Pls I have a question, has anyone here experienced delay in the sevis fee payment for US graduate school?

sbot:


Bless your heart boss.

Wow, so in this your case for instance, we’re looking at roughly a $40k?

Haha, at the consultation fees.

Concentrate on surviving the first year...

Find an inexpensive school (my school was like $7,500 per semester to the school) and get enough money or a plan for money to survive the FIRST Year.
If you don't drop out in the first year you'll find a way to complete the program.

Peterpan100:
Thanks @MackyNaija.

No vex abeg, "person wey ask question no dey miss road"
You said something about embassy wahala, is it the normal Visa wahala process or na because I'm financing my study via a loan?

Mehn, I know no shit about this stuff, never knew one can be granted a Visa, then when you reach there you come begin hustle the loan. That sounds good o

My thought is this:

Under ideal conditions, students are meant to return to their countries after studies.
If you take $50k in loans in the U.S before leaving Nigeria, how do you intend to pay it back WHEN you return to Nigeria under the ideal case?

pompeiimagnus:


1. Get on LinkedIn and create an alert for IE jobs. Review the job descriptions and start building your skills. Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn learning etc. can help you with this.
2. Use your university career services office to prep your resume and perform mock interviews. Then start applying and interviewing for summer internships from your first semester. E get why.
3. Choose your courses smartly, especially your multidisciplinary electives. Take classes in data analytics, lean manufacturing, optimization etc.
4. Attend conferences and career fairs at your university and organizations like NSBE and SWE.
5. Be social, make friends, take on class or school projects. Everything counts here.

The highlighted carries huge weight - "reverse engineer".
Pompeii dished it out just like I would have! We be twins??

Some jobs I got were from my contacts, they let you know where someone else got a job or what companies/roles they are not qualified for but believe fit your profile.

Oprincewillchig:
Pls I have a question, has anyone here experienced delay in the sevis fee payment for US graduate school?

Delay as in what context...do you mind explaining

nitrogen:
@mackynaija, well done!

I would suggest you start thinking about wealth-building. This will go a long way in ensuring that your kids don’t take a dollar loan for education at any point and your retirement years are sorted.

Fatfire can help, even though it is clearly for retirement, but people use it to build massive wealth over their 20-30 year careers. You can have an overall objective of having say $7-10m in net worth by say age 55. Such that when you retire, the assets can generate sufficient passive income annually, e.g. 4% annual returns on $7-10m will comfortably give you between 280k and 400k per annum to live a good life without touching your assets.

Don’t think it’s still early, starting now ensures you capture value from compounding interest. As soon as you sort out your house, start investing passively (in ETFs and indexes) on a monthly basis and watch your net worth blow over the next 10-20 years.

Once again, well done, you are doing well!

My idea of being wealthy is when everyone around can afford a seat at the table - I give so much of my money away to family and friends for charitable causes, education and business ventures. Will revisit this below...

Inside the holy book, e get one verse wey talk say: "what shall it profit Mackynaija to save millions in $ while people around him are hungry and needy, then die and leave all the money in the bank?"

I arrived in the U.S a little late but I am not relenting - retirement savings is growing and projected to be over $1m IF retirement is at 60 years.
Saved 10% on every paycheck (even during covid) for the first two jobs from day 1 and currently doing 13% at my new job (this gets the amount close to the govt set annual limit of circa $19,500 for year 2021 as a result of my higher annual salary).
Will increase annually by 1% for the next two years and at 15% per paycheck, I should be hitting max limit. My company does 6% additional.

From projections, Worst case at retirement @ age 60 will be $1.5m but I will exceed this goal earlier (na my wife deh actively do FIRE that why she has madt money).
My income will grow exponentially as I have plans for future growth.

I earn too much now so had to cut short Roth IRA savings, will find time to research on "backdoor contributions" or something in that line.

My savings in October only for my newest job is bigger than my entire Nigerian retirement savings.
I no deh take retirement savings play, and since my future will be secure - I give away all of the "excess".


