My interest in graduate school was brewed in my 3rd year at the University when Mr. Victor Ogunmola was invited to FUTA to give a talk, and from his profile, he had his MSc at the University of Aberdeen. In that vein, I started researching opportunities in Sedimentary and petroleum geoscience in the UK, but the funding opportunities were limited. I knew I had to look elsewhere; I knew Europe might not be the best destination for a needy scholar like me. In my pursuit of an alternative, I came across i-Scholar, a scholarship body that helps pay for your GRE and TOEFL exams. The setup of iSI is jeered towards US applications, so I knew I had to apply. Winning the iSI scholarship gave me the confidence that I am a competitive prospective student. Through iSI, I got all the necessary information I needed to successfully apply to US institutions. With the encouragements of mentors and scholars, I strategically applied to five universities namely; Caltech, Colorado school of mines, Texas Christian University, Stanford, and Virginia Tech. I got accepted into 3, rejected at Caltech, and waitlisted at Mines (at the time of this report). I will be pursuing my graduate study in Geological Sciences at Stanford with a full-ride scholarship starting by Fall 2021. I enjoyed the process of applying to graduate school, it was excruciating but fun. I learned more about myself, knowing that I am the most important element of my grad school application. All these processes were fun because I had the iSI family’s backing and support- I was not left alone. For incoming scholars, if you really want to get into graduate school, you will! You need to dedicate enough time to learn the process. There’s a template to help you scale through successfully, and know that at ISI, we are rooting for you and you’ll always have the support of the family.
My name is Awosiji Victor, I had my Bachelor’s degree in Applied Geology at the Federal University of Technology, Akure with a First-class honor. I am an incoming Master’s student in Geological Sciences at Stanford University, USA.
