MY MIT PhD APPLICATION, AND THE 3 IRREFUTABLE BIOLOGICAL LESSONS OF HISTORY.

First, life is competition. Here is Will and Ariel Durant in their 1968 book: Lessons of History

“Competition is not only the life of trade, it is the trade of life – peaceful when food abounds, violent when the mouths outrun the food”

I have met folks who have repudiated competition, at almost every level. “I dislike competition” so they will say. Even more ridiculous, “I don’t compete”. As if nature request an opinion to make her decisions. The pith is, whether you like it or otherwise, you are in for a great deal of competition, long before you are conceived: remember, the races of the spermatozoa is an upstream one. I applied to a PhD program at the MIT last fall, I thought I had a chance, and maybe I was right. But here is the reply I got:

“You a very fine candidate but due to copious amount of applications, we could not grant you an admission”

Well, that’s probably how an African young man ‘competes’ with a “Lui Chi Tang” in faraway Asia or a nerd from an ivy league. Don’t be fooled life is replete with competition.

Second, life is a selection:

“We are all born unfree and unequal: subject to our physical and psychological heredity, and to the customs and traditions of our group; diversely endowed in health and strength, in mental capacity and qualities of character”

Well, what’s is the odd of you being “successful” if you are born in the US versus a sub-Sahara African country. Or what is the odd of you becoming rich if you are born into a family of billionaires? High right? However, this is not to imply that once you are born poor you remain so. On the contrary, life is also replete of improbable success stories, albeit a deviation from the norm.

Third, life must breed: Durants wrote:

“Nature has no use for organisms, variations, or groups that cannot reproduce abundantly. She has a passion for quantity as a prerequisite to the selection of quality”

I remembered my social studies tutor in high school made us memorize functions of humans, and guess what number 1 on the list was: PROCREATION!

         

SOCIAL PHYSICS

In traditional physics, the flow of energy is followed my motion, in the same vein in social physics, the flow of ideas precedes behavioral changes.

Would you consider yourself to be pretty independent? You probably make your own decisions based on your own personal, rational thoughts, right?

Well, social physics has divulged that this is quite complicated – that we are not as independent as we thought.

We are quite influenced by the behavior of our peer group – which is not restricted to only friends, it also include mere passing acquaintances.

We often belong to many peer groups at once. For example, you could be a soccer-loving (one peer group) in a book club (another) a research lab (yet another).

I found Automatic social learning (ASL) to be quite fascinating: just as direct contact is imperative for idea flow, indirect contact (what we observe people doing, and overheard conversations) is also as important. Remember that particular verbiage you keep using, only to find out it's was because some friends were using it? That's ASL: you picked them up unconsciously/subconsciously. Afterall, there are social disincentives for being starkly different from others in the environment -- even if you are doing the right thing in some cases.

 Bottom line:

Vet your milieu; watch out for absurd behavioral changes; and explore for diverse and "healthy ideas" to drive good behavioral changes.

 In fact the latter is why am so BIG on books.

ROAD TO GRADUATE SCHOOL IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: PART 2

This post is a continuation of the post:  Road to graduate school in US, part1 

FINANCIAL AID AND SCHOLARSHIP

One of the disparities between the US graduate school application and for countries like the UK stems from their financial aid methodology. The financial aid and scholarships in the United States are usually on a rolling basis and you can apply at any time during the application for admission. However, some graduate schools only accept applications at certain time of the year usually fall (August).

Majorly, US graduate school scholarship subsume the following:

1.      A partial tuition fee waiver: The graduate school waive a certain percentage of the school tuition.
2.      Full Tuition scholarship: All tuition are waived
3.      Full Tuition scholarship and Assistantship: This is the acme of most US graduate school scholarships where all tuition are waived. In addition, there will be an employment with the university in the form of a Teaching assistantship or Research assistantship or Graduate assistantship with a certain amount to be paid  that will help cover the cost of living in the United States.

