zeeLady:
Thank you for this Information, I have been searching for universities that do not require the GRE for MSc. Computer Science but also can award funding. I just checked University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign CS programme. They even give consideration for work experience in lue of low CGPA in some cases. Thank you.

Just to add, some programmes in some Universities/schools are waiving the GRE due to COVID-19 until fall 2021. For example, Texas Tech University Toxicology department is waiving the GRE till Fall 2021.
For those who may want to know, All Universities are not the same, while some will not consider you for funding if you do not have GRE (for STEM courses), some may grant you funding on the bases of your relevant work experience.

One may need to do some research on that.

Hi, I am quite surprised to hear this, though I still think there might be some truths in it. And perhaps I'm not familiar with admission into Ms programs. But while this might be the case in some MS program, this is not often the case in a PhD program. Funding in a STEM PhD program at any good R1 university is often not contingent on having a GRE, provided the GRE was not stated as a requirement for admission. If you're offered admission into a PhD program in STEM you'll often be awarded a combination of fellowships, and AIs or RAs.

In such cases the GRe is never a requirement for funding. But perhaps some universities do require having a good GRE scores for funding in an MS program, this is quite true, because in the first place MS programs are usually not automatically fully funded. So only about 10per of a cohort might be awarded funding and they are often selected based off of stellar GRE scores,

If you're applying for an MS in CS, I'd advice that you take the GRE, it'll sure increase your chances of funding!

gaeul:
Thank you so much for this detailed information and clarification. I am truly grateful.

Please any school suggestions? I would really appreciate.

Hi, so sorry I'm not very used to commenting on nairaland. I think my second post which was meant to be the original one was deleted by nairaland or someone, I'm not sure about that. And thus the comment you quoted was actually incomplete.

To answer your question, I'm not very familiar with trends in the humanities and management sciences, I think you made mention of management sciences somewhere here! Why not do a little research of your own, first you might want to start with https://www.thegradcafe.com/ visit Gradcafe and then do a search, inputting the program you'd love to study, you'll get lists of institutions offering it, the acceptances and rejections and sometimes comments on whether or not they offered funding and stuff. I believe funding is almost always guaranteed in good PhD programs.

I'd encourage you to select programs with PIs conducting research you might be interested in rather than selecting programs based off of ranking. Also do select safeties!

Also reach out to PIs only when you have thoroughly read and understood their papers, and even at that, at best they might still refer you to the application portal. But on rare and exceptionl occasions a PI might want to schedule a one on one interview.

I also saw that you asked a question somewhere about contacting PIs and stuff. Please now that PhD admissions in the US is often different from that in the UK. For example in the US, you often do not require a masters to do PhD, but this is not quite true in the UK. In the UK, often times you need to have found a PIs, but this is 'not necessary' in the US. Thus you do not necessarily need to contact PIs in the US. Nonetheless, I'd encourage you to contact a PI especially if you feel you might be a good fit in his/her lab. Moreover a few programs in the US e.g programs that do not require group rotations might require you to contact a PI.

I hope this helps, cheers!

Hello guys, please I didn't mean to share the answers twice,, it was a mistake, thanks!

gaeul:
Thanks for your response. My CGPA BSc was 4.13/5 in Nigeria while MSc was UK with 70%. I have not done any GRE. Is it prerequisite for a PhD application...

Hi, I sincerely hope this might be of help to you. For PhD application, the GRE could be a requirement for some programs (remember that you apply to programs and not the university) but within the same university some other programs might not require it. for example, for over a decade, the UIUC CS program which is often ranked top 6 according to the US news have not required the GRE test (the UIUC program is one of the most competitive programs with an acceptance rate of less than 5percent) . This is not often the case say in the Psy.D program at UIUC. The Harvard GSAS PhD. biomolecules track clearly states that they do not require the GRE test) but this might not be the same at Harvard CS. PhD. Yale BBS PhD program do not require the GRE test but this 'might' not be the case at say Yale EE PhD program and so on. In fact tons of programs have waived the GRE requirement, because from experience the GRE test has not proven to be an indication of success in graduate school (with specific reference to PhD programs).
PhD Programs that do require the GRE do not use it as a determinant of admission but rather as a filter to reduce the number of applications required for faculties (professors) to peruse. (n/b this is not often the case in an MSc. A lot of schools do solely admit students with funding into Ms programs based off of stellar GRE scores). What you've to offer (research experience, interest) becomes more important for PhD admissions. In fact Professor Jeff Erickson at UIUC said that a letter of recommendation documenting a student's research adeptness is the most important factor used in admission decisions in PhD programs and this has been corroborated by many professors at several programs.

