University of Oxford
Oxford
Oxford postgraduate applicants 2014/15
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University of Oxford
Oxford
Original post by zziippoo
Hi guys, Could anyone explain me how the college system works? I am interested to apply for MSc in Applied Statistics. Thank you
You have to apply to the department. It is general University application. On the application, you state your college preference. If department accepts you, then college will be given to you for sure. However, it may not necessarily be the college you prefer. If your college of choice rejects you, your papers will be passed on from one college to the other, until somebody accepts you.
How colleges choose? They select based on number of criteria, including how good of a fit your programme is with what they normally teach, and how good your overall record is.
College, however, does not teach you. They provide housing, and some type of supervision, but not a major one. Most of teaching is done by the department. For graduate students, college is not as important, but you have to be affiliated with one.
Original post by janjanmmm
You have to apply to the department. It is general University application. On the application, you state your college preference. If department accepts you, then college will be given to you for sure. However, it may not necessarily be the college you prefer. If your college of choice rejects you, your papers will be passed on from one college to the other, until somebody accepts you.
How colleges choose? They select based on number of criteria, including how good of a fit your programme is with what they normally teach, and how good your overall record is.
College, however, does not teach you. They provide housing, and some type of supervision, but not a major one. Most of teaching is done by the department. For graduate students, college is not as important, but you have to be affiliated with one.
How colleges choose? They select based on number of criteria, including how good of a fit your programme is with what they normally teach, and how good your overall record is.
College, however, does not teach you. They provide housing, and some type of supervision, but not a major one. Most of teaching is done by the department. For graduate students, college is not as important, but you have to be affiliated with one.
Thank you very much for your reply. So it is an advantage for my application form to choose a college? Will I have more chances to get a place? How many colleges I can choose and how can I understand which one is the best? Or are all the same? thank you!
Original post by zziippoo
Thank you very much for your reply. So it is an advantage for my application form to choose a college? Will I have more chances to get a place? How many colleges I can choose and how can I understand which one is the best? Or are all the same? thank you!
It's no advantage whatsoever in terms of getting an offer from the University. But if you were to select a more prestigious college such as Christ Church you'd be less likely to be accepted by your first choice college, as they have far more students to choice from. The college choice is entirely personal and depends on what factors are important to you; do you want a traditional college, location, number of students, accommodation and funding opportunities.
Original post by zziippoo
Thank you very much for your reply. So it is an advantage for my application form to choose a college? Will I have more chances to get a place? How many colleges I can choose and how can I understand which one is the best? Or are all the same? thank you!
In addition to what has been already answered:
You can choose one college, and it does not, indeed, have any influence on the application decision.
When choosing a college you should pay attention to several factors, the main of them are:
1) Accommodation. This is the most important element of what the college will provide, and it varies greatly among the colleges. Postgraduate accommodation may be similar or very different from undergraduate, it may or may not be guaranteed, it may be of different quality, location etc.
You have to check very carefully what does college website says about postgraduate student accommodation it has to offer.
2) How good of a "fit" the college is for you and for your chosen programme. I can not comment on particular colleges, but just to give you an example - I have chosen University College because it was specifically mentioned on my programme's website as one of the recommended colleges with high number of graduate students in my field. Which is also why I was successful with it.
3) How popular the college is. More popular colleges like Christ Church and Magdalen fill up very quickly, so you may only have a chance with them if you are:
a) early applicant
b) good fit for their profile
c) have good profile yourself (i.e. good student with high marks and excellent references)
If you apply for January or March deadlines your chance of getting to popular colleges are close to zero: by the time department makes the decision they will be full.
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by ajh1990
It's no advantage whatsoever in terms of getting an offer from the University. But if you were to select a more prestigious college such as Christ Church you'd be less likely to be accepted by your first choice college, as they have far more students to choice from. The college choice is entirely personal and depends on what factors are important to you; do you want a traditional college, location, number of students, accommodation and funding opportunities.
Thank you very much!
Original post by janjanmmm
In addition to what has been already answered:
You can choose one college, and it does not, indeed, have any influence on the application decision.
