How to Overcome a Low GPA and get a Scholarship to Graduate School

GPA is probably the biggest criteria that can make or mar your graduate school scholarship application. Unlike other Criteria such as Test scores (GRE/TOEFL/IELTS), Research profile, Work experience, Recommendation/Reference letters that can be improved on post-graduation, GPA is cast in stone after graduation. There is no changing it. To very honest, a low GPA is a problem when it comes to graduate school and scholarship applications, but it is not an insurmountable problem. In this post, we would discuss different ways one can possibly surmount the problem of a low GPA when applying for graduate school scholarships.

How to Email a Professor and Ask For Funding After You Have Been Admitted to Graduate School

In a previous post, we talked about How to Write a First Email to a Professor for Graduate School. In this post, we would be talking about a different scenario, where you have been admitted to a Master's or Ph.D. Program but the admission offer/decision letter did not make any funding or scholarship offer to you. This scenario is quite common these days. Many departments will make funding or scholarship offers to some applicants, these usually come in the form of Fellowships or Teaching Assistantships. The Graduate Coordinators then encourage others to seek for funding or scholarships in the form of Research Assistantships from individual Professors within the department. So if you are reading this and you are in this situation, you really should not worry as there are a whole lot of people in your shoes and it is still very possible to secure funding or a scholarship and I am here to tell you how.

How I got a Fulbright Scholarship and Fulbright Scholarship Tips

Written by: Leanna Pohevitz

My name is Leanna Pohevitz and I am currently an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) under the Fulbright Scholarship in Brazil. I am on my second Fulbright, this year serving as both an ETA and leader or mentor to the incoming ETAs. I work at the Universidade do Estado do Pará in Belém. I support the faculty and students at the public university, teaching lessons or parts of lessons about various topics not limited to North America cultures, linguistics, literature, and teaching strategies.

I am honored to share my story of application, dedication, and acceptance.

How I got the Commonwealth Scholarship Twice

Written By: Chidinma Obieze 

Hi, my name is Chidinma Obieze and I am a 2-time Commonwealth scholarship award winner. First one was as a commonwealth shared scholar at the University of Bristol in 2016 and second as a distance learning scholar with the University of Liverpool. The Commonwealth scholarships have changed my life in so many ways and I am here to tell you how!  

Two Nigerians among Stanford University's 2019 Knight-Hennessy Scholars

Two Nigerians Ayo Dada and Olamide Oladeji were among the 69 scholars that won the prestigious Knight-Hennessy scholarship at Stanford University. The Knight-Hennessy scholarship is poised to develop both the depth and range of subject expertise to confront the numerous grand challenges and opportunities of the future. Knight-Hennessy Scholars receive full funding to pursue graduate study at Stanford. They both join Solomon Oyakhire, an alumnus of the University of Lagos, who was the only Nigerian recipient of the scholarship in the first edition in 2018 and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Stanford School of Engineering.

How I Got a Chevening Scholarship and Chevening Scholarship Tips

Written by: Sarah Egbo

Hi there!

I am Sarah Egbo, a graduate of Information Resource Management from Babcock University, Ogun State, Nigeria.  I am currently pursuing a Master’s Degree at the University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom, under the Chevening Scholarship Scheme. 

How to Prepare for an Interview with a Professor for Graduate School

If you are here it is probably because you have done a good job in your graduate school application so far. Professors are very busy people and would not ask for a chat or interview on Skype or Google Hangout if they do not think you are a very good candidate and stand a very good chance of being admitted to into their program and succeeding there. Celebrate your pyrrhic victory if you wish but the battle is not over yet. This is a good thing happening for you and there is absolutely no reason you should be tensed or be scared. So how should you prepare for this interview or "chat" to absolutely blow this professor away?

How to Write a Follow Up Email to a Professor for Graduate School

In our previous post, we wrote about How to Write a First Email to a Professor for Graduate School, in that post we also alluded to the fact that sometimes professors may want to reply but may simply forget to or it's possible they skipped your mail--they get dozens of emails from prospective students daily. Maybe, it just ended up in his spam folder.

How to Write a First Email to a Professor for Graduate School

Finding the right graduate school program to apply to can be almost likened to trying to find a needle in a haystack. There are thousands of Universities out there and we cannot possibly apply to all of them so we have to shortlist Universities to apply to based on different factors--one of which is the availability of a potential supervisor for our chosen research area. Emailing potential supervisors is a very important step in graduate school application whether you are applying to a Master's or a Ph.D. program. No matter how strong you are as a graduate school applicant, you may not be admitted if there is no one in the department willing to supervise you. So how can you send an introductory email to a professor who you see as a potential supervisor and get his/her attention?

