University of Oxford

Oxford

Getting into Oxbridge for Postgraduate Study

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I'm unimportant?
No, but the details of who you are, which universities you applied to and what problems you encountered when you did your English language test are of no consequence to me, so there's no reason why I should remember them. So I'd consider them unimportant information which just seems to have stuck in my brain for no particular reason.

I thought you would know how to talk to eccentrics :rolleyes:

What's so bad about being called eccentric? :s-smilie:

I wasn't trying to offend you; all I meant was that your posts showed a very unusual brand of humour and you had a distinctly weird profile for quite some time...
Oh well.

I am just back from a daytrip to Oxford, as they had undergrad open day and I thought it might be a good opportunity to get an impression of the town and facilities- and talked to a graduate adviser, who, after repeated asking, assured me my application would most likely going to be sorted out because of the 58, regardless of references, as so many other people with higher marks apply to the competitive IR course and thus pose the smaller risk (on paper). Now I'm debating to mention my Mensa membership as sort of a last resort- but opinions seem split about the mention of Mensa.

For undergraduate applicants Mensa *might* be worth mentioning if they're very active members who run societies or something like that. For graduate applicants, though, I can't really see how it would work, especially since your statement of purpose is supposed to be focused on your subject, without any of that extra-curricular fluff people put in their UCAS statements.
It's a real shame that you didn't persist when your university said they wouldn't change your marks because they 'didn't count', but I suppose it can't be helped and a note in your reference is probably the best you can do now. :frown:

University of Oxford

Oxford

Reply 1201

Lindath

Original post by hobnob

No, but the details of who you are, which universities you applied to and what problems you encountered when you did your English language test are of no consequence to me, so there's no reason why I should remember them. So I'd consider them unimportant information which just seems to have stuck in my brain for no particular reason.
What's so bad about being called eccentric? :s-smilie:

I wasn't trying to offend you; all I meant was that your posts showed a very unusual brand of humour and you had a distinctly weird profile for quite some time...
Oh well.

Seems that my unsual brand of humour has failed me this time round- was just joking, no offense taken or intended.

I will ask the board of examiners again next week- they will most likely say it is too long ago/irrelevant now but to be frank I'd be happy suing the university.. (not sure about intended humour, now)
My other thought was to actually email cambridge lecturers with my research proposal, as you would do with a PHD application.

Thank you for being always so quick with your responses, very encouraging!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 1202

hobnob

Original post by Lindath

Seems that my unsual brand of humour has failed me this time round- was just joking, no offense taken or intended.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell a jokey :rolleyes:

smiley from an annoyed one. :wink:

Reply 1203

Lindath

Original post by hobnob

Sometimes it can be hard to tell a jokey :rolleyes:

smiley from an annoyed one. :wink:

I was torn between :rolleyes:

and

.
The last one seemed too patronizing, the cool one didn't really fit the joke, and the former- well, didn't fit either apparently! :colone:

Reply 1204

hobnob

Original post by Lindath

I was torn between :rolleyes:

and

.
The last one seemed too patronizing, the cool one didn't really fit the joke, and the former- well, didn't fit either apparently! :colone:

Never mind, the most important thing is that you're not in a huff over a throwaway remark. :smile:

Reply 1205

Rlemkin

Checked the 2012/13 fees for OXford yesterday and the MPhil in International Relations is now £10,400 p/a + College Fee << This is the second university I've seen to have knocked up their fees by £3,000+ for this year.

I was initially going to say how you two had worried me! ( I got a Third in a 2nd year course in Political Communication). Now I'm not really sure whether it's worth applying at all anymore, the 'Cannot attend without a Scholarship' box will be well and truly ticked!

Reply 1206

*Corinna*

Original post by danielj315

wow you made me panic (I didn't even know they had announced the fees for 2012)
so I checked and I realised two amazing things
1. my course charges LESS for a DPhil than it does for an MSt (I will be applying for my PhD this year)
2. it's only 3,900 pounds for 2012! :eek:

of course the big problem is living costs :frown:

Reply 1207

tsr-member

I really want to apply to Cambridge for an MSc but I'm worried my first year grades will eliminate my chances :erm:

I achieved an low 2:2 average in my first year - reason being, I was going through a phase of depression around exam time. I would be able to get a doctor's note for mitigating circumstances, hopefully.