When choosing a college you should pay attention to several factors, the main of them are:
1) Accommodation. This is the most important element of what the college will provide, and it varies greatly among the colleges. Postgraduate accommodation may be similar or very different from undergraduate, it may or may not be guaranteed, it may be of different quality, location etc.
You have to check very carefully what does college website says about postgraduate student accommodation it has to offer.
2) How good of a "fit" the college is for you and for your chosen programme. I can not comment on particular colleges, but just to give you an example - I have chosen University College because it was specifically mentioned on my programme's website as one of the recommended colleges with high number of graduate students in my field. Which is also why I was successful with it.
3) How popular the college is. More popular colleges like Christ Church and Magdalen fill up very quickly, so you may only have a chance with them if you are:
a) early applicant
b) good fit for their profile
c) have good profile yourself (i.e. good student with high marks and excellent references)
If you apply for January or March deadlines your chance of getting to popular colleges are close to zero: by the time department makes the decision they will be full.
You can choose one college, and it does not, indeed, have any influence on the application decision.
When choosing a college you should pay attention to several factors, the main of them are:
1) Accommodation. This is the most important element of what the college will provide, and it varies greatly among the colleges. Postgraduate accommodation may be similar or very different from undergraduate, it may or may not be guaranteed, it may be of different quality, location etc.
You have to check very carefully what does college website says about postgraduate student accommodation it has to offer.
2) How good of a "fit" the college is for you and for your chosen programme. I can not comment on particular colleges, but just to give you an example - I have chosen University College because it was specifically mentioned on my programme's website as one of the recommended colleges with high number of graduate students in my field. Which is also why I was successful with it.
3) How popular the college is. More popular colleges like Christ Church and Magdalen fill up very quickly, so you may only have a chance with them if you are:
a) early applicant
b) good fit for their profile
c) have good profile yourself (i.e. good student with high marks and excellent references)
If you apply for January or March deadlines your chance of getting to popular colleges are close to zero: by the time department makes the decision they will be full.
Thank you very much for your MSG!
Original post by janjanmmm
...if you apply for January or March deadlines your chance of getting to popular colleges are close to zero: by the time department makes the decision they will be full.
The programme I'm applying for isn't even open for application yet, and interview isn't until late January. To make matters worse I'll defer the start to January 2014 if I do get an offer......so there's no way I can be an "early applicant".
I guess for postgrads college choice doesn't matter that much.
Original post by janjanmmm
In addition to what has been already answered:
You can choose one college, and it does not, indeed, have any influence on the application decision.
When choosing a college you should pay attention to several factors, the main of them are:
1) Accommodation. This is the most important element of what the college will provide, and it varies greatly among the colleges. Postgraduate accommodation may be similar or very different from undergraduate, it may or may not be guaranteed, it may be of different quality, location etc.
You have to check very carefully what does college website says about postgraduate student accommodation it has to offer.
2) How good of a "fit" the college is for you and for your chosen programme. I can not comment on particular colleges, but just to give you an example - I have chosen University College because it was specifically mentioned on my programme's website as one of the recommended colleges with high number of graduate students in my field. Which is also why I was successful with it.
3) How popular the college is. More popular colleges like Christ Church and Magdalen fill up very quickly, so you may only have a chance with them if you are:
a) early applicant
b) good fit for their profile
c) have good profile yourself (i.e. good student with high marks and excellent references)
If you apply for January or March deadlines your chance of getting to popular colleges are close to zero: by the time department makes the decision they will be full.
You can choose one college, and it does not, indeed, have any influence on the application decision.
When choosing a college you should pay attention to several factors, the main of them are:
1) Accommodation. This is the most important element of what the college will provide, and it varies greatly among the colleges. Postgraduate accommodation may be similar or very different from undergraduate, it may or may not be guaranteed, it may be of different quality, location etc.
You have to check very carefully what does college website says about postgraduate student accommodation it has to offer.
2) How good of a "fit" the college is for you and for your chosen programme. I can not comment on particular colleges, but just to give you an example - I have chosen University College because it was specifically mentioned on my programme's website as one of the recommended colleges with high number of graduate students in my field. Which is also why I was successful with it.
