PhD with low-ish 2:1 from Oxford

Hi studentroom,

Just looking for a bit of advice on where I stand for applying for PhDs, in terms of how competitive my application will be. My field is in cancer research.

So I have a 2:1 in an undergraduate degree (mid to low) from Oxford. I'm just about to start a fully-funded (MRC scholarship woo) MSc at Oxford. I have been 4th author on a paper published in a journal with a respectable impact factor (~5/6) and recently gave a talk at an international conference in my field. I'm just a bit worried by the lack of a first - I did apply myself during my degree but evidently Oxford's harsh marking criteria did not bode me well. In addition I have quite a lot of extracurricular stuff (was President of a few societies). I'm wanting to apply for PhDs at top universities in the South (UCL/Imperial/Oxford/Cambridge), but I'm not sure if I would be competitive enough. I would have to secure a fully funded PhD as I am not financially able to finance it.

Hope someone can help.

I'm just a bit worried by the lack of a first - I did apply myself during my degree but evidently Oxford's harsh marking criteria did not bode me well.

Whatever you do, please stop saying this. There's someone in my PhD cohort who also got a low 2:1 from Oxford and didn't get PhD funding and they whinge constantly about how the only reason they missed out on funding is because Oxford is so much more challenging blahblahblah so they couldn't get a 1st. It's a deeply off-putting attitude since we're not Oxbridge so every time they start talking about this they're insulting all the rest of us and our "easy" degrees from inferior universities.

If you've already managed to get funding for an MRes you have a pretty decent chance you'll get PhD funding as well. Grades are important, but proving you have the research skills matters more. So I would say just focus on working on your MRes project and writing a really good proposal for the PhD.

Hi studentroom,

Just looking for a bit of advice on where I stand for applying for PhDs, in terms of how competitive my application will be. My field is in cancer research.

So I have a 2:1 in an undergraduate degree (mid to low) from Oxford. I'm just about to start a fully-funded (MRC scholarship woo) MSc at Oxford. I have been 4th author on a paper published in a journal with a respectable impact factor (~5/6) and recently gave a talk at an international conference in my field. I'm just a bit worried by the lack of a first - I did apply myself during my degree but evidently Oxford's harsh marking criteria did not bode me well. In addition I have quite a lot of extracurricular stuff (was President of a few societies). I'm wanting to apply for PhDs at top universities in the South (UCL/Imperial/Oxford/Cambridge), but I'm not sure if I would be competitive enough. I would have to secure a fully funded PhD as I am not financially able to finance it.

Hope someone can help.