A Nigerian man, Olaide Oludayo Abiona has taken to social media to announce that he bagged a scholarship to study in the United States despite numerous setbacks.
The graduate of Lagos State University (LASU) is the recipient of a fully funded PhD scholarship to read biomedical sciences at Medical College of Wisconsin, in Wisconsin, USA.
In a post on his LinkedIn page, Olaide shared photos of his moment at the airport enroute to the USA as he recounted how he was rejected 10 times.
He revealed that he had always wanted to further his studies in US so he began applying right from his final year at LASU. Sadly, the first three applications he made were unsuccessful.
Not giving up, he took some lessons from past rejections and applied but this time to 8 institutions. 7 of the 8 turned out unsuccessful but last one finally gave him the nod.
Describing his experience applying for scholarships, Olaide said it almost ate him up but he triumphed at the end.
In his words: “From Setbacks to Breakthroughs: Lessons from my PhD Application Journey
About 16 months ago, I embarked on an improbable, but not impossible mission to secure a fully funded PhD scholarship in the United States of America upon completing my Bachelor’s degree at the Lagos State University.
It was an extremely tough journey, one filled with diligence, hardwork, as well as psychological and emotional intricacies. I must confess that this mission almost ate me up and was one filled with a lot of uncertainties along the way. However, I triumphed in the end.
My preferred destination for my postgraduate program has always been the USA and I embarked on the journey during the final year of my undergraduate study in which I submitted my PhD applications to three Universities and was rejected by all three schools. However, I didn’t give up and had to persevere.
I learnt from my previous experience and submitted eight (8) PhD applications to eight (8) different Universities in late 2020 without writing any standardized examination (GRE and TOEFL/IELTS) because all the schools I applied to waived this requirement, although writing these tests would have given me an edge in the application process. Eventually, I got 7 rejections and was accepted into a fully funded PhD program in Biomedical Sciences at Medical College of Wisconsin, in Wisconsin, USA. Thus, an improbable but not impossible mission, and of course a successful one in the end…”
