Please guide a good geography school or advise at least.

[shariful]

Hi all,

I am from Bangladesh, willing to apply in geography schools in USA (Fall-2017). Below is my profile.

Bachelor:

Geography and Environment (University of Dhaka- top national university)

CGPA: 3.26 out of 4

Masters:

Same university but concentration in Geoinformatics

CGPA: 3.77 out of 4 (non thesis group)

 

GRE:

309 (V-150,Q159, AWA-2.5)- should I retake?

TOEFL:

Yet to take, say 90 atleast, hoping to get guidance from here when done with the toefl

Working Experience:

More than 4 years as geographic information system/remote sensing analyst (Research Officer rank of a non-profit research based NGO in Bangladesh)

 

Other strengths I believe(?):

Good at programming (esp in python), many gis and remote sensing software, spatial analysis etc. with practical and working experience.

Strong profile in stackoverflow( within top 60 from bangladesh) and gisstackexchange (within to 11 for all time)

 

I want to build career in geospatioal technology oriented fields.

Now,

 

Could suggest me please what should I go for Masters or PhD

If one, then what is the best school

 

Thanks in advanced.

 

 

Edited October 14, 2016 by shariful

[shariful]

Addendum:For me full-funding is essential.I might arrange a research proposal in the mean time from my job related works.

At least suggest how to find apposite university with aforementioned credential effectively?

Should I retake gre? or how about overcoming the AWA bad performance?

Should I go for masters or phd considering the above info?

I hoped those who already admitted in different schools would help me matching my poor credential with that of them at an extent.

Thanks in advanced.

Edited October 16, 2016 by shariful

[shariful]

Feeling very unhelped poor???

[Yanaka]

Hey there, 

I'm new to the process and I have absolutely no knowledge in your field, so my advice will be general, possibly partly wrong and probably not what you were looking for.

Here are my two cents: I'd retake the GRE, even though it is difficult, long, incredibly stressful and exhausting. Were you waiting on opinions to retake it? Because I feel that it's too late now, for many schools... I think the main problem here is that your English is a little too weak to conduct research, but then again I don't know you at all and my English can have its awkwardnesses too so I'm not judging. I would say your verbal is OK especially considering you are a non-native speaker with still a few issues, but your AWA is really low. I think under 3.0 is really "frowned" upon, because your English is not the only component that matters. What matters is if you are able to pull off critical thinking and thought organizing, which is very relevant to your future capacities for research... Have you taken the TOEFL yet? 

You can look for fully funded masters online, there are a few. 

Again, those are just scores and I am very unfamiliar with Geography so I will only speak to your linguistic difficulties. And I felt bad for the lack of response  

[rising_star]

If I had to guess, OP, the reason you didn't get much help is because your post is so vague. Lots of geography departments are strong in geospatial technology (Ohio State, University of Buffalo, University of Washington, UBC, University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota, University of Colorado-Boulder, University of Georgia, Arizona State, and many more) but it will depend in part on which technologies you want to work more with (ArcGIS, ERDAS Imagine, etc.) and finding professors doing innovative research in those areas. Also, are you more interested in furthering the technology itself or in applications for the technology? Most geography PhD programs will offer full funding to everyone they admit, though it'll vary by department whether that funding comes from a teaching or research assistantship.

My advice to you would be to narrow down the kind of work you want to do with geospatial technology and what kind of career you see yourself having. Once you have that in mind, it might be easier to identify programs which will be a good fit for you.