SCHOOLS

Searching for schools is one of the most inundating stage during the US graduate school application. Some people pay some institutions/agencies for this service, however, I would stoutly advise to do it personally. First, you delve for schools that offers your proposed course of study. Make good use of google and other search engines to search for schools.

There are plethora of websites for searching US graduate school on the internet.  Second, make sure you contact each and every one of them primarily through email (Emails are always conspicuous on the school / program website and phone calls could also be made) Enquire about the graduate program, financial aid, exam requirements, academic profiles and a host of others. Below is a template of an enquiry e-mail. 

Subject: Prospective Student

Hello, I am xxxxx from Nigeria I had my Bachelor’s degree in xxxxxx from xxxxxx university. My final C.G.P.A is xx/4.0 or xx/5.0. Am keenly interested in the graduate(M.S/ PhD)  program in xxxxxxx in your university. I will love to enquire the following about the program/graduate school: (i)Can I apply to this program with my Bachelor’s degree? (ii)How can I be eligible for the program's financial aid? ……….

 xxxxx

THANK YOU.

The paramount decision you will make is your choice of graduate school. If, for example, you are applying to 4 schools, I would apply to a top ranked school, 2 middle ranked school, and one lower ranked school in order to maximize opportunities. Let me reiterate the importance of contacting graduate schools before application, this will prevent wasting application fees and most importantly time on schools that would not grant admissions.

In conclusion, from my stated opinions and experiences there is quite a great deal of disparities in the requirements for graduate schools, therefore the examinations you take and the application procedure will be dictated by your choice of school.

INCENTIVES AND DISINCENTIVES

Incentives and disincentives literally drives the world. Knowing how to manage the duo determines the success and the failure of any state or an individual. I will argue that this will be the only solitary reason that will most justify the ostensible backwardness in the African continent versus other progressing continents. Impunity metastases when you fail to reward hard work; and, accordingly if you fail to penalize slut and/or misconduct.

Imagine for a second, if there are no yellow or red card rules in soccer? Brutality becomes the name of the game.

But just like about anything else, a disincentive/incentive can go completely wrong. A pair of economists conducted a study of ten day-care centers in Haifa, Israel. Parents often come late to pick up their kids, so they decided to introduce a fine of $3 (disincentive) for coming late. Before the study, there are about 8 late pick-ups per week per daycare centers. Surprisingly – or rather not – after the introduction of the disincentives, the number of late pick-ups surged up to about 20.

Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner in one of their Freakonomics edition gave a replete explanation:

“You have probably already guessed that the $3 fine was simply too small. For that price, a parent with one child could afford to be late every day and only pay an extra $60 each month... What if the fine had been set at $100 instead of $3? That would have likely put an end to the late pickups... But there was another problem with the day-care center fine. It substituted an economic incentive ($3 penalty) for a moral incentive (the guilt that parents were supposed to feel when they came late) for just few dollars each day, parents could buy off their guilt”   

More interesting and expectedly, after the $3 fine was removed, the frequency of late pickups failed to drop.

While incentives (disincentives) drives a state, the ‘freaks’ stated “Any incentive is inherently a trade-off; the trick is to balance the two extremes”

ROAD TO GRADUATE SCHOOL IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: PART 1

Below I highlight the basic information needed for admissions into graduate school in the United States: This first part covers planning, preparation of transcripts, and examinations, while the second part will cover scholarship and application information.

PLANNING

Application to graduate schools in the United States is relatively lengthy compared to equivalents in countries like the United Kingdom. Therefore, I would advise to start preparation around 12 months before your proposed start date for optima results. For example, if you are planning to start your program by Fall 2016 (August)  it’s very imperative you start taking examinations around August 2015 and delving for schools much earlier before that date: this is very essential for doctorate programs.

Planning essentially involves taking the required examinations, preparation of academic transcripts, searching for schools and, of course, applications.