Thanks Nitrogen, an immigrant aiming for Financial.Indepence.R.E is a huge goal as there are mouths to feed in Nigeria + getting stabilized being in America.

nelem:


Delay as in what context...do you mind explaining

Nelem, I see you, welcome Sir.
Your boy is loyal.

MackyNaija:

Nelem, I see you, welcome Sir.
Your boy is loyal.

Oga mi i loyal gan oo. Taking lots of notes from your wealth of advice as always

MackyNaija:

Concentrate on surviving the first year...

Find an inexpensive school (my school was like $7,500 per semester to the school) and get enough money or a plan for money to survive the FIRST Year.
If you don't drop out in the first year you'll find a way to complete the program.

Appreciate you as always.

Been having issues finding cheap schools, perhaps you’ve got some recommendations.

Any other person can also help with cheap schools.

Much gratitude!

MackyNaija:

Advice for myself:
Both fields can be done with an Industrial Engineering degree.
Choose any, get into the program and switch after the first semester.
My guy switched after his third semester!!! E get why..

What is his/her Nigerian job experience in?
Supply Chain is 'different' from Engineering pay - they'd earn less but hired as an Industrial Engr in Supply Chain, the pay is similar to other engrg roles.

Multiple guys from my school work in Micron Supply Chain with their Industrial Engineering degrees.
Multiple in Western Digital Supply Chain with their Industrial Engineering degrees.
Another set in Amazon Supply Chain...

'Every other person' is in Manufacturing - process, quality, Industrial engrg etc etc.


Abeg, everybody study Industrial Engineering oooo!!!
Otherwise study Computer Science or Electrical Engrg.
I took a lot into consideration before choosing that course... a whole lot! and it pays good!

Thanks a lot Boss
I told him of your advice... He said he got some kind of funding from those departments that admitted him, do you think transferring from those department to industrial engineering will not stop those funding, since he doesn’t have the resources to sponsor himself

Elnon:
This is so beautiful to read...SO HAPPY FOR YOU...All your hardwork is paying off and God is doing it.

Followed your advice and got an admission and scholarship to study Masters in Information system ( Data Analytics concentration) at East Tennessee state university come spring 2022.

Your story is so inspiring...God bless you and your family more.

Yankee here I come in January!

Hello there. Congrats on your acceptance to ETSU.

I've applied for my MSc at East Tennessee State as well for Fall 2022 session, (MS in Information Systems; User Experience Engineering concentration) but upon payment of application fee my GTbank MasterCard wasn't accepted.
I'd like to know how you paid for your application fee please. Did you use a Naira card to pay?

Thanks.

Congratulations dear

Elnon:
This is so beautiful to read...SO HAPPY FOR YOU...All your hardwork is paying off and God is doing it.

Followed your advice and got an admission and scholarship to study Masters in Information system ( Data Analytics concentration) at East Tennessee state university come spring 2022.

Your story is so inspiring...God bless you and your family more.

Yankee here I come in January!

What's your advice to those Nigerians who want to Japa but studied sociology/political science or intent to study sociology/political science?

I know those courses are no good for the first world, but I'd appreciate if you can explain why they are no good from a first world point of view.

I need to show someone who is about to make that deadly mistake as I see it.

Thanks

FEGEITOK:
What's your advice to those Nigerians who want to Japa but studied sociology/political science or intent to study sociology/political science?

I know those courses are no good for the first world, but I'd appreciate if you can explain why they are no good from a first world point of view.

I need to show someone who is about to make that deadly mistake as I see it.

Thanks

List some of the economic importance of those courses like I listed for Industrial Engineering a while back and we'll discuss them.

Are they STEM courses?
Can they fetch you funding for studies?
Can you earn enough from jobs in those fields to pay back student loans?
What's the demand for the fields listed above?
Can you compete with US Citizens in those fields for jobs?
How much can you earn as base salary?
Can you self petition for residency?
Can you do ground breaking research in those fields?
If you graduate and leave for Nigeria with your degree, would it fetch you anything?