3) How popular the college is. More popular colleges like Christ Church and Magdalen fill up very quickly, so you may only have a chance with them if you are:
a) early applicant
b) good fit for their profile
c) have good profile yourself (i.e. good student with high marks and excellent references)
If you apply for January or March deadlines your chance of getting to popular colleges are close to zero: by the time department makes the decision they will be full.
This is just a generalisation and is not always the case. Both me and a friend of mine got into Christ Church and we applied in January (plus we both applied for the same course and come from the same country so it's not like we provided much variety. Also it turned out that chch had already accepted another two people for our course, so generally I think this means they had places open, they liked our applications and they accepted us). I know people who applied in January and got into fairly good colleges like Exeter (this was actually a person with an open application, so even more rare!) and Jesus. I believe it's more about good profile + diversity than it is about timing.
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by ymmf
The programme I'm applying for isn't even open for application yet, and interview isn't until late January. To make matters worse I'll defer the start to January 2014 if I do get an offer......so there's no way I can be an "early applicant".
I guess for postgrads college choice doesn't matter that much.
I guess for postgrads college choice doesn't matter that much.
erm...I don't think you are allowed to defer. Have you checked that?
Original post by noremedy
Nuffield - MPhil Economics here.
Current undergraduate at Manchester, scraped a 1st in my second year.
Also interested in whether people will bother with the GRE.
Current undergraduate at Manchester, scraped a 1st in my second year.
Also interested in whether people will bother with the GRE.
hi same here, applying for Mphil economics! havent thought about which college is my preferred one, which might depends on funding/scholarship. i am about to enter my third year in durham, scraped a 1st as well in my second year.
have you started the online application?
Original post by *Corinna*
erm...I don't think you are allowed to defer. Have you checked that?
It's to the discretion of the programme director.
Original post by ymmf
It's to the discretion of the programme director.
Ah, OK. So your programme director said it's OK?
Original post by 09001904
hi same here, applying for Mphil economics! havent thought about which college is my preferred one, which might depends on funding/scholarship. i am about to enter my third year in durham, scraped a 1st as well in my second year.
have you started the online application?
have you started the online application?
No only for Cambridge.
I'm banging through Job applications at the moment. You intending to take the GRE?
Original post by ymmf
The programme I'm applying for isn't even open for application yet, and interview isn't until late January. To make matters worse I'll defer the start to January 2014 if I do get an offer......so there's no way I can be an "early applicant".
I guess for postgrads college choice doesn't matter that much.
I guess for postgrads college choice doesn't matter that much.
Original post by janjanmmm
In addition to what has been already answered:
You can choose one college, and it does not, indeed, have any influence on the application decision.
When choosing a college you should pay attention to several factors, the main of them are:
1) Accommodation. This is the most important element of what the college will provide, and it varies greatly among the colleges. Postgraduate accommodation may be similar or very different from undergraduate, it may or may not be guaranteed, it may be of different quality, location etc.
You have to check very carefully what does college website says about postgraduate student accommodation it has to offer.
2) How good of a "fit" the college is for you and for your chosen programme. I can not comment on particular colleges, but just to give you an example - I have chosen University College because it was specifically mentioned on my programme's website as one of the recommended colleges with high number of graduate students in my field. Which is also why I was successful with it.
3) How popular the college is. More popular colleges like Christ Church and Magdalen fill up very quickly, so you may only have a chance with them if you are:
a) early applicant
b) good fit for their profile
c) have good profile yourself (i.e. good student with high marks and excellent references)
If you apply for January or March deadlines your chance of getting to popular colleges are close to zero: by the time department makes the decision they will be full.
You can choose one college, and it does not, indeed, have any influence on the application decision.
When choosing a college you should pay attention to several factors, the main of them are:
1) Accommodation. This is the most important element of what the college will provide, and it varies greatly among the colleges. Postgraduate accommodation may be similar or very different from undergraduate, it may or may not be guaranteed, it may be of different quality, location etc.
You have to check very carefully what does college website says about postgraduate student accommodation it has to offer.