Are these programs fully funded? yes! Technically, most (if not all) PhD programs in the STEM at high research intensive programs (R1 universities) are fully funded, so you don't have to worry about whether or not taking the GRE will affect your chances of funding.

Should one take the GRE test whether or not it's required by the program? Well it's not necessarily

abicarst:
Good day guys, I have been following this forum for quite some time now and it has been really informative. I have a friend that graduated with a third class 2.23/5.00 Biochemistry. She already applied for WES evaluation as well as preparing for GRE, as she wants to apply for masters in biology for Fall 2021. Can someone please help with list of schools she can apply to with this grade in the US with funding. Thank you.

Hello dear, I feel like I might be in a good position to make recommendations on this. Seeing that she is interested in pursuing graduate research in the biological sciences. Please note that there are only a few programs out there in the biological and biomedical sciences that require the GRE. From observation, most of these programs are in the R2 category. So she might be surprised to find out that she ends up not using the GRE. On the other hand, I'd still encourage you to take the test,

On the second note, though the cumulative GPA is quite below par, if she amassed a higher GPA in her last few credit hours, I. E in your last two semesters, then it might just be enough to make a case for her admission to an MSc. Though I will still advice her to target R2 universities especially if she doesn't have a very good research experience. Most of these universities are keen on teaching, so there is a tendency she might be offered an AI, I'll recommend a few later.


On funding, masters students are usually not automatically fully funded, and most top programs don't even run a masters in biological and biomedical sciences. And the ones that offer, only give a fellowship to one or two admits each application cycle, and these are usually citizens. If she wants to be considered for funding prior to enrollment, then she might want to contact PI's perhaps one might be willing to offer her a RA or might want her to act as an AI. She might also want to contact the GC for AI positions. Though even if they agreed on this, it's usually contingent on your enrollment for the first semester.

My final thoughts : she should write the GRE and score at least a 150 in either the verbal or quantitative session. And then She should only apply to programs that require the GRE. I'd recommend R2 programs, this is because her GPA might be questionable if she does apply to programs that don't require the GRE. Also perhaps she has some research experience, perhaps an honors thesis, she should consider perusing on research that interests her and then contacting the authors, this is one of the most effective way of getting into a grad program with funding.

My other suggestions would be that she does an MSc here in Nigeria and gets a good GPA, with very fine tuned research experience, and then apply for a PhD (if that's her overall goal).

A few of the universities I'd recommend are:

Stevens Institute of technology (SIT) they have a good chemical biology program.

St John's University (SJU) their biology program is good too.

Ohio University (OU) they have a program in molecular biology.

Try contacting the GC's or graduate recruiters to let them know if you can be considered for admission with your GPA. And last I heard these programs required the GRE.

This can be lengthy, but I hope it helps, please feel free to contact me if you do have any other questions.

Cheers!

toyobillz:
Hi guys

During application, please can I add final year project as a research work even though it wasn’t published??.

Hello,

A research work does not necessarily equal published work. If you're in the stem, then a whole lot can be included as 'research experience'as long as this includes collecting, organizIng and analusis of data (or a variant), please feel free to include them as a research experience. And this doesn't necessarily have to be your personal research. If you've worked as part of a research group or laboratory to investigate say 'how EV's transport tyRNA' you can always include your role and overall findings of the team as a research experience. Of cause it will help if you do cite the PI in charge of the overall research.

example. Research assistant to Professor xoxo
Project title: Investigating the mechanism of tyRNA transport via EV's.

Your role: carried out PFGE to separate PCR products.

Also, with the help of your current or previous undergraduate advisor or mentor, you could always publish your finals project as a research article. The key is having thorough understanding of what you have done.