You need unique skills that would make you desirable on this journey. Science and Technology is the real deal.

sbot:


Appreciate you as always.

Been having issues finding cheap schools, perhaps you’ve got some recommendations.

Any other person can also help with cheap schools.

Much gratitude!

Go to the GRE and student visa threads for current information on those.

TEODIN:

Thanks a lot Boss
I told him of your advice... He said he got some kind of funding from those departments that admitted him, do you think transferring from those department to industrial engineering will not stop those funding, since he doesn’t have the resources to sponsor himself

Once he transfers, the agreement with the original dept is nullified.

Very important - check both courses on the bureau of lab0ur statistics (bls) website to see job prospects/outlook.
After all, coverting the degree to USD is the end goal.

If it was me and since money no deh + with what I know now:
1. Stick to either of the two options due to availability of funding, I have a stronger affinity for SC Mgt.

2. Get internships, learn data analysis on Excel (it's easy) and add SQL and/or tabl3au/p0werBI.


Third point is worth considering
3. Use funding for three semesters, switch at the fourth one to industrial engineering. (Might be unnecessary)
Why? It helps keep your options wideee not streamlined.

MackyNaija:

List some of the economic importance of those courses like I listed for Industrial Engineering a while back and we'll discuss them.

Are they STEM courses?
Can they fetch you funding for studies?
Can you earn enough from jobs in those fields to pay back student loans?
What's the demand for the fields listed above?
Can you compete with US Citizens in those fields for jobs?
How much can you earn as base salary?
Can you self petition for residency?
Can you do ground breaking research in those fields?
If you graduate and leave for Nigeria with your degree, would it fetch you anything?

You need unique skills that would make you desirable on this journey. Science and Technology is the real deal.

Perfect response.

You made my job easier.

I'm sure others following the thread will also benefit.

Thanks

Blessings001:

I suggest you look for schools with 22k -25k cost of Attendance

If you borrow 40k from prodigy/empower you will pay back like 84k in 10 years oo

This will be true if you stick to the original loan interest rate.

I 'consolidated' 2x mpower 10year loans I had from 10%, 13% or 17% (can't remember) to 5% for 7years (4.75% discounted with direct deposit set up)...

Paid that for 1+years and 'refinanced' this October to 3% for 5years (discounted to 2.75%)...

Means I'll only pay about $1,200 in total as interest for the remaining life of the loan. No need to rush repayment.

MackyNaija:

2. Get internships, learn data analysis on Excel (it's easy) and add SQL and/or tabl3au/p0werBI.

Short story...

Over the last two weeks, I was tasked with creating a dashboard on Jira for tracking quality issues - never done this before ..

But from experiences creating charts in Excel, I was able to crack this and create two beautiful tables and a sweet pie chart.

New problem - the data I was working with had excluded 'canceled issues' but was still showing 'closed issues'...
We needed to only see 'Open', 'In progress' and Under 'Verify' issues...

Due to my little programming knowledge, I was able to look at the filter to see "status != Cancelled" and tried excluding 'closed issues' with...

"status != Cancelled and Closed", didn't work, got an error message...

Then I tried
"status != Cancelled AND status != Closed"
It worked!
Na so I jejely leave am, wash my hand comot.

I got perfectly working Dashboards that were presented to the Quality Mgr, Engineering Mgr and Director of Engineering!


Morale of the story?
Everybody including non-science students and awon instagram, abeg learn basic programming. It can help your life!

MackyNaija:

Short story...

Over the last two weeks, I was tasked with creating a dashboard on Jira for tracking quality issues - never done this before ..

But from experiences creating charts in Excel, I was able to crack this and create two beautiful tables and a sweet pie chart.

New problem - the data I was working with had excluded 'canceled issues' but was still showing 'closed issues'...
We needed to only see 'Open', 'In progress' and Under 'Verify' issues...

Due to my little programming knowledge, I was able to look at the filter to see "status != Cancelled" and tried excluding 'closed issues' with...

