Simeon

Hello Everyone, I was wondering if anyone could offer their opinion on which is a better option for GRE Prep : Magoosh or Prepscholar. Prepscholar is currently cheaper than Magoosh( $78 for one year versus $149 for six months) but I am wondering if one is distinctly better than the other especially for someone looking to get high scores. See links below for their respective prices. Thank you. https://gre.prepscholar.com/pricing/ https://gre.magoosh.com/plans

Hi DBear, Thanks for response. My GRE breakdown is as follows : Verbal = 165, Quantitative = 167, Analytical writing = 3.5. As regards the SOP, there are those who advise that one should only talk about accomplishments related to the course you are applying to. Supposedly this shows that you have focus and know what you want to do. What do you think about this?

I should also mention that I am currently 26 and will clock 27 in May!!!

My name is Simeon. I hold a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. For my undergraduate degree I finished with a third class (CGPA = 2.36/5). WES converted that to 2.79/4 In my final year, I carried out an award-winning project in low-cost robotics where a robotic arm was designed using locally sourced materials. An IEEE paper from the project can be found here. Other fields in which I have interests and have made contributions including conference papers and a poster are Strategic Foresight/Future Studies (paper at the ATPS 2012), the African Maker Movement( poster at FAB 10 2014 , paper at ICCIG 2015 ) and Climate Change. I scored 332/340(V165,Q167,AW3.5) in GRE and 114/120 in TOEFL last year. I was primarily interested in a multidisciplinary masters like Robotics However it seems my poor grade has prevented me from being admitted for a research Masters. Last year I applied to seven US schools(Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Worcester, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern and St Louis) but got no admission offer. I am currently open to other Western countries in addition to the US. Is there anything I can do? Do I stand any chance this year?

My name is Simeon. For my undergraduate degree I finished with a third class (CGPA = 2.36/5) I hold a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. In my final year, I carried out an award-winning project in low-cost robotics where a robotic arm was designed using locally sourced materials. An IEEE paper from the project can be found here. Other fields in which I have interests and have made contributions including conference papers and a poster are Strategic Foresight/Future Studies (paper at the ATPS 2012), the African Maker Movement( poster at FAB 10 2014 , paper at ICCIG 2015 ) and Climate Change. I scored 332/340 in GRE and 114/120 in TOEFL last year. I was primarily interested in a multidisciplinary masters like Robotics However it seems my poor grade has prevented me from being admitted for a research Masters. Last year I applied to seven US schools(Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Worcester, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern and St Louis) but got no admission offer. I am currently open to other Western countries in addition to the US. Is there anything I can do? Do I stand any chance this year?

Thank you Abhinav. I do appreciate the feedback and will continue practicing Best Simeon

This appears to be a popular argument task: "SuperCorp recently moved its headquarters to Corporateville. The recent surge in the number of homeowners in Corporateville proves that Corporateville is a superior place to live than Middlesburg, the home of SuperCorp's current headquarters. Moreover, Middleburg is a predominately urban area and according to an employee survey, SuperCorp has determined that its workers prefer to live in an area that is not urban. Finally, Corporateville has lower taxes than Middlesburg, making it not only a safer place to work but also a cheaper one. Therefore, Supercorp clearly made the best decision." I would appreciate anyone rating and giving me their feedback. My Answer(with errors and all): In coming to its conclusion that Supercorp clearly made the best decision moving its headquarters to Corporateville, the argument makes a number ofassumptions hat if proven unwarranted will seriously damage its veracity and validity. I will be considering some of these assumptions subsequently. In stating that the surge in homeowners in Corporateville proves that it is a superior place to work that Middlesburg, the text's writer assumes that a surge in home owners is equal to superiority of living standard. We of course need more information before we can accept this as true. What if the surge in Corporateville was due to a natural disaster in the towns close to it causing residents from this towns to move? If this is the case, then in fact it is Corporateville's location and not its living standard that is responsible for its having more homeowners moving in. This would mean that the argument has made a wrong assumption. Furthermore, even though we are told that SuperCorp conducted an employee survey, we are not told how representative the survey was. Perhaps only the top executives who earn enough to be able to live relatively insulated lives were interviewed. This would mean that the majority of the staff were not included in the survey and we do not know if they prefer to live in an urban area. We need more details about the survey before we can agree on its being truly relevant to Supercorp's decision making. Moreover, even if the survey were truly representative of Supercorp's workers, there is a difference between living and working. The fact that Supercorp's workers prefer living in a non-urban area does not necessarily mean that they prefer working in such an environment too. Factors such as type of neighbourhood and presence/closeness of schools, shopping malls and hospitals which families consider in choosing where to live are not usually up for evaluation when it comes to choosing a location for a workplace. Unless Supercorp can show that the surveyed workers have the exact same attitude toward where they live as to where they work, then the company has most likely used wrong parameters to make its decisions. It is also noteworthy that even if all of the assumptions made by the text prove to be warranted, concluding that the company made the best decision may be stretching it too far. Afterall there were only two locations considered. The argument need to properly evaluate its assumptions more before concluding it has done.