Oxford Graduate Application 2012/13

The other day I told one of my mates that I received an offer from Oxford. He said that postgraduate applications to Oxford, especially the masters, were not very competitive. I was given a link to admissions statistics, and honestly I was a bit shocked.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/facts_and_figures/graduate_admissions_statistics/index.html

My response was "If most applicants are very good, then admission statistics don't tell much." He doubted me, "Is that a fact or a hypothesis?"

By the way, he's Harvard-educated. And I am not sure if I want to get back at him. *sighs*

Can I just say 'ditto, ditto' ? I had a talk with my Dad just yesterday about a loan, and he said I could use some property in my parents name as collateral to take out a loan. And this for a second masters - I already have a masters which could earn me good money, but (for no logical reason and out of pure interest) I want to pursue another masters. By taking a massive loan. To eventually work in a field which pays peanuts.

Oh, and I should also add that I will most probably come back to India where I will earn in rupees, while my loan is in pounds, so that makes the problem about 80 times worse. Everything about this screams madness. Gah!

Once you're at interview, assuming they interview the same number, then your chance is roughly equal each year. However, if more people apply then the chance of getting an interview necessarily decreases.

As for whether it's competitive, I think it's reasonably certain the answer is yes. When you get told that the department you're applying for rejects half the applicants before interview, you know things are getting tough. At the interview I was told that there were three days of (I would guess, based on the timing) 14-16 people. Crazy stuff!

@strivingon: have you been interviewed yet?

I refuse to trust the brand of Oxford

There is no interview process for MPhil IR. At least, their website does not state so.

I got my offer back in January, and my department doesn't normally interview Masters applicants. The process was by and large a black box to me, and before I knew it, I got an offer. At my department, for every two applicants, they make one offer. While I cannot deduce much from the statistic, and cannot reasonably assume ceteris paribus to make comparisons with the American system, I can take this as an indication of risk which is worth investigation. I refuse to trust the brand of Oxford and prefer consulting other relevant data and evidence. Hope this makes sense.

Just listen to yourself... 'Risk'? What you're talking about here is nothing more than the possibility that some of the people on your course may not be quite as brilliant as you. And even if that's the case, what of it? Oxford does have a reputation to lose, so they can't afford to lower their criteria for admission so much they'll take anything with a pulse, even for undersubscribed courses. So you'll never wind up in a situation where your coursemates are so dim it will actually affect your own performance and your enjoyment of the course. The 'worst'-case scenario is that you end up outshining your coursemates by a bit - but surely that's what you were hoping to do anyway?
Sorry if I'm sounding a little aggressive here... Obviously I realise that it's a lot of money so you don't want to decide rashly, and I'm actually not one of the people who subscribe to the idea that offer-holders ought to be unquestioningly 'grateful' and turning down an Oxford offer borders on sacrilege. But for one thing, it's pretty obvious that your dilemma can't be solved by comparing application statistics and success rates, bcause you'll never be able to determine the quality of applicants to assess the true 'risk' of having a coursemate whom you consider less than brilliant - that risk will apply wherever you go, and even a ridiculously low success rate isn't a foolproof safeguard against that. And for another, going on about it at such length is a wee bit tactless towards those applicants who were unsuccessful... There were several of those posting only on the previous page, and there may be more who didn't even want to post about their rejections. I'd imagine the last thing they'll need now is a successful applicant deliberating for months whether the course and the people on it might not actually be beneath him.

Have u got reply from IR?

No, not even a peep from the admissions office yet. I hope next week brings some good news.

Not him, then. sjuthani was at Teddy Hall. The only Wadhamite I remember (apart from you, obviously) was someone called Popa Dom who had a sig featuring a quote from Wadham toilet graffitti...

No, not even a peep from the admissions office yet. I hope next week brings some good news.

I hope so

Well said buddy! These guys appear to me to be a bunch of pseudo-intellectuals posturing before arriving at Oxford. Ofcourse they are thrilled, it's an incessant quest, I feel, to perhaps vociferously demonstrate that they are the 'analytical sort' Oxford is looking for. Whilst perhaps these questions need to be asked, I would have thought the stage to voice such concerns would have been before submitting applications rather than after receiving an offer. FYI- I was rejected the other week for an MPhil.

My girlfriend however, was accepted. So I'm both thrilled and disappointed .