taught masters degree: german qualification
I plan on studying for my masters and then PhD in the UK.
I will be applying to more than one university, and Edinburgh is probably the one, where I most likely won't get in.
My Bachelors degree will be from Germany with a grade of about 2.2 (maybe 2.1 bachelors thesis is 1.0, i do already know that much.). I had quite a bad first year in my bachelors degree, I was still recovering from a severe illness at the time and had a recurrence during my first semester, which meant I spent almost my entire second semester and part of my third semester in and out of hospital. Meaning also, that my later grades are a lot better, than my earlier grades).
Minimum requirement for German students for a taught masters degree at edinburgh is 2.5 (scale of 1.0 to 4.0 passing grades, below 4.0 means failed). But i know that the people who get admission offers usually have much better grades than the minimum requirement.
I dont expect to get into Edinburgh with my grades, but I will apply anyways, since I want to have at least tried. I Will be applying to other universities a bit lower on the food chain as well
I am just curious to know, are there any students here who can share their experience with applications for taught masters degrees? How much is a good reference worth in comparison to the grades? My thesis advisor would write me a really good reference.
And are there any german students who applied for a taught masters degree after their (german) bachelors degree?
The degree I will be applying for is synthetic biology and biotechnology.
Thanks to anyone who will share their experience!
I will be applying to more than one university, and Edinburgh is probably the one, where I most likely won't get in.
My Bachelors degree will be from Germany with a grade of about 2.2 (maybe 2.1 bachelors thesis is 1.0, i do already know that much.). I had quite a bad first year in my bachelors degree, I was still recovering from a severe illness at the time and had a recurrence during my first semester, which meant I spent almost my entire second semester and part of my third semester in and out of hospital. Meaning also, that my later grades are a lot better, than my earlier grades).
Minimum requirement for German students for a taught masters degree at edinburgh is 2.5 (scale of 1.0 to 4.0 passing grades, below 4.0 means failed). But i know that the people who get admission offers usually have much better grades than the minimum requirement.
I dont expect to get into Edinburgh with my grades, but I will apply anyways, since I want to have at least tried. I Will be applying to other universities a bit lower on the food chain as well
I am just curious to know, are there any students here who can share their experience with applications for taught masters degrees? How much is a good reference worth in comparison to the grades? My thesis advisor would write me a really good reference.
And are there any german students who applied for a taught masters degree after their (german) bachelors degree?
The degree I will be applying for is synthetic biology and biotechnology.
Thanks to anyone who will share their experience!
(edited 9 years ago)
Just try it. Maybe you could try and find out, it anyone at your faculty has links to Edinburgh. That could help a bit, because I think the more a faculty know about what the student actually learned at his home university, the more likely they are to take other things than the overall grade into consideration and it could help you, maybe tailoring your application towards Edinburgh.
It's possible. You'll never know if you never try. But I do think a 2:2 would not be very good for Edinburgh.
Its not a 2:2. Its a different grading system in germany. We have grades from 1.0 to 4.0 going in 0.1 steps. I will have 2.2 or probably 2.1. Minimum requirement for german students would be 2.5 in our grading system. I am not sure what exactly that corresponds to in the uk-grading system. 1.0 - 1.5 is "sehr gut". 1.6-2.5 is "gut". 2.6 to 3.5 is "befriedigend". 3.6 to 4.0 is "ausreichend. So i will be in the second range of 1.6-2.5 which is officially acceptable for edinburgh. But i do know that only being better than 2.5 wont necessarily be enough (or probably wont be enough). But 2.2 or 2.1 in the german grading system doesnt equal 2:2 or 2:1 in the uk-system. Its a completely different grading system.
Thank you all for the advice. I will definately talk to my advisor in detail again. And i will check if anyone has ties to edinburgh at my faculty. But i dont think so...
Thank you all for the advice. I will definately talk to my advisor in detail again. And i will check if anyone has ties to edinburgh at my faculty. But i dont think so...
Hi, don't know if this is still relevant, but I did apply for a postgrad Master's degree at UoE for 2015 following graduation from a German university.