"status != Cancelled and Closed", didn't work, got an error message...

Then I tried
"status != Cancelled AND status != Closed"
It worked!
Na so I jejely leave am, wash my hand comot.

I got perfectly working Dashboards that were presented to the Quality Mgr, Engineering Mgr and Director of Engineering!


Morale of the story?
Everybody including non-science students and awon instagram, abeg learn basic programming. It can help your life!

Why do you share so much? Asking in good faith.

The majority of Nigerians seem to be programmed by default hide information.

You are absolutely right.

Everyone needs a bit of programming to get ahead in today's world.

I just asked someone to learn Jira not quite a week ago. Told her it's an important skill these days.

FEGEITOK:


Why do you share so much? Asking in good faith.

The majority of Nigerians seem to be programmed by default hide information.

You are absolutely right.

Everyone needs a bit of programming to get ahead in today's world.

I’m not OP, but I also share information to people around me because the richer those around me are, the richer I also become.

FEGEITOK:

Why do you share so much? Asking in good faith.

The majority of Nigerians seem to be programmed by default hide information.

I don't have a direct answer to this question but let me drop some careless ramblings and maybe it will help with giving you an answer.

First, lets be clear, no be me holy pass...
Secondly, a juxtaposition of our Nigerian 'religiousity' and the state of the country shows something is seriously wrong with the populace...

Let me highlight a few things:
7 deadly sins: envy, gluttony, greed or avarice, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath..

7 Sikh values: honesty, compassion, generosity, humility, integrity, service, and spirituality..

Add the Christian 10 Commandments + the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...

From the morality and spirituality points of view, are these 'tenets' not enough to guide any sane human??


I am consciously living by these 'tenets' and
I ask Oluwa to use me to be the answer to someone's prayers...
I consciously try not to forget how I'd like to be treated if I was at the receiving end...

On the rig my lead once said : give a human power or wealth and you'll see who they truly are.
This holds true on the negative end for Most Nigerians I have encountered.


Now that you see what my brain is reasoning, I don't think I am sharing anything extraordinary, I believe all humans should share information the way I am sharing it...
It's the normal and right thing to do.

My best thread so far on nairaland.com... Even when you are here you still need some info on this thread to navigate this America.... News update... I finally found my self in one of the FAANG
I go sit down here for sometime... Before I move begin find manager work for one small company....

Next info I need now is how to invest and diversify... I go soon tire for this 9-5.

MackyNaija:

Short story...

Over the last two weeks, I was tasked with creating a dashboard on Jira for tracking quality issues - never done this before ..

But from experiences creating charts in Excel, I was able to crack this and create two beautiful tables and a sweet pie chart.

New problem - the data I was working with had excluded 'canceled issues' but was still showing 'closed issues'...
We needed to only see 'Open', 'In progress' and Under 'Verify' issues...

Due to my little programming knowledge, I was able to look at the filter to see "status != Cancelled" and tried excluding 'closed issues' with...

"status != Cancelled and Closed", didn't work, got an error message...

Then I tried
"status != Cancelled AND status != Closed"
It worked!
Na so I jejely leave am, wash my hand comot.

I got perfectly working Dashboards that were presented to the Quality Mgr, Engineering Mgr and Director of Engineering!


Morale of the story?
Everybody including non-science students and awon instagram, abeg learn basic programming. It can help your life!

True.. At the rate things are going if you don't know basic programming you won't get a job in tech field. I did a faang interview recently and got the offer.. The questions were centered on automation. My advise is.. No matter your interests in tech, try and learn python.

Zendmann1:


True.. At the rate things are going if you don't know basic programming you won't get a job in tech field. I did a faang interview recently and got the offer.. The questions were centered on automation. My advise is.. No matter your interests in tech, try and learn python.

How much python do you think is necessary, if you don't mind me asking? For me, python was a walk in the park until I got to linked lists, bid-0 and recursion. Do you think one needs to go that far?

Nickshrapnel:
I’m not OP, but I also share information to people around me because the richer those around me are, the richer I also become.