Hope this helps!

shams040:


Thank you. Could you please share the list of schools waiving GRE for Ph.D. personally I need a waiver as am too nervous to take it. I want to start studying for it today, while I will have to leave some research I'm doing.

Currently a masters by research student with 7 written research articles, while some are still under consideration for publication others have been accepted and published.

Thank you.

Hell sir, thank you, I feel like we have somewhat communicated before.
Nonetheless from your profile I believe you'll be pursuing a PhD in Engineering or some physical sciences and like I said in my post most programs in such disciplines do require the GRE. Do feel free to peruse graduate programs, you might find some exceptions. But even if you do, I'd still encourage you to write the GRE, it's a test of endurance. Graduate school especially a PhDwill surely be more demanding than a four or five hours test.

Please feel free to use the internet to search for programs. And when we refer to graduate school, we refer to programs and not the school as a whole, programs for example within the gsas at Harvard will vary in their application requirements.

Like a professor in a grad adcom once told me, 'The GRE basically tests your ability to write the GRE'. It's so sad that a lot of graduate prospects (I sincerely hope PhD applicants don't do this) spend time worrying about their GRE scores and stuff. while a GRE score might break your application, do note that it can't necessarily make it! (this is essentially true of PhD admissions)
And a lot of programs especially at top universities are waiving this requirement, many PhD programs (which of cause are mostly fully funded) at
Harvard, Yale, John Hopkins, Brown, Carnegie Mellon, UC systems, UIUC, Penn, etc do not require the GRE for admissions. So while I'd encourage one to score well on this test (if required to take it) I'd rather that one build on his/her research (for stem) and or professional experience.

Many of these schools have come to term with the fact that the GRE is not a good measure of success in graduate school (I don't know if it's a good test of intelligence, but I feel like if one prepares well, one can easily score let's say a 310+). That's why some of these programs will require an interview, to gauge ones research adeptness.

For masters applicant (since most don't have a very relevant research experience) sure a GRE could help you get into a top school (though not always) and could also help you get funding.

For those who are interested in pursuing a PhD, with a BA or BS, rather than spend countless hours studying to get a perfect score (which in the best case scenario might get you a fully funded MS) , I'd rather encourage you to get research experiences, volunteer to work in a research group, a lab or a professional organization, read literatures, publish the findings if a research you've conducted if possible, work on your communication skill, build a network, use Google Scholar and research gate to read articles that interests you, email the authors of these articles you read if you'd love to work with them (though make sure the articles are not from say 1996 lol), network with PI's on Quora, linkedin etc. Harvard, Yale, JHU, Stanford,Brown, UIUC, Penn, and any other good 'R1'university will certainly admit one with a greater research adeptness, maturity, clearly demonstrated research interest than a one with some perfect GRE score (without a good experience) , if you can do both, Fine!

So the question we might consider asking is whether or not the GRE is a good test of success in graduate school. And sadly, this has proven not to be the case, do feel free to use Google, Quora, Gradcafe, etc. and ask questions about this, it's almost always "No"!

But to create a balance, I'm certainly not undermining the importance of the test.. It'll continue to be used especially in CS, Engineering, mathematics and physical science programs, since these programs at top schools usually receive tons of applicantions and like @iwriteng said, it is usually used to filter those who didn't get the minimum score, and after that, it is dumped into a trash. 'I think or so I was told by a PI in a grad adcom'.
Thus it certainly will be more helpful if grad prospects will spend more time researching, drafting a good grad school application, searching for schools and programs with advisors that will be a good fit for them than trying to get a 170/170 6,0,

Nonetheless for those who are interested in applying to PhD prograns in the Physical sciences, Engineering, maths and CS at say top 50 programs, do ensure you contact your Graduate director to know the minimum GRE score to be considered for admission. If you do not have the required minimum and say you don't fancy your chances of improving your GRE score, but you rather feel confident in your research experience and perhaps you have something unique to bring to the program, and of course you have the financial resources to submit the application at that school please feel free to apply, you might be surprised at the outcome. Do remember that graduate school application is handled by professors at a program or sometimes professors in a specific track. And this is very different from college admissions which is handled by a college admission team (a bunch of people that probably have no idea as to what the applicant intends studying) so this people see SAT to be very important. And this is very much different in a grad school application.