This year (2nd year) my tutor reckons I can achieve a first (based on my non-exam performance, last year.)

I'm going to be the representative for my course this year which means plenty of attending staff-student forums. Hopefully, this will give me a chance to gain good references.

TL;DR
1st Year: Low 2:2 average: mitigating circumstances.
2nd and 3rd Year: Tutor predicts I'll achieve a 1st.

Aiming for impressive references by attending staff-student forums as a course rep.

Should I still aim for Cambridge?

Reply 1208

Leggy Lucy

Hey everyone,

So, I'd like to apply for the MPhil in Latin American Studies at Cambridge and Oxford. I prefer the course at Cambridge, but the Oxford course looks interesting, too. I have noticed that both ask for 68+. Would anyone be able to tell me, from their own experience, whether the majority of the people on the course will have firsts? I got a high 2.1 this year and will do my best to get a first overall, but if that doesn't happen, I wondered how realistic it is that I'd get on to the course anyway.

Reply 1209

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by Leggy Lucy

Once you've got over 68% then it will be more about the whole package you offer. That's not to say that a higher grade than the minimum wont help more than the minimum, but other aspects of your application become more significant.

^ Thanks so much!

I have another question: Cambridge wants me to have an IELTS score of 7 overall with at least 7 in speaking listening and writing and 6.5 in reading.

I have an 8.5 overall with 9 in listening and reading, 9.5 in speaking but bloody 6.5 in writing which is slightly below the requierement.

will they ask me to retake the test? I mean from my 8.5 in speaking it should be clear that a 6.5 writing can only be a one off and 8.5 overall is considerably higher than 7 ( i was assigned the worst essay topic ever)

Reply 1212

amaranth7

Hi everyone,

So I'm planning on applying for a the M.Phil/MSt programmes in English at Cambridge and Oxford (Modern and Contemporary Lit at Cam, 1900-present and perhaps also English and American Studies at Oxf) and had a question regarding the dreaded statement of purpose!

I've been looking through forums and from what I can see there seems to be a consensus that the universities are far more interested in hearing about your research interests and how you propose to specialise (as opposed to a declaration of your passion for english haha). The Cambridge website in fact states that 'All of our graduate courses require you to give a detailed description of the proposed topic of your dissertation'.
In regard to this (apparently very large) aspect of the statement, I was wondering how much of an idea you really need to have about what you want your dissertation to be one? Can you indicate, for instance, simply the author/field of your choice and what facets to his/it you might be interested in pursuing research on, or do they require something more directed, like (for example) you saying that you want to examine 'the professorial protagonist in the postmodern novel' (apologies if this sounds silly - it was just an example off the top of my head!). In the case of the latter, I see why perhaps it would be more beneficial to state quite specifically what you want to research, as you can then more easily justify why your work is necessary, as opposed to something that sounds nice, but may be gratuitous. So in a nutshell, what I want to know is: how specific are you expected to be?

And if anyone had a statement of purpose that they wouldn't mind letting me have a look at, that would be amazing :smile:

Thank you!

Reply 1213

the_alba

Original post by amaranth7

Thank you!

Both of these (examples in bold) would be fine. The way Oxford and Cambridge go about describing what you should write in the Statement of Purpose can be at once daunting and vague - it really is hard to work out how much detail they're looking for. Honestly, an author and an area is adequate at this stage, as long as you can elaborate a little about why it's a good, serious topic (something about the critical treatment of your given topic being patchy or in need of review often works). Obviously, if it's something numbingly obvious ('Beckett and death', say, or 'women in Wharton'), then there'll be problems justifying the topic without going into much more detail about what exactly you're doing that's new. On the other side, too much specificity or rigidity isn't necessarily desirable; if accepted onto the Master's, you'll have until Christmas or January (usually) before you have to decide on a fixed dissertation title, so there's no need to be rigidly specific at the application stage.