That's why I said majority, I didn't say all Nigerians.

God bless you plenty.

That's the way it is supposed to be.

MackyNaija:

I don't have a direct answer to this question but let me drop some careless ramblings and maybe it will help with giving you an answer.

First, lets be clear, no be me holy pass...
Secondly, a juxtaposition of our Nigerian 'religiousity' and the state of the country shows something is seriously wrong with the populace...

Let me highlight a few things:
7 deadly sins: envy, gluttony, greed or avarice, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath..

7 Sikh values: honesty, compassion, generosity, humility, integrity, service, and spirituality..

Add the Christian 10 Commandments + the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...

From the morality and spirituality points of view, are these 'tenets' not enough to guide any sane human??


I am consciously living by these 'tenets' and
I ask Oluwa to use me to be the answer to someone's prayers...
I consciously try not to forget how I'd like to be treated if I was at the receiving end...

On the rig my lead once said : give a human power or wealth and you'll see who they truly are.
This holds true on the negative end for Most Nigerians I have encountered.


Now that you see what my brain is reasoning, I don't think I am sharing anything extraordinary, I believe all humans should share information the way I am sharing it...
It's the normal and right thing to do.

Thanks for the peek into your mind.

I believe God is rewarding you and will reward you even more.

Thanks for being so open, I believe thousands if not more pray for you, and there is no way God is going to ignore those prayers.

Keep up the good work

neurosci:


How much python do you think is necessary, if you don't mind me asking? For me, python was a walk in the park until I got to linked lists, bid-0 and recursion. Do you think one needs to go that far?

Python is quite a big program.. I think the basic(if .. else, modules etc) is what is needed since you are technically not a coder; also there are other programs for automation so it depends on the company. For example, I got into my present company using the small python I know but getting here, I noticed they use PERL and bash for all their automation so I have to starting learning.

One does not neccesarily need to learn it via python. One just needs to learn the fundamentals of programming in general. It could be python, Java, etc. Specifically, if/else, loops, simple data structures, etc.

neurosci:


How much python do you think is necessary, if you don't mind me asking? For me, python was a walk in the park until I got to linked lists, bid-0 and recursion. Do you think one needs to go that far?

Zendmann1:
My best thread so far on nairaland.com... Even when you are here you still need some info on this thread to navigate this America.... News update... I finally found my self in one of the FAANG
I go sit down here for sometime... Before I move begin find manager work for one small company....

Next info I need now is how to invest and diversify... I go soon tire for this 9-5.

Congrats Sir, I fit bet half of my nyansh say na Amzn you get! No ask me how I take know

E get how you go package yourself, you go see Director position. Why?
Depending on your current role, Leaving a 100,000+ employee company with worldwide impact to go work for a sub-1000 employee company having a single or two locations can fetch you a Director position.

As I usually say - once a manager, always a manager except you choose to demote yourself.

After I got this current role, I became fully sold on the idea that everything is about what you believe you are worth and how you package + present yourself.

MackyNaija:

Congrats Sir, I fit bet half of my nyansh say na Amzn you get! No ask me how I take know

E get how you go package yourself, you go see Director position. Why?
Depending on your current role, Leaving a 100,000+ employee company with worldwide impact to go work for a sub-1000 employee company having a single or two locations can fetch you a Director position.

As I usually say - once a manager, always a manager except you choose to demote yourself.

After I got this current role, I became fully sold on the idea that everything is about what you believe you are worth and how you package + present yourself.

I agree with the concept of packaging and presentation.

But how big is connection to getting things done versus your experience of/knowledge of connection in getting things done in Nigeria?

Any stories from yonder to breath life into your response?

Nigeria is big on connection for opening hitherto closed doors. What's the Yankee experience like?

Hello, is it possible to book/reserve a hotel(in Washington) with a Nigerian ATM(Visa)? I'm trying to book one but they keep declining my card.
Note the Naira equivalent in the card is not upto the price in dollars(about $2400), could that be the reason for the decline?