Haven't heard back yet but I do believe that a 'good' ("gut") would be sufficient to be considered. The rest depends on your references, which seem to be good in your case, as well as extra curricular stuff.
That being said I have no idea how lenient they are with their admissions and how likely it is to get in. It also all depends on what your field of studies is. I graduated with a 1.42 in Political Science, for example, and am not sure that's good enough because grades in PS tend to be given out slightly more generously.
Haven't heard back yet but I do believe that a 'good' ("gut") would be sufficient to be considered. The rest depends on your references, which seem to be good in your case, as well as extra curricular stuff.
That being said I have no idea how lenient they are with their admissions and how likely it is to get in. It also all depends on what your field of studies is. I graduated with a 1.42 in Political Science, for example, and am not sure that's good enough because grades in PS tend to be given out slightly more generously.
Original post by flamster
Hi, don't know if this is still relevant, but I did apply for a postgrad Master's degree at UoE for 2015 following graduation from a German university.
Haven't heard back yet but I do believe that a 'good' ("gut") would be sufficient to be considered. The rest depends on your references, which seem to be good in your case, as well as extra curricular stuff.
That being said I have no idea how lenient they are with their admissions and how likely it is to get in. It also all depends on what your field of studies is. I graduated with a 1.42 in Political Science, for example, and am not sure that's good enough because grades in PS tend to be given out slightly more generously.
Haven't heard back yet but I do believe that a 'good' ("gut") would be sufficient to be considered. The rest depends on your references, which seem to be good in your case, as well as extra curricular stuff.
That being said I have no idea how lenient they are with their admissions and how likely it is to get in. It also all depends on what your field of studies is. I graduated with a 1.42 in Political Science, for example, and am not sure that's good enough because grades in PS tend to be given out slightly more generously.
Thank you! So you worked after graduation? Because if you applied now but graduated already there would be a gap, right? When did you apply? I was hoping that an application in late January/early February would still be early enough... Now I am not so sure anymore. Its just that I still need my IELST (which I will do on December 20th --> results should be in on January 9th) and would really like to have some more grades (which i already know, but cannot be shown on my report yet...
) to be entered before submitting my application.When did you apply? I read on their website, that they aim to have results of the application process within 2 weeks of receiving the application. Is that true? Did you hear back from them that soon? (You said you havent heard back yet, but I am asking if there are any new developments
)And you applied for a (taught) masters degree?
This is really exiting, in Germany the application process is rather boring
Did you apply only to the university of edinburgh or other universities as well? How many did you apply to?
I am planning on applying to 6-7 Universities (UK, not only scotland), since I am really unsure about my chances (of course I know, that they are not high for edinburgh^^ but not sure about the other universities either...
) I really hope to get in somewhere... REALLY dont want to stay here Original post by Nuya
Thank you! So you worked after graduation? Because if you applied now but graduated already there would be a gap, right? When did you apply? I was hoping that an application in late January/early February would still be early enough... Now I am not so sure anymore. Its just that I still need my IELST (which I will do on December 20th --> results should be in on January 9th) and would really like to have some more grades (which i already know, but cannot be shown on my report yet... ) to be entered before submitting my application.
When did you apply? I read on their website, that they aim to have results of the application process within 2 weeks of receiving the application. Is that true? Did you hear back from them that soon? (You said you havent heard back yet, but I am asking if there are any new developments)
And you applied for a (taught) masters degree?
This is really exiting, in Germany the application process is rather boring
Did you apply only to the university of edinburgh or other universities as well? How many did you apply to?
I am planning on applying to 6-7 Universities (UK, not only scotland), since I am really unsure about my chances (of course I know, that they are not high for edinburgh^^ but not sure about the other universities either...) I really hope to get in somewhere... REALLY dont want to stay here
) to be entered before submitting my application.When did you apply? I read on their website, that they aim to have results of the application process within 2 weeks of receiving the application. Is that true? Did you hear back from them that soon? (You said you havent heard back yet, but I am asking if there are any new developments
)And you applied for a (taught) masters degree?
This is really exiting, in Germany the application process is rather boring
Did you apply only to the university of edinburgh or other universities as well? How many did you apply to?