PREPARATION OF ACADEMIC TRANSCRIPTS

The United States uses the 4.0 scale grade point average system while we use 5.0 scale in Nigeria. Therefore it may be important to convert your C.G.P.A to the American format i.e 4.0 scale. To know your American G.P.A you have to evaluate your transcript through World educational services (WES). The synopsis of this process include: send the transcript for your bachelor’s degree to WES, at a specified fee, they will convert your G.P.A on a course by course basis to generate the 4.0 scale American G.P.A. Afterwards, WES would be the institution to forward transcripts to the recipient schools for application. Visit www.wes.org for more details. Note that evaluation methods depends on the school you are applying to; while some schools will require you to do it, through WES, some universities do it themselves by charging a fee during the application process.

EXAMINATIONS

The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is one of the most imperative examinations required by graduate schools in the United States. They are of two types: (i) the revised general GRE test, this examination basically test your quantitative, verbal and writing skills. This is required by all graduate schools (Some graduate school do not require the GRE especially if the applicant is not applying for financial aids) (ii) The GRE subject test: it’s an examination on a specific subject relating to the proposed graduate studies; for example, a person who is applying for a graduate program in molecular biology might be asked to provide a GRE Biochemistry subject test score, however, this is rarely required. www.ets.org/gre is the Uniform Resource Locator for the GRE test. You can get all information needed about these examinations on the website. Based on personal experience, the revised general GRE test is an exam that should not be rushed. If you are ill-prepared you will do a bad job really good. Most people advice to prepare for 6 months.  

Another examination that could be required is Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), it is a test for English proficiency. A very good alternative to this exam is International English Language Test System (IELTS). From my point of view the best accepted English proficiency test for US graduate school is TOEFL. (Some schools accept IELTS as an alternative, however, I think IELTS is more accepted in the UK and other European countries.)

This will most likely be beneficial if you are applying or some sort of scholarship for example most prospective international students that seek teaching assistantships will have to submit an English proficiency score.    

TOEFL is quite an easy exam that essentially test your speaking, reading, listening and writing in the English Language. Again, www.ets.org/toefl is the Uniform Resource Locator for TOEFL. You can get all information needed about these examination on the website.

MY 4.49 GRADE POINT AVERAGE; $200,000 GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS; AND THE ADVANTAGE OF A DISADVANTAGE.

                                                              1.

"...And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt..." Genesis 37:28

...

“They have posted [released] our final results” a friend told me in a very very trepid but rather familiar tone. I had to contend with the ever epileptic internet connection to check my results. “Did I make it, Did I not?” I thought, with my heart palpitating. Finally the internet ‘conceded’, and my eyes got fixated on a 4.49 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) on my computer screen, my breath ceded for a sec ... “4.49?!!! How [the h$%] did this happen?” I have never been so perturbed my entire life. Just some few days ago, I was quite confident of a first class CGPA.

A quick probe finally led out the facts: few months prior, a friend had helped to submit an assignment for one of the classes I offered in my last semester at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Nigeria. Unfortunately – or rather not – the assignment was submitted with an incorrect matriculation [identification] number. Because of this peccadillo, the 5 marks allocated for the assignment (which I still believe I am totally entitled to) was not added to my class grade; as such I ended up with a 67B in the class (which led to a 4.49 CGPA). Had my 5 marks been added, it would been a 72A, with the much anticipated First class honors.

Well, this got really messed up by the ‘ridiculous’ obstinacy of a university professor in my department, who insisted I WAS NOT A ‘FIRST CLASS MATERIAL’ and a 4.49 cGPA was my rightful place. I was forlorn, to say the least. Finally, my only chance of graduating with a first class honors from OAU got slid off right in my face.

If you are not familiar with the Nigerian GPA system used in most varsities, this is how it works: If you are fortunate to garner a GPA from 4.50-5.00, that’s a first class honors. With a 3.50-4.49 cGPA, then you land yourself in a second class upper division.

In a country replete with unemployment, and deplorable investments in science jobs, trust me on this one: a 4.49 cGPA is the last thing you had wish for.