P. S. Working on our research expertise, work ethic, professionalism, and stuff will help us more as an individual, a country, a continent etc, than spending countless hours trying to memorize words just so one can get let's say a 320+.
I actually did this, 'though not sure of the 320'
But sadly I never ended up using the GRE.
Hahaha.

ugohdignity111:
Hey guys.....

Which program can a graduate of zoology and environmental biology take for masters degree in the US with the offer of full or partial funding....

Graduated with a cgpa of 3.80/5.0

Currently waiting for nysc as I'm planning to go with batch B anytime, they start.

Thanks.

Hello sir, I think you could go directly for a PhD since you're in the biological sciences. A PhD in ecology and environmental biology (EEB) can be useful. Though you might want to gauge your interest and experience in this field prior to applying.
Hope this helps

kastgeraldino:
Bro did you really read or comprehend what was written? How is a 2.0 gpa out of 4.0 a stellar cgpa? I'm also wondering why such a person would want to even pursue an MSc in math when it's clear she does not have the chops for it. The most mediocre and incompetent math major should score nothing less than 155 on the quant segment of GRE, and that is even being generous. A 138 on the quant segment of GRE shows that she should not do anything related to upper-level mathematics. GRE quant is not even the real mathematics that math majors are exposed to; it is basic elementary math stuff.

Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't really properly gleam the GPA part!
But yeah I think she might stand a chance for an MSc despite that. Though she might want to consider retaking the GRE test.
Thanks for pointing this out!

Fabuloski:

This is a detailed explanation but I don't have any publication. I studied Industrial Chemistry and ideally I would have prefer to go for health informatics for my masters but then, funding is the first thing.
when I say funding, I meant fully funded program, so that makes my specialization flexible for now, I don't know what you can advise me to do?

Hello sir, do not despair! Generally speaking getting an automatical fully funded offer for a masters is kind of difficult. Most programs will promise you some form of assistantship once you have enrolled for the first semwster,and this is about the best they can offer. There are a few programs that might fully fund a special masters student, but this can be contingent on a PI who is interested in having the said student in a research group via a form of grant.
I am speaking with specific reference to students in the STEM disciplines. So sir you might want to consider contacting a few PI's in the graduate programs you're interested in, do ensure you read-up and understand the research ongoing in the group, read-up on recent publications and stuff and try to succinctly and professionally cite the papers you read (I believe you should be familiar with reading literature s).Though this is absolutely not necessary, it is an unstated rule that might make a PI advocate for your admission and funding.There is also a certainty that not all PI's will respond favorably if at all they respond. But do your home work, be persistent and consistent, I believe you can make it!

P. S. You don't need a publication to be offered a PhD spot. And I feel like Industrial chemistry is a very nice field, you can as well diversify into areas of bioinformatics,chemical informatics and stuff.
If your overall goal is to do a PhD, you can start working on your research experience and try refining your research interest in so much that you know your stuff.

please feel free to ask your questions, a lot of people here are willing to help.


Cheers!

kevwemanuel:

Please what are the chances of getting admission and fully funded in a PhD programme with only BSc qualification. Kindly throw more light on it.

Can you give me one or more profiles of people that have achieved that before, such as:
1)BSc GPA
2)GRE score
3)work experience or lack of it
4)Research experience or lack of it
5)Kind of/Quality of LOR
6)Course admitted to
7)Profile of school admitted to
Any other thing significant.

Please any other person with adequate knowledge on this issue should kindly feel free to address it.

Thanks.

Hello there are many schools that will admit you into a PhD directly from a bachelor's degree. In fact most domestic students admitted into a doctoral program are admitted based off of a bachelor's degree. While a stellar cgpa, more work and/or research experience can be very helpful. It's more important to know your research or have a well defined research interest and ensure that the programs you're applying to fits well with your research interest. I'll name a few programs that do this n/b most programs that I'm aware of allow direct admission into a PhD from a bachelor's honours.