I am planning on applying to 6-7 Universities (UK, not only scotland), since I am really unsure about my chances (of course I know, that they are not high for edinburgh^^ but not sure about the other universities either...
) I really hope to get in somewhere... REALLY dont want to stay here Yeah I took a Gap Year straight out of university to work in Canada, partially because most deadlines had already passed to continue studying at Master's level abroad right away.
I applied for International Relations at Edinburgh, Dublin and Amsterdam in Europe, + a few Canadian schools, too. I am planning on applying for other European schools at a later time, in case my first cycle of applications doesn't turn out to be too successful. Problem is getting enough teachers to give you references, considering you need 2 for every application...
Getting your university to put up all of your grades right away definitely is a hassle. I don't know why German schools seem to be so ridiculously inefficient in that regard (sorry to bust a stereotype there. Haha).
So where else are you thinking of going, if not Edinburgh? And what are you applying for?
Original post by flamster
Yeah I took a Gap Year straight out of university to work in Canada, partially because most deadlines had already passed to continue studying at Master's level abroad right away.
I applied for International Relations at Edinburgh, Dublin and Amsterdam in Europe, + a few Canadian schools, too. I am planning on applying for other European schools at a later time, in case my first cycle of applications doesn't turn out to be too successful. Problem is getting enough teachers to give you references, considering you need 2 for every application...
Getting your university to put up all of your grades right away definitely is a hassle. I don't know why German schools seem to be so ridiculously inefficient in that regard (sorry to bust a stereotype there. Haha).
So where else are you thinking of going, if not Edinburgh? And what are you applying for?
I applied for International Relations at Edinburgh, Dublin and Amsterdam in Europe, + a few Canadian schools, too. I am planning on applying for other European schools at a later time, in case my first cycle of applications doesn't turn out to be too successful. Problem is getting enough teachers to give you references, considering you need 2 for every application...
Getting your university to put up all of your grades right away definitely is a hassle. I don't know why German schools seem to be so ridiculously inefficient in that regard (sorry to bust a stereotype there. Haha).
So where else are you thinking of going, if not Edinburgh? And what are you applying for?
Oh Canada... Is it beautiful?
What kind of work did you do there?
And which one of the schools you applied to is your first choice?
Getting the grades added to the online platform thingy where all the grades are displayed and so on is the first difficulty... and then getting the official transcript, I dont even want to know how long that will take
Where in germany did you get your degree? I will be getting mine in Erlangen. I was planning on applying to
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Leeds
Birmingham
Nottingham
York
Bristol
Manchester
I know that most of those universities are really competitive. But if i dont get in, i would still get into really good programs at really good universities in germany. So i wont be applying to low ranking small universities in the UK. If i dont get into any of those schools, i will simply stay in germany and go to berlin or munich where I will definately get in (the admissions process there is a lot more transparent and i can simply calculate whether or not i fulfill the requirements for admission or not and if i do, i will simply get a place^^ and i do
)Oh and i am applying for programms along the lines of biotechnology, synthetic biology, systems biology, computational biology, biophysics...
so if you already applied you must have already taken the IELTS test? I will be taking mine on december 20th. Got my confirmation email today, now everything feels so real^^
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Nuya
Oh Canada... Is it beautiful?
What kind of work did you do there?
And which one of the schools you applied to is your first choice?
Getting the grades added to the online platform thingy where all the grades are displayed and so on is the first difficulty... and then getting the official transcript, I dont even want to know how long that will take Where in germany did you get your degree? I will be getting mine in Erlangen.
I was planning on applying to
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Leeds
Birmingham
Nottingham
York
Bristol
Manchester
I know that most of those universities are really competitive. But if i dont get in, i would still get into really good programs at really good universities in germany. So i wont be applying to low ranking small universities in the UK. If i dont get into any of those schools, i will simply stay in germany and go to berlin or munich where I will definately get in (the admissions process there is a lot more transparent and i can simply calculate whether or not i fulfill the requirements for admission or not and if i do, i will simply get a place^^ and i do )
Oh and i am applying for programms along the lines of biotechnology, synthetic biology, systems biology, computational biology, biophysics...
so if you already applied you must have already taken the IELTS test? I will be taking mine on december 20th. Got my confirmation email today, now everything feels so real^^
What kind of work did you do there?