Not surprising, looking back at my struggles at OAU, I developed a very strong aversion towards the decaying educational system. [Which I believe is characteristic of most tertiary institutions in Nigeria, after all, OAU has constantly ranked the best] Here is why: I will fail woefully, if I try to count the number of lectures I received while standing on my feet because of the lack of available seats in a university lecture hall; or the number of candles I used up for my readings because of the epileptic power supply. In fact, the latter would be an impossible challenge.

I once told some of my American friends that I read with candles throughout college, the utter shock their countenance posited was one to remember. This is very sad, because to some of us, we have grown to think that this is the norm, which reminds of the popular Fela Song: suffering and smiling. That’s why I was critical about the argument that a person submitting an assignment for me was lack of academic integrity. On the contrary, considering the gross ineptitude of university management in Nigeria. Our ‘leaders’ should be reprimanded for any poor academic performance, certainly not otherwise.

...

As I was called upon to receive the best graduating student’s prize for the department of Microbiology in 2012, I had a very rare ambivalent feeling: I was gleeful – my achievement was one that I am totally proud of – at the same time, irked: I felt cheated.  There and then I promised not to enslave myself in an educational system that almost frustrate effort; more often than not, fail to reward hard work; and needless to say, tainted by some mentally challenged university professors that should have lost their jobs long before we are even born.

                                                              2.

"They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds"

...

Little did I know that a 4.49 GPA could be a potential advantage – an advantage of a disadvantage. Soon after my final exams, I headed to the NYSC, harmed with little information, I began to delve for graduate schools abroad. I have believed that my success will be the best revenge, and that I had no options except for the very best. Several months went by and I constantly spent half of my allawe (monthly stipend the government pays NYSC corpers) on MTN modems to surf the internet so I can garner as much information as I needed on graduate schools. Even though the internet supply was an epileptic one, I wouldn’t give in. Just within few weeks, I had sent over 200 emails to graduate schools abroad enquiring about educational opportunities and scholarships. In short, I have never been so focused!   I did all the required exams, and in the end I applied to more than 10 graduate schools abroad. A friend once told me “that was way too much effort Bif”. To which I replied “I think I should have done more, you need to graduate with a 4.49 cGPA to think the way I do”

Praying for the best and expecting the worse, I had saved some money doing my NYSC to repeat the process again, the next year. And I am damn sure I wouldn’t be hesitant to do it the third time even if I failed the second attempt.

As God will have it, it went through during the first attempt. I got admissions in all the schools I applied except one; with scholarships from the University of Newcastle and The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington DC. Shortly after my NYSC I left for Washington, DC.

Few months ago, I graduated with a MS degree in Biotechnology from CUA with a 3.95 CGPA, (4.0 scale) an almost perfect cGPA; a wonderful research in the field of functional yeast genomics with Dr. John Choy; and Doctorate scholarships from 4 graduate schools!

Permit me to put on my economist cloak, and put a value on all the graduate scholarship I have been offered since my graduation from OAU: it will be well over $200,000.

These are the lessons learnt:

One, In Malcom Gladwell’s words: “We have ... a very rigid and limited definition of what an advantage is ... We think of some things as unhelpful that in reality leave us stronger and wiser.” This is the apt pith of this piece. My 4.49 cGPA left me stronger! No doubts

Two, someone opinion about you doesn’t have to be your reality. Take Charge!

In conclusion, Taking glory for all the positives that have happened would be fatuous and almost suicidal. After I lost the 4.49 ‘battle’ at OAU, several professors, families and friend stood by me, and gave very inspiring messages. Their words and support kept me going.

More important, is the story of a man who think he can do it alone and found himself swimming in a big ocean against the tides. Soon enough he drowned. He forgot that when God is on your side the tides moves in your direction.