Please check the following (GRE not required)

Brown molecular biology cell biology and biochemistry PhD
https://www.brown.edu/graduateprograms/biomed-molecular-biology-cell-biology-and-biochemistry-phd

Purdue biology department PhD https://www.bio.purdue.edu/Academic/graduate/graduate_faq.html

Yale PMB trach... Biology and Biomedical sciences department.


John Hopkins University (Jhu) cell and molecular biology https://cmdb.jhu.edu/admissions/

Ohio State University MCDB PhD (GRE is optional)
https://mcdb.osu.edu/admission

You might be considering the fact that these programs are top programs (and yes they are at least in the top 50) and you may also feel like you may need several good publications and stuff. While all this maybe some what helpful, do not let it deter you from applying.
You might be shocked at the outcome.

Please feel free to dm me as regarding your specific questions

Please also check Harvard MCO department
Oops what about Cornell.

Sorry I've been very restricted to programs in the biological sciences because that's my interest.

I hope this helps!
Cheers.

P. S. Though can be helpful, having publications, a masters, perfect GRE scores, a stellar cgpa and stuff is not at all required for admission into PhD programs in the US.
The question is: can you talk research??

Adwoa816:
Please my sister did Bsc. Mathematics with Business and had a GPA of 2.0 out of 4.0..i would like to know some of USA universities where she can get an admission to study Msc. Mathematics. She had 138 in the quantitative part of the GRE.
Please help me out.

Hello dear, Though it maybe worthwhile retaking the GRE test if she's interested in bargaining for funding. Nonetheless there are tons of school that will admit her into an Msc. most mid-tier programs will admit he, though without funding. Some programs are also willing to waive the GRE for Msc applicants. It may also be worthwhile to know her verbal score and TOEFL score if need be, if she has a good score in the later, I believe she could be considered for funding.

Also research has shown that the GRE is not a good judge of success in graduate school, as a result a lot of programs are waiving this.

I will name a few universities she might consider applying to
Iupui
Ohio university
Sju
But she might want to do more research on her own and also consider contactinh the graduate coordinator.

Hope this helps.

Hello,

For those who have been making enquiries as regarding full funding in STEM, I think this might be somewhat useful.

Firstly, like others have mentioned, most STEM disciplines "especially in the R1 university category" do fully fund their graduate students especially at the doctoral level. At the masters level this is some what rare, since a few programs do not really run a masters, this is very common in doctoral programs in the biological sciences and doctoral programs in schools of medicine. Masters programs are generally not automatically fully funded but one can still bargain for tuition remission and a form of stipend.

Also, in the R2 university category, since there is not a very high research activity, it's quite difficult for masters students to get funding, even some PhD students are not 'automatically'fully funded even in the stem, until they bargain for it.

Finally, I see a lot of well qualified students here vying for a masters and I really love that. But if your over all goal is to conduct independent research, I'd advice for to apply directly for a PhD. You don't necessarily need a masters to progress to a doctoral program in the US. This is very common in biological, chemical and physical sciences with a few exceptions in the Engineering sciences at some schools.

Please feel free to use Google to take note of the differences between R1 and R2 universities.

Cheers!!

Hello CHARISE
I do understand the financial burden when it comes to applying to graduate school. But cheer up, Wes evaluation should be the least of your concerns. With my little experience, 'most schools' however prestigious do not require a Wes evaluation or stuffs. As other lovely people have stated above, you might want to consider selecting a group of graduate programs that reflects your research interest, you might also consider thoroughly perusing their application page for details. Then if there are unclarified details, then consider emailing the program coordinator or administrative directors for this. A lot of these programs are willing to waive application fees, test scores, transcript evaluation and stuffs. As a PhD prospect, if you do have a clearly defined research path, though not necessary, try establishing prior contact with PI's whose research interest you, if they are interested in you, they might recommend you to whoever could help as regards application materials and stuffs.

So as a PhD applicant your major concern should be how well you fit with the programs research area.

P. S. I think you might need some sort of evaluation if you do have a bachelor's equivalent such as HND and stuffs. But I'm not quite sure about this. Thus your best bet is to email your intended program for details.
But like I said a lot of programs do not require an evaluation.

