared about rankings, so I mostly utilized these websites below to filter my choices;

• MastersPortal - https://www.mastersportal.com/
• Financial times - https://rankings.ft.com/home/masters-in-business-administration
• USNews - https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges
• ·Times education - https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings

4. Use your network and reach out for help - The only school I got into in the US was recommended by a friend who had recently graduated at that time and subsequently got an afterschool job at the networking giant, Cisco. This is where I graduated from. Having his guidance helped me navigate school life and settle in fast.

Journey to the US embassy a Third Time.

 Go where you can be bold - Visiting the American embassy, the third time, was a big step for me. I knew I had a huge phobia based on my experience, so I traveled over 500 miles to a different embassy location instead of going to the one where I was refused a visa years before which was less than 5 few miles from my home. This was great for my mental readiness and helped reduce fear of failure which sometimes can affect success.

I completed my embassy application myself and spent hours practicing before the interview. This is hugely important because Consular officers often ask you questions based on your application so even if you get someone to fill your visa application documents for you, always make out time to go through all that was filled on your behalf before the interview day. Also, practice and practice and get someone to conduct mock interviews for you. 

Online forums like Quora and Nairaland have a lot of resources on typical questions that may be asked at student visa interviews.

 Scholarships and financial aids.

Many international students have the misconception that you must get a scholarship before you can begin your education abroad. I had no scholarship awards before I started, and although I had some money saved, it barely covered my living expenses for two months and only covered 2 of the 7 installments for my first-semester school fees.

What works?

1. Apply for student loans. 

Some useful platforms for this are: 

• Prodigy finance - https://prodigyfinance.com/
• MPower - https://www.mpowerfinancing.com/
• Discover - https://www.discover.com/student-loans/

2.   Apply to schools in countries that offer free tuition and Government-funded scholarships - A few are Germany, Sweden, Norway, etc.

3. Join professional associations - I joined the National Society of Black Engineers and paid only $18 in membership fees. Through that association, I got many job interviews, awards, and a scholarship to the tune of $2500.

4. Utilize your network - My two on-campus jobs, the conferences I attended, one of the scholarships I received were facilitated by friends and people in my network.

5. For graduate students, apply to schools that have graduate research assistantships - Securing a graduate assistantship gives you access to jobs on campus, a scholarship, lesser school fees and helps you gain relevant work experience.

6. For undergraduate students who are black and want to study in the US, apply to HBCU schools - Diversity and inclusion are big in the United States, therefore schools that improve black diversity in education and the workplace have plenty of endowment and scholarship opportunities. I know over 10 students who have full scholarships at Historically Black Colleges and Universities(HBCUs). 

Some other useful resources for scholarships

https://www.unigo.com/

https://ghc.anitab.org/attend/scholarships/

https://www.opportunitiesforafricans.com/category/scholarships/

 Excelling at school

I was not the most brilliant student in my program, but what I knew how to do was gauge my strengths. To excel, I adopted these principles:

1. Do not bite more than you can chew at a time

This was hugely important, as it allowed me to manage time and effort. At some point, I had to drop a course that would have given me a double major. I did that because I was trying to get an internship and a job. Both required an enormous amount of time. I also knew I wanted to maintain a perfect score and adding that course may have jeopardized this quest. So, I weighed my options and opted out of that course.

2.   Ask for help

Often, people who have gone through the same endeavor before yourself have relevant tips for success. It is important to seek advice. I did this a lot of times in making course selection choices and when I had problems understanding what was being taught in class.

In summary, when you have an inquisitive and persistent mind, nothing becomes unachievable.