A young Nigerian man receives 14 scholarships to universities in the US and Europe and raises his GPA from 2.21 in the 100 level to graduate with honors.
AFRICA | A young Nigerian man receives 14 scholarships to universities in the US and Europe after improving his GPA from 2.21 at the 100 level to graduating with honors.
John Eso, a young Nigerian man, has overcome several scholastic obstacles to attain remarkable accomplishment.
A monument to tenacity, fortitude, and an unyielding pursuit of success, he went from having a 2.21 GPA in his first year at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) to graduating with honors and earning 14 scholarships to esteemed universities in the US and Europe.
On LinkedIn, John recounted how he had major setbacks when he first started his academic career. Despite having a clear idea of what he wanted to achieve, he did not fare well in his first semester.
He wanted to grow as a person and gain useful skills for his job, but his performance as an Agricultural and Environmental Engineering major was significantly hampered by his weak high school physics and math foundation.
John was determined to change things, so he studied a lot, went to a lot of tutorials, asked smart classmates for aid, hired a math teacher, and watched a lot of YouTube lessons.
He found it difficult to get from D’s to C’s while his peers were doing exceptionally well with A’s. Friends even questioned his efforts, wondering why, despite his daily attendance, he was not seeing better results. But he stayed unwavering.
His perseverance eventually paid off. He went from being a D student to a C student, then to a B student, and before long, he achieved an A. He excelled in Engineering Mathematics and other tough courses, even achieving a perfect 5.00 GPA in one semester, ultimately graduating with a Second Class Upper (Honors) degree.
But John’s desire for knowledge did not stop there. He pursued graduate studies overseas because he envisioned fusing engineering, technology, and business to produce significant solutions.
His application journey began in late 2022, and while he received multiple admission offers from prestigious institutions, securing funding remained a major challenge.
He submitted applications to a number of universities for the Fall 2023 admission cycle, including Johns Hopkins University, Queen’s University Belfast, Illinois Institute of Technology, New York University, Case Western Reserve University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Princeton University, and the University of Salento.
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Despite numerous denials, he was able to obtain a Graduate Research Assistantship and a 50% merit-based scholarship from Johns Hopkins University. He continued his pursuit without giving up.
He applied to the University of Virginia and the University of Florida in the spring of 2024 but was turned down once more. One of the most difficult times was when a Florida professor whose work was exactly what he was interested in abruptly stopped communicating with him.
John was determined to succeed, so he broadened his application approach for Fall 2025. He carefully examined 152 US programs in civil engineering, went to the websites of each institution, and followed up with more than 500 cold emails to department chairs, professors, and graduate coordinators.
His perseverance brought him possibilities that changed his life. In the US, he received several fully funded offers from Texas A&M University, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Hawaii, Ohio State University, Iowa State University, Oregon State University, the University of Nevada Reno, Johns Hopkins University, Rice University, the University of Southern California, and Ohio State University.
John’s chances of success were bolstered by his strong academic profile by the spring of 2025. He obtained more than 20 certifications, published four research papers, and accumulated a substantial amount of professional, teaching, and research experience.
He received a fully financed PhD offer from North Carolina State University (NCSU) in the United States after submitting a far more compelling application. As he looked back on his journey, John was incredibly appreciative of his teachers, family, and friends for helping him get through the most difficult moments.
He recognized the unrelenting work, the innumerable rejections, and the sacrifices made in order to achieve this accomplishment. He underlined that showing up, working hard, and never giving up are just as important for success as having talent.
John encourages everyone in a similar circumstance to keep trying, to keep failing, and to eventually show up for success.