LESSONS OF HISTORY

The richest wisdom on earth are unequivocally embedded in history. Reading Lessons of History by Will and Aeriel Durant was yet another verification to the claim. As they rightfully stated “the present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding.” Here are some of the peaks in the book. The book is replete of several historical examples, but I have decided to glean that off and go straight to the pith.

HOW TO SURMOUNT CHALLENGES: 

Initiatives, creativity, clarity of mind, energy of will, and intelligence are at the heart of the required qualities to surmount challenges.

“If we put the problem further back, and ask what determines whether a challenge will or will not be met, the answer is that this depends upon the presence or absence of initiative and of creative individuals with clarity of mind and energy of will ... capable of effective responses to new situation (which is almost a definition of intelligence). If we ask what makes a creative individual, we are thrown back from history to psychology and biology – to the influence of environment and the gamble and secret of the chromosomes”

I think the former has a more preponderance on creativity than the latter.

WHY HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF:

“History repeats itself in the large because human nature changes with geological leisureliness, and man is equipped to respond in [almost] stereotyped ways to frequently occurring situations and stimuli like hunger, danger, and sex [among others]”

ON MONEY MANAGEMENT:

“The men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all”

ON RELIGION:

“As long as there is poverty there will be a God”

As a Christian, I find this statement very worrisome. Yet, the practice of Christianity [and most religion] today virtually exemplify this. Needless to say, the message of salvation has been subdued by the plenoxia of worldly materials.

THE CONS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION:

“Gradually, then rapidly and ever more widely, the Industrial Revolution changed the economic form and moral superstructure of European and American life [and other part of the world albeit more gradually]. Men, women, and children left home and family, authority and unity, to work as individuals, individually paid, in factories built to house not men but machines. Every decade the machines multiplied and became more complex; economic maturity came later; children no longer were economic assets; marriage was delayed; premarital continence became more difficult to maintain. The city offered every discouragement to marriage, but it provided every stimulus and facility for sex....The authority of father and mother lost its economic base through growing individualism of industry. The rebellious youth was no longer constrained by the surveillance of the village; he could hide his sins in the protective anonymity of the city crowd... education spread religious doubts... the old agricultural moral code began to die”

The cons of industrialization cannot be best stated.

THE SECRETS TO PEAK PERFORMANCE

FreeImages.com/Carly Walde

 
MAXIMUM NEURO-HARMONY AND COGNITIVE CONTROL

3 TYPES OF FOCUS

I wrote out some notes from Prof. Daniel Goleman talk at google on his new book: Focus: the Hidden Driver of Excellence. He stated the 3 types of focus anyone with a sphere of influence requires.

Inner focus: The ability to manage oneself.

Outer focus: The ability to read other people effectively and be able to persuade other people.

Systems awareness: useful for strategic thinking – ability to be aware of what is going on in our world with respect to technology, the economy, and so on. For example, if your boss gave you a query at work, that is a threat. So is global warming. However, intuitively, the latter is usually relegated to “nothing”.

INNER FOCUS

Here I will focus on inner focus: the ability to work at one’s best. This is sometimes called Good work, and it occurs when we have “maximum neuro-harmony”. Good work tend to reflect when we fulfill 3 main requirements.

The best set of skills for the job

Love for the job

Perfect alignment of the job with one’s ethics.

To also get to the state of Good work, psychologists have figured out that cognitive control (also called delay in gratification) is non-negotiable.

TWO STUDIES

The famous marshmellow test. Four year olds were given 1 marshmellow, and they were instructed that if they could wait 10 minutes without eating the marshmellow, they will get an additional one. Some grabbed and some waited. About 14 years later, the kids that delay gratification (waited for 10 minutes) had a 200 point average advantage on the SAT.

In a similar study in New Zealand about a thousand 4-8 year olds were tested for cognitive control. 32 years later they were tracked down. The study revealed that their cognitive control predicted health and financial success better than their IQ or the socio economic status of their family.

Hence, there has been a push to teach cognitive control to kids.

