MMath or MSci

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Reply 20

meef cheese

Just wondering, would you do Part III at Cambridge after a BA/BSc at another university or after an MMath/MSci ?

After your BSc/BA.

The majority of people here who joined from other universities have generally done 3 years, either in the UK, the US or Europe. There is one guy who did 4 years at York before coming to do Part III though.

If you're in a top 10~15 university with a very good 1st in maths then you, in all probability, would be able to apply to do Part III when you're in your 3rd year of your degree. If you're in a slightly worse uni or need more time to pull your marks up, then a 4th year might be required (and obviously is still no guarentee)

The year itself is self contained because Cambridge has found (along with many other universities I'm now realising) that 3 years in a maths degree is simply not enough to get you up to speed to do good research, you just don't know enough! Hence the 1 year split off to allow people from other places to join the university and to make PhD application nice and easy. Places like Oxford and Durham now lean towards a 4 year PhD because the 1st year is spent doing what Cambridge do in Part III, teaching much more advanced material to people who are good enough to learn it.

Infact, there was a recent (ie a couple of months ago) meeting of a lot of science/maths departments from around the country and I think the head of maths at Cambridge urged other departments to follow their example, force a masters upon any maths student wanting to do research because at present any "research" under taken by someone without a 4th year tends to be quite cut down due to lack of base knowledge.

To those of you thinking of (or who have) applied to Cambridge and want to do Part III, put down you're doing a 4 year maths course. I did that and the letter about my 4th year of funding hit my doormat midsummer no questions asked. My friend on these forums, Wrangler, put down 3 years then applied to get it extended to 4 hit a wall of problems because he and I technically graduated last year but Part III is still an undergrad (and hence funded) course if you were in Cambridge for your Part I and II. Mixing tradition, a unique system and red tape together does noone any favours, so hedge your bets and put 4 years. Can always tell them you packed it in at 3.

Reply 23

sebbie

If you do 3 years at another uni then move to cambridge for part III do you still qualify for funding?

No, afraid not.

Alphanumeric - can i just ask you to clarify: are you suggesting that a PhD after the four year MMath in Oxford would typically take four years or that a student would need Part III (or the equivalent) beforehand to do the PhD in three years? Sorry for the confusion. :confused:

Reply 26

AlphaNumeric

RichE

Sorry, I didn't realise you had a 4 year course too. I was pointing out that almost all top unis now force people to do a 4th year either as a Masters or within a 4 year long PhD because the standard 3 year undergrad course just won't cut it. If you've a 4th year, then I assume people go from that into a 3 year PhD, but others from outside with only 3 years might be forced into doing 4 years, at least that's the impression I got from the Oxford website when I looked around on it a few weeks ago.

20~30 years ago 3 years undergrad was enough to get you into a 3 year PhD, but it seems more and more maths and science courses need that 1 year booster before letting people lose on research.

I certainly wasn't implying 5 years at Oxford = 4 at Cambridge :p:

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