2) How good of a "fit" the college is for you and for your chosen programme. I can not comment on particular colleges, but just to give you an example - I have chosen University College because it was specifically mentioned on my programme's website as one of the recommended colleges with high number of graduate students in my field. Which is also why I was successful with it.
3) How popular the college is. More popular colleges like Christ Church and Magdalen fill up very quickly, so you may only have a chance with them if you are:
a) early applicant
b) good fit for their profile
c) have good profile yourself (i.e. good student with high marks and excellent references)
If you apply for January or March deadlines your chance of getting to popular colleges are close to zero: by the time department makes the decision they will be full.
Original post by *Corinna*
erm...I don't think you are allowed to defer. Have you checked that?
Corinna is right - applying for the January deadline will not prevent you getting into a good college. If you apply for the March deadline, you may find that many colleges are full. But lots of courses use January as their main application deadline, so don't worry about that.
I would double check about deferring. It's very unusual - and is becoming more so. Whilst I was there they made it more difficult for people to defer, even for those going from MPhil to DPhil.
Original post by *Corinna*
Ah, OK. So your programme director said it's OK?
I was going to ask about it at the interview - but then I guess I should drop them an e-mail now.
Potentially applying to do the MSc in Psychological Research. If I do apply it's very likely to be New College as that's the one I had set my heart on in 6th form, but never ended up applying to Oxford for undergrad.
I think I'm probably going to take a year out as I don't have the work experience to back up my distinctly average grades. (alternatively I could just apply elsewhere...)
I think I'm probably going to take a year out as I don't have the work experience to back up my distinctly average grades. (alternatively I could just apply elsewhere...)
Hi all!
I'm applying for the MSt (or MPhil? I just don't know) in Slavonic Studies, with my eye on St Antony's college! I'm quite confused about a few things, though, maybe someone can help?
-Who do we use as references? They ask for three academic references, correct, so should they just be three lecturers from my undergrad uni? Or are the references of former employers appropriate to use?
- If I'm applying for a taught programme, to what extent to I need to mention themes for possible research topics in my personal statement? Surely I shouldn't need to talk about research if I'm not applying for a research-focussed programme?
Thanks, guys, and good luck to all of you
I'm applying for the MSt (or MPhil? I just don't know) in Slavonic Studies, with my eye on St Antony's college! I'm quite confused about a few things, though, maybe someone can help?
-Who do we use as references? They ask for three academic references, correct, so should they just be three lecturers from my undergrad uni? Or are the references of former employers appropriate to use?
- If I'm applying for a taught programme, to what extent to I need to mention themes for possible research topics in my personal statement? Surely I shouldn't need to talk about research if I'm not applying for a research-focussed programme?
Thanks, guys, and good luck to all of you
Original post by Bella_trixxx
Hi all!
I'm applying for the MSt (or MPhil? I just don't know) in Slavonic Studies, with my eye on St Antony's college! I'm quite confused about a few things, though, maybe someone can help?
-Who do we use as references? They ask for three academic references, correct, so should they just be three lecturers from my undergrad uni? Or are the references of former employers appropriate to use?
- If I'm applying for a taught programme, to what extent to I need to mention themes for possible research topics in my personal statement? Surely I shouldn't need to talk about research if I'm not applying for a research-focussed programme?
Thanks, guys, and good luck to all of you
I'm applying for the MSt (or MPhil? I just don't know) in Slavonic Studies, with my eye on St Antony's college! I'm quite confused about a few things, though, maybe someone can help?
-Who do we use as references? They ask for three academic references, correct, so should they just be three lecturers from my undergrad uni? Or are the references of former employers appropriate to use?
- If I'm applying for a taught programme, to what extent to I need to mention themes for possible research topics in my personal statement? Surely I shouldn't need to talk about research if I'm not applying for a research-focussed programme?
Thanks, guys, and good luck to all of you
- References from employers are not a good idea, since they are supposed to be about your academic potential. You can do it as a last resort, but avoid if possible.
- It is a good idea to give at least some general direction for possible research, esp for MPhil, since MPhil is a doorway into DPhil and the same dissertation can be expended. You do not need to, but you may want to, anyway.
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