I hope this helps a bit.

Cheers!

CHARISE:
morning house. pls, I need the list of schools that doesn't require WES. Am a PHD aspirant with limited fund for admission processing. I don't have money for transcripts evaluation.

Hello dear, I think it may be worthwhile to throw a little light regarding grad school with specific reference to the PhD program admissibility. It will be nice to know the program you intend going for. But to wit that there are a few programs in the biosciences in top tier grad schools that do not require nor recommend the GRE. And as per funding, a PhD admit is almost always funded.
But please do note that the GRE tend to be required in CS and Engineering programs. I'm not quite sure how the Humanities operate though, but there are variations. So yes you can get a PhD admit which should be funded with or without GRE. And perhaps without an MS. Your research potential is increasingly important at this level. I'm happy to recommend programs if you're interested in the biosciences. But these programs are top tiers.

Cheers!

shams040:
Dear All,

Please as anyone gotten a Ph.D offer with funding without GRE here before?

Lilv:
I

i am in IB where do you live

[color=#990000][/color]
please who was posted to osun?

hello house, i just graduated with a cgpa of 4.74 on a 5.0 scale from botany (plant science & biotech) uniport, and i want to process a de form into m.b.b.s programme, please what are my chances, i'd appreciate your advice. thank you.

Drguzzykola:

hmm,well..but the uniport i knew stopped D.Entry some years ago o...since u said the college provost assured u sha ,hope it work out well
i rep uniportMed tho...

i guess that was prof Akani, i still ain't sure though, he made me that promise 3 years ago but u know men can fail.
its nice u are a MBBS student here i would have loved to have ur contact

dearpiriye:
don't follow that ooo....ui takes zoology but not botany.

OK, have you any idea of any uni that accepts botany?

Drguzzykola:

hmm, 1st class ...wanted to say u should further ur educ as a 1st class student in that field and become a boss lecturer but u just mentioned passion ,da driving force .,it ll be better u take jamb again coz i doubt if any 9ja medical school accept plant science for mbbs DEentry..

yes sir i have considered that, well i have visited UI college of medicine and undergradute admissions office for enquiries and they have given.
me a positive go ahead to apply as its a bioscience course.
also the past provost college of health science of my alma matter has also given me the go ahead to apply in uniport

nonetheless i'm still curious so wanted to take advice from you medics who better understands

over the years some universities have accepted botany candidates as a de into mbbs, just hope things havent changed

hello house, mbbs has been my passion since i was a kid, though i just graduated from uniport in the department of plant science and biotechnology and by Gods grace. i made a 1st class honours.
i'm still going back for medical school i am considering doing a DE but dunno which school to apply to as i hardly see candidates with bsc not even 1st class getting admitted into a medical school.

not withstanding any suggestions on schools that may accept me with my degree
i will also try via jamb .
thanks for anticipated response

great docs and medics,potential docs and erudite scholars, i acknowledge you all.
complements of the season, i am new here though I've been following this thread for at least 4 years its so amazing to skim through comments which are both educative and inspirational. congratulations to all those who got admitted into the bds and mbbs programs this year, to all those who didnt get their desired course i also congratulate and enjoin you to aspire for whatever you desire.
one person who has always been an inspiration to me is Dr lomaxxx,( with all due respect to all other medics) he has been here since time immemorial.
also i acknowledge the humanitarian service of some other medics(not to mention) who have took out time to respond to questions some of which are both funny and tiresome thank you all.
Wish you all a prosperous new year.

i will be most honoured to rapport with you all if possible get some contacts.

still an MBBS aspiarant, lol i never give up
#prince

pdjohnson:
[color=#000099][/color]
Hello admin, please i'd like to be added to the watsapp group. Thank you 09081719186

cc:dearpiriye

Hello house, pls i graduated from uniport, department of plant science and biotechnology, with a cgpa of 4.72 on a 5.0 scale, and want to apply for a DE into mbbs in UI.
Please, how feasible is this

[color=#000099][/color]
Hello admin, please i'd like to be added to the watsapp group. Thank you 09081719186