ON GOOD IDEAS AND ERRORS.

 “...IT’S PRETTY OBVIOUS, THE MIDDLE TOP IS THE SWEET SPOT”

Benjamin Franklin wrote: “Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all things considered, is more valuable and interesting than that of their discoveries...” In the same vein, British economist William Stanley Jevons also stated “In all probability the errors of the great mind exceed in number those of the less vigorous ones.”

Error is one of the 7 reoccurring patterns associated with innovation, which Steven Johnson detailed in his book Where Good Ideas Come From. Indeed, it takes an enlightened mind to see error as a smooth path to innovation.

When you win, you will probably throw a party, I’d guess. However, when you lose, it triggers a totally different action – you ponder, you question, you explore, and challenge assumptions. Verily, nothing begs innovation than the aforementioned quadruplets. William James. Quoted: “The error is needed to set off the truth, as much as a dark background is required for exhibiting the brightness of a picture”.

According to legend, Thomas Edison carried out 1000 experiments before he invented the light bulb. In other words he failed 999 times! That’s humongous for one experiment. Think about this, an error means a deviation from correctness, so if there is probably one – or very few ways – to make the bulb light up, and say, there are two thousand potent theories to try out. How the hell will he get to the correct 1 without ‘getting drenched’ in errors? Well, math tells us it’s possible – with a probability of 0.0005.

Edison knew he had to tolerate failure because the path to correctness is riddled with errors.

The message should not be misconstrued, errors are to be avoided when possible, but the nature of most problems make error inevitable.

Visualize a graph with an inverted U curve, which plots success on the y axis and error on the x axis. You don’t want to be at the two extremes – bottom left or right. The bottom left spot rarely exist (that’s the pith of this article) and for the bottom right: run from that. That occurs when you don’t plan and make degenerative mistakes as opposed to generative errors. It’s pretty obvious – the middle top is the sweet spot.  

KEYSTONE HABITS AND HOW I KILLED 3 BIRDS WITH ONE STONE

 

Last summer I had a plethora of important goals to achieve; I had to quickly recruit some germane arsenals to boost my focus – the subject, which has unarguably become a rare commodity in our world today (You probably don’t have to own an iPhone to fathom this). I did a will-power experiment, scored myself holistically on a weekly basis – as bona fide as I could – just for a sole reason: as a vessel for motivation.

Few months after, I was listening to an audiobook, The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal. In the book, she pointed out to some research that showed how exercise incited several positive habits like eating healthy, increased productivity, smoking less, amongst others.

Hurriedly I stretched for my last summer will power experimental data and to my astonishment, a trend emerged.  Oblivious to me, I had killed 3 birds with one stone – The morning I ran; One, I was more likely to stick to my almost-tasteless oats meal versus a carbohydrate-laden food; two, read an extra 30 minutes; and three, spent less time wasting away on the internet. In short, the positive correlation between my exercise regimen and will power was almost absolute!

Charles Duhigg in his best seller book – The Power of Habit –  calls activities like my last-summer-exercise “Keystone habits”. Here is the book:

“Keystone habits start a process that, over time, transforms everything...Keystone habits say that success doesn’t depend on getting every single thing right, but instead relies on identifying a few key priorities and fashioning them into powerful levers...The habits that matter most are the ones that, when they start to shift, dislodge and remake other patterns”

Apart from physical exercise, here is another example: Food journaling. Studies has shown that people who kept a daily log of food consumed, has a much higher chance of eating healthy, and consequently lose more weight; only with the use of food journals.

In fact, Duhigg in his book stated that some studies has shown a positive correlation between making your bed every morning and developing apt budgeting skills, a sense of well-being, and increased productivity. Lastly – and more important – is the habit of positive thinking. This will probably have one of the greatest positive ripple effect I can imagine.

The gist is, look for a habit that will give you the ripple effect that you desire: I had guess if you had the opportunity to kill 3 birds with one stone (versus 3 stones), you’ll grab it.