Generally, you need to show that you have thought seriously about a topic, demonstrate your knowledge of the area, and justify it critically. That said, the word limit for the SofP is quite short, and (if I remember rightly) isn't supposed to be *wholly* given over to the dissertation topic, but also a bit about why the course is of specific interest to you etc. Unfortunately, my own Oxford SofP is on my old computer, so I can't retrieve it for you. I think I started with a description of my research topic (at that stage, it was on the links between Victorian Nonsense literature and High Modernism), and ended by describing why I felt the MSt was particularly suited to my academic ambitions (including a bit about the archive training being an excellent way to prepare myself for a PhD. If you want to do a PhD, tell them so). By the time I came to writing the actual dissertation in Trinity term, the topic had been pared down from Nonsense and Modernism (an unmanageably large subject to write about in 10,000 - 15,000 words) to Nonsense and one novel by Samuel Beckett! But I'm glad I pitched the larger subject in my Statement of Purpose, as that gave me a chance to show off my scope; pitching something as specific as my topic eventually became may have made me seem a bit narrow and unambitious.

Excuse my rambling. Hope you were able to make sense of my garbled post :smile:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 1214

amaranth7

Thank you so much for your very helpful and not 'rambling' at all reply!

So do you think its best to go for a relatively understudied author, or some angle that hasn't been researched before as a basis for your dissertation topic as you plan to present it on your statement? I've been worrying over the whole justifying why your research is necessary part! I suppose 'it hasn't been done before' is a good reason, but do you know if you're expected to go further than that, as in to state what wider significance your work could have beyond just producing something 'new'?

This is the part I'm really struggling with, I have a few topics in mind but I can't really find any other reasons for wanting to do them beyond the fact that they interest me and they (possibly) haven't been done before!

Reply 1215

Duona

A weird question:

I plan to apply for an MA program at Oxford that has been attracting my attention for years now (though it took me so long to decide to actually apply), mainly due to the faculty's research interests which are very very close to mine. My qualifications are not bad, graduated top 5% (though at an overseas university), have several relevant research publications, some work experience, awards etc.

The problem is - I am currently enrolled at a PhD programme at my home university (already finished over one year!). I have come to realize that the level of teaching/research is far from what i expected, or maybe I've just become more ambitious/enthusiastic, or probably both. Despite initially looking for PhD programmes abroad (Oxf. included), I now feel more like starting off with an MA course (reasons are long and boring, and of course I'd have to explain some of this in the application).

Do you think this career path is totally unacceptable? Do such applications stand a chance at all? Btw I'm 27 years old now :frown:

Reply 1216

Paroma

Original post by Duona

I'm not a student at oxbridge (yet) so my opinion might not be what you're seeking, but I have gone through enough pages of their websites and read through enough forum discussions to say confidently that you stand a good chance and please go for it. Your age doesn't matter - that's why they have the whole 'mature' student thing, only they mean people in their thirties or forties! - and you seem to have a background steeped in academics that can work very much to your advantage.
So best of luck, and again, please do try.

Reply 1217

desidude

Hi friends,

I am thinking of applying to a Masters programs at Oxford and Cambridge. I already have an Undergraduate degree from a good University in the USA (graduated 2000) and a Masters degree from a good University in the USA (graduated 2008). Thus, I am a MATURE student (mid 30s).

My GPA (grades) are slightly below the requirements on the program description, yet I am very keen to apply. I am not applying for the most competitive programs, so hopefully that should help.

Is there any way I can strengthen the academic component of my application? e.g. take the GRE, although it is not required? or is there anything else I can do in the next 3 months as I am keen to apply this year?

I look forward to your suggestions.

Thanks,
desidude

Reply 1218

*Corinna*

Original post by desidude

They obviously don't think the GRE is important, or else they would require it. The fact that you have a Masters on top of your undergraduate might be enough, unless you didn't do that well in it. Seriously, there is nothing you can do, Oxbridge don't overly care about extra curriculum activities, unless they are related to your subject.

Reply 1219

abc:)

So at the moment I'm studying at Sheffield but it's looking likely that after my undergrad I will want to carry on at university, for various reasons.

I was just wondering, and this only just occurred to me really, would it be possible to go from Sheffield to Cambridge to do a masters? Because I know Sheffield is obviously quite far below Cambridge in the league tables, but if I did really well in my degree would this be a possibility?