And which one of the schools you applied to is your first choice?
Getting the grades added to the online platform thingy where all the grades are displayed and so on is the first difficulty... and then getting the official transcript, I dont even want to know how long that will take
Where in germany did you get your degree? I will be getting mine in Erlangen. I was planning on applying to
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Leeds
Birmingham
Nottingham
York
Bristol
Manchester
I know that most of those universities are really competitive. But if i dont get in, i would still get into really good programs at really good universities in germany. So i wont be applying to low ranking small universities in the UK. If i dont get into any of those schools, i will simply stay in germany and go to berlin or munich where I will definately get in (the admissions process there is a lot more transparent and i can simply calculate whether or not i fulfill the requirements for admission or not and if i do, i will simply get a place^^ and i do
)Oh and i am applying for programms along the lines of biotechnology, synthetic biology, systems biology, computational biology, biophysics...
so if you already applied you must have already taken the IELTS test? I will be taking mine on december 20th. Got my confirmation email today, now everything feels so real^^
Yep! It's gorgeous. I'm mostly doing manufacturing work right now just to make some money, and will later on be getting into more field-related jobs I'm hoping. I don't really want to leave. So my priority would in fact be staying here and studying in Vancouver or Montréal... much cheaper too!
As for Europe, I think I'd most like to go to Trinity College Dublin; they have the best degree for me and some really cool research going on. And I love the city, which is a plus. Haha.
I'm definitely thinking about Berlin or Munich too but since I am applying for International Relations completing both your degrees in Germany doesn't exactly highlight your international interests. Alas, I should say, since studying in Berlin would be so much fun. Anyway, those two are backups alongside schools like Oslo or Bologna. I won't need references for any of those so they're a perfect alternative to British Isles universities!
I did my undergrad at the University of Bremen. How's Erlangen? I got family there but never do visit much. And how will you finish your degree? Are you going to apply before you're done so you won't miss any deadlines?
Yeah I already did my English test (TOEFL, the internet based one). It was absolutely crazy. Well to me, at least. They basically stick you in front of a computer programme and you do the whole thing yourself. It's weird to see 30 people talking to a little headset in the room... but don't be afraid; the test, while challenging, isn't graded very strictly and most universities have really low requirements anyway. And your English is perfect so there's that
Quick Reply
Related discussions
- Should I do a fast track A level?
- English PGCE "related degree?"
- uni new course
- CS MSc without undergrad
- URGENT!
- bristol university : psychology & neuroscience
- What should I study to get a career in EEE(robotics)/quantitive finance
- Entry requirements
- thinking of doing masters in cyber security but worried won't entry the requirement
- What masters degree can you do with an undergrad in French and Spanish?
- Could self taught Masters degrees be possible?
- QTS only, no PGCE
- What postgrad can I do with a philosophy/theology degree?
- What is Digital Marketing like at uni?
- BPS accreditation
- Studying in Germany
- Feeling Depressed since MSc Rejection
- Psychology Conversion Course outside the UK
- Masters Student Loan
- How does the postgraduate application process work?
Latest
Trending
Last reply 3 hours ago
UCL (University College London) Postgraduate Applicants 2024-25Last reply 1 week ago
University of Edinburgh 2024-25 Postgraduate ApplicantsLast reply 2 weeks ago
MPhil in Basic and Translational Neuroscience at Uni of CambridgeLast reply 2 weeks ago
Cambridge University MPhil in Management (2024-2025)Trending
Last reply 3 hours ago
UCL (University College London) Postgraduate Applicants 2024-25Last reply 1 week ago
University of Edinburgh 2024-25 Postgraduate ApplicantsLast reply 2 weeks ago
MPhil in Basic and Translational Neuroscience at Uni of CambridgeLast reply 2 weeks ago
Cambridge University MPhil in Management (2024-2025)