How I won the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Overseas Scholarship to the UK

Written by: Salahudeen Tope

I am Salahudeen Tope a graduate of Civil Engineering from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria and a Master's graduate of environmental engineering and business management from Imperial College London through the PTDF Scholarship.

How I got the Pan African University Scholarship

Written by: Abdulsamad Yusuf

My name is Abdulsamad Yusuf. I did my B.Sc in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where I studied Physical and Health Education (Human Kinetics). I’m currently undertaking an MSc in Sports Management and Policy Development at the Pan African University Institute of Earth and Life Sciences (Paulesi), University of Ibadan, Nigeria. I got the  Pan African University scholarship in the  2017/2018 academic session.

How I got Two International Scholarships to the UK and Germany

How I got Two International Scholarships to the UK and Germany

Written by: Victor Agboga

I am Victor Agboga and recently graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with a master’s degree in African Development through the Standard Bank of Africa Derek Cooper Scholarship. I am currently undertaking another master’s programme in Global Governance at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. My second Master’s is funded through the Helmut-Schmidt-Programme (Public Policy and Good Governance, PPGG), a scholarship put together by the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, DAAD). For my bachelor’s degree, I studied philosophy at the Claretian Institute of Philosophy, an affiliate of Imo State University, Owerri

Tips on How To Ace The PTDF Scholarship Interview

So you have been shortlisted for the PTDF scholarship interview? Congratulations! But so has many other people from your state who will be competing for very limited spots with you so this post is meant to give you a glance of what to expect in the actual interview as well as to give you some tips on how to ace it. First of all, do not be tensed. The PTDF scholarship interview is more of an informal chat than a conventional interview. It usually takes between 5 and 10 minutes There is absolutely no need to be scared. You've got this!

How I got the Mastercard Foundation Scholarship at McGill University for Postgraduate Studies

Memoir of a Mastercard Scholar at McGill- Hammed Akande

 Written by: Hammed Akande

My name is Hammed Adedamola Akande, and I am a 2018 Mastercard Foundation Graduate Scholar at McGill University, Canada. I graduated with a Bachelors degree in Wildlife Management (First Class Honors) from Osun State University, Nigeria. Please use this link to view our page https://www.mcgill.ca/mastercardfdn-scholars/mcgills-scholars

I’m honored to be invited to share my story with you, hopefully, it helps and motivates someone out there.

Fully Funded Masters Degree Scholarship In Canada

In a previous blog post, we wrote about how to get a Fully Funded Masters Degree Scholarship in Computer Science in the United States and also in another blog post, we wrote about How To Know if a Department has Full Scholarship or Graduate Assistantship for Master's Students in the United States. But what about Canada? A lost of potential graduate students prefer to seek admission in Canada rather than the United States for a variety of reasons which could include the availability of scholarships or funding, employment opportunities post-graduation, immigration opportunities post graduation and so on.

In recent times, Canada has become more immigration friendly than the United States especially to international students coming from countries in Africa and Asia. Canadian Universities are generally more likely to have scholarship opportunities or full funding for masters students from the first semester, unlike the United States where all or most of the funding and scholarships are reserved for Ph.D. students. Almost all the time, Canadian Universities provide funding or scholarship for their Master's students who are going to be doing a thesis.

How I got the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship

Written by: Babaniyi Olaniyi

Meet Babaniyi Olaniyi, a recipient of the 2017 Erasmus Mundus European Union Scholarship studying Quantitative Economics at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, a graduate of Mathematics and Statistics from Kwara State University class of 2016 and recipient of the Dr. Bukola Saraki 2016 academic award prize as he shares his academic journey with the Erasmus programme.

How To Know if a Department has Full Scholarship or Graduate Assistantship for Master's Students

If you were like me, one of the main factors considered when applying to a master's program is if the department offers full funding or scholarship--which could come in form of fellowships, Research Assistantship or Teaching Assistantship--to their master's students from the first semester. Getting admitted into your dream school would be pointless if you would not be able to attend because you cannot afford to pay Tens of thousands of dollars for tuition alone. Most Universities in the United States do not offer funding or scholarship to their master's students as most of the funding or scholarship is reserved for their Ph.D. students and a significant number of universities who fund their master's student won't do so from the first semester. In a previous blog post, we provided a list of Universities in the United States that fund master's student's in computer science from the first semester, but the list is not exhaustive and does not account for other STEM disciplines other than computer science. In this post, we will show a few ways to know if a department or program can offer you full funding or scholarship from the first semester in a master's program.