Oxford Graduate Application 2012/13

Hello!!

I got an offer for MPhil in General Linguistics and Comparative Philology !

*happy*

i think the deadline situation is actually OK - this Friday, January 20, is the main funding deadline. This post is maybe a little harsh, obviously it is very competitive but policywonk's profile looks good, with awesome language skills and relevant work experience good luck!

that sounds really interesting!! May I ask what languages are included in the comparative philology?

Thank you.

you may specialise in:

a) Comparative Philology of the Indo-European languages
(the languages should normally be ancient Indo-European languages (e.g. Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Akkadian, Latin))

or

b) History and Structure of One or Two Selected Languages
(the languages may be ancient or Modern (e.g. German, Italian, Turkish etc.)

It was not my intention to come off as harsh, but since he asked for an assessment of his chances, I gave him my opinion. His profile is nothing exceptional by Oxford standards so while I think he stands a chance at admission, him being awarded funding for a taught masters seems highly unlikely to me. Most of what makes you think his profile looks good is actually given very little consideration by admission committees (GRE, languages, work experience). My take is that he can get an offer (but no funding) if he can obtain some very strong letters of recommendation.

I felt a bit better about it all when I remembered that when I went down for the humanities open day in November, I found out that 1) the vast majority of applications come in for the Jan deadline and 2) they only offer around 5-10 places for the Modern Euro history Mphil each year. So the flat I haven't been rejected means that they feel I'm good enough, but they need to check against the majority of applicants for that program before making a decision.

Or something like that.

As to how I got them to read out my decision - I just called the department up (You can find the contact number here http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/prosgrad/pg_history_contacts.html - its the first one listed). The lady that answered told me that they would be sending everything out soon, but she could just read out my decision to me. I think my heart stopped the entire time she was umming and ahing over where I was in the database - followed by a massive anti-climax. Still, its a lot lot better than a no.

Just have to wait for Cambridge now.... Still a week till the next degree committee meeting though. Hurry up and wait etc.

which one are you specialising in? The reason I'm asking is because I am a Classicist, and I had some comparative philology modules as an undergraduate (and loved them )
Of course, in the world of Classics (best world ever ) when we say Comparative Philology we only mean the first, so I was just interested to know if you also mean that

An offer, perhaps, and it only costs £50 to apply so you should do it anyways, but I would forget about funding. Funding is extremely competitive and most deadlines are probably over by now. Work experience is generally not considered when applying to 'academic' master's. Also, UK universities do not use the GRE generally.

I emailed the department today asking when we can expect to hear back from them. I got a pretty prompt reply stating that there had been some delays and that we can expect to hear the outcomes of our applications on Wednesday. Hope that helps!

problem is you don't actually know how good his personal statement, or his essays are. For example, me and a friend of mine both got offers, both coming from the same university (the reason this is important is because we were both marked by the same people, with the same scale etc...) I finished with a 9 out of 10, which is good (first is 8,5> but it is generally easier to get 8,5 than it is in the UK to get the 70, so I'd say our 9 is the UK 70) but not unheard of. He finished with a 9,7 which I only know two other people who got the same mark. One is my professor, he did his PhD in Cambridge 20 years ago, with a full scholarship etc, another is a friend of mine doing her Masters here in Oxford with me.
The thing is, that out of me and my friend I got the AHRC, whereas he did not. This means that grades do not mean everything, and whereas the GRE won't really matter, he might be amazing in what he is doing, and if he is it will show somehow.

Well certainly, all I can give him is my uninformed opinion. If he seeks 'official' advice then he will have to contact the admissions office at his prospective department.

That is amazing !!

Well, I was a double major before (specifically, English and Czech). I had Latin in highschool, Old Church Slavonic and Old English as electives during my studies. I can speak a little bit of Modern Greek, but haven't had the opportunity to study Ancient Greek . Honestly, I'm still trying to decide which specialism to pick! I'm leaning towards C, however!

Yeah, in the best world ever *laughs*, that IS the prevailing opinion, I'm aware

problem is you don't actually know how good his personal statement, or his essays are. For example, me and a friend of mine both got offers, both coming from the same university (the reason this is important is because we were both marked by the same people, with the same scale etc...) I finished with a 9 out of 10, which is good (first is 8,5> but it is generally easier to get 8,5 than it is in the UK to get the 70, so I'd say our 9 is the UK 70) but not unheard of. He finished with a 9,7 which I only know two other people who got the same mark. One is my professor, he did his PhD in Cambridge 20 years ago, with a full scholarship etc, another is a friend of mine doing her Masters here in Oxford with me.
The thing is, that out of me and my friend I got the AHRC, whereas he did not. This means that grades do not mean everything, and whereas the GRE won't really matter, he might be amazing in what he is doing, and if he is it will show somehow.

Can I ask, as regards AHRC funding, if you are given an offer of funding does it come with additional academic requirements? I have been given an offer of admission to Cambridge with 67% and am waiting to hear what the academic requirement for my Oxford offer is. If I am fortunate enough to be successful in the AHRC competition, will they, for instance, say I need to achieve 75% or 73%? I hope this post made sense!!

it does make sense but as I already had my degree when I applied, I already had an unconditional offer. I've heard however that at least Oxford asks for a 70 for the AHRC.

Can I ask, as regards AHRC funding, if you are given an offer of funding does it come with additional academic requirements? I have been given an offer of admission to Cambridge with 67% and am waiting to hear what the academic requirement for my Oxford offer is. If I am fortunate enough to be successful in the AHRC competition, will they, for instance, say I need to achieve 75% or 73%? I hope this post made sense!!

Hi,
I've made a somewhat late decision to apply for Oxford, and only have until Friday to get everything in to be considered for funding.
The one thing that has stumped me with the application is the C.V. What exactly am i supposed to put on there that isnt covered in other sections? I'm going to assume they don't want a list of the various minimum wage jobs I've done. And as I've never won any awards, I don't really get what else i can put.
Any help would be massively appreciated.

So I guess you got a positive answer when you phoned them? If so, congrats! Any chance the secretary mentioned when they'd be sending decisions out? I want to know but can't bring myself to call...

I put all my mimimum wage jobs in it . I'm pretty sure the fact that I was a nanny is what got me in