where do students tend to have a degree from to do a masters at Cambridge?

Original post by lucydish

I was wondering if there are any universities that Cambridge favour when it comes to studying a masters degree or is it simply any student that has performed highly throughout and has a first that will be considered? Any suggestions would be really appreciated! Thank you!

Your undergrad university is not very important when applying for postgrad at Cambridge.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

Original post by Doonesbury

Your undergrad university is not very important when applying for postgrad at Cambridge.

Posted from TSR Mobile

you might have got this question a million times :wink:

but...

i have no savings, what would the best route of funding be to study a MPhil in Finance and Econ at Cam? ive seen its around 40k, that is money i just dont have sadly :frown:

Reply 3

Original post by ozilll

you might have got this question a million times :wink:

but...

i have no savings, what would the best route of funding be to study a MPhil in Finance and Econ at Cam? ive seen its around 40k, that is money i just dont have sadly :frown:

Do a PhD in Finance and Economics at Cambridge, and get paid to do it instead, and have a "better" degree anyway...?

Reply 4

Original post by artful_lounger

Do a PhD in Finance and Economics at Cambridge, and get paid to do it instead, and have a "better" degree anyway...?

wow do they really? i dont have a research proposal though? and wouldn't i have to do something in between, im currently an UG??

Reply 5

username1865079

14

Original post by lucydish

I was wondering if there are any universities that Cambridge favour when it comes to studying a masters degree or is it simply any student that has performed highly throughout and has a first that will be considered? Any suggestions would be really appreciated! Thank you!

Original post by Doonesbury

Your undergrad university is not very important when applying for postgrad at Cambridge.

Posted from TSR Mobile

It it important to some extent.
You’re required to have at least 2.1, officially, but in reality majority of successful applicants to MPhil have a first and They know a first from university A is not same as that of university B.
Also a reference plays much more important role in postgrad application than for undergraduate application.

Reply 6

lucydish

OP

11

Original post by vincrows

It it important to some extent.
You’re required to have at least 2.1, officially, but in reality majority of successful applicants to MPhil have a first and They know a first from university A is not same as that of university B.
Also a reference plays much more important role in postgrad application than for undergraduate application.

Thank you - that's what I had heard. Do you have any examples of what universities they would favour / ones they wouldn't as much?

Reply 7

Original post by ozilll

wow do they really? i dont have a research proposal though? and wouldn't i have to do something in between, im currently an UG??

http://www.student-funding.cam.ac.uk

https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/programmes/research-programmes/

https://www.esrcdtp.group.cam.ac.uk/prospectivestudents

https://www.landecon.cam.ac.uk/postgraduate-study/phd

http://www.dream-cdt.ac.uk/

https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/study/PhD.html

Also colleges often have their own funding available, and there are other funding sources - both are included in the database searched by the first link.

Specifically from JBS: "Financial support - All PhD and MRes (Master of Research) students, as well as a number of MPhil research students, are fully funded through scholarships covering fees and maintenance. CJBS offers a number of scholarships for research students funded by the UK's Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC). These prestigious scholarships are open to UK and EU applicants. The wider University of Cambridge offers many additional funding sources for domestic and international students, such as Gates Cambridge Scholarships. "

Apparently AHRC/ESRC areas tend to require a masters beforehand, unlike STEM subjects, which I wasn't aware of. You don't need to do some arbitrarily expensive one to get in, when you could do a reasonably costed one that can be largely covered by the government grad loan (of £10k) along with savings from a year of working or so. For example, the Exeter MRes Economics is "only" £6900, and is specifically a research preparation programme suitable as a prerequisite for a PhD (somewhere). Also universities tend to offer fee reductions or bursaries to their undergrad students who apply to their own grad courses (masters or otherwise). While STEM courses tend to be less prescriptive about that, you'll probably need an MMath and to do the MASt Part III for any DPMMS courses. I have no idea what your academic background is.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 8

Capricancer

10

Original post by lucydish

I was wondering if there are any universities that Cambridge favour when it comes to studying a masters degree or is it simply any student that has performed highly throughout and has a first that will be considered? Any suggestions would be really appreciated! Thank you!

may be more interesting for you to consider universities by offer rate:

1. Cambridge: 76.1%
2. Oxford: 53.4%
3. St Andrews: 42.6%
4. KCL: 42.1%
5. Edinburgh: 40.4%
6. Sussex: 39.6%
7. SOAS: 38.3%
8. UCL: 37.3%
9. Durham: 37.2%
10. Newcastle: 34.1%
11. Imperial: 33.5%
12. Leeds: 32.5%

Reply 9

username1865079

14

Original post by lucydish

Thank you - that's what I had heard. Do you have any examples of what universities they would favour / ones they wouldn't as much?

Will knowing it help you in any way?
Are you at a university at the moment?

Reply 10

Original post by artful_lounger

http://www.student-funding.cam.ac.uk

https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/programmes/research-programmes/

https://www.esrcdtp.group.cam.ac.uk/prospectivestudents

https://www.landecon.cam.ac.uk/postgraduate-study/phd

http://www.dream-cdt.ac.uk/

https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/study/PhD.html

Also colleges often have their own funding available, and there are other funding sources - both are included in the database searched by the first link.

Specifically from JBS: "Financial support - All PhD and MRes (Master of Research) students, as well as a number of MPhil research students, are fully funded through scholarships covering fees and maintenance. CJBS offers a number of scholarships for research students funded by the UK's Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC). These prestigious scholarships are open to UK and EU applicants. The wider University of Cambridge offers many additional funding sources for domestic and international students, such as Gates Cambridge Scholarships. "

Apparently AHRC/ESRC areas tend to require a masters beforehand, unlike STEM subjects, which I wasn't aware of. You don't need to do some arbitrarily expensive one to get in, when you could do a reasonably costed one that can be largely covered by the government grad loan (of £10k) along with savings from a year of working or so. For example, the Exeter MRes Economics is "only" £6900, and is specifically a research preparation programme suitable as a prerequisite for a PhD (somewhere). Also universities tend to offer fee reductions or bursaries to their undergrad students who apply to their own grad courses (masters or otherwise). While STEM courses tend to be less prescriptive about that, you'll probably need an MMath and to do the MASt Part III for any DPMMS courses. I have no idea what your funding background is.

yeah but id prefer to do a masters over a phd at oxbrridge as opposed to masters elsewhere and a phd at oxbridge, i dont have the patience lol

on the masters front, i think im not going to be able to afford it then fgs

and idgi when you say funding background: ive never borrowed (except for the UG degree). i have no suitable collateral for a normal loan but my parents earn around 17k between them, ive had free school meals my whole life and im not ethnically british.

but thanks for your very descriptive reply, much appreciated bud :smile:

Reply 11

Original post by ozilll

yeah but id prefer to do a masters over a phd at oxbrridge as opposed to masters elsewhere and a phd at oxbridge, i dont have the patience lol

on the masters front, i think im not going to be able to afford it then fgs

and idgi when you say funding background: ive never borrowed (except for the UG degree). i have no suitable collateral for a normal loan but my parents earn around 17k between them, ive had free school meals my whole life and im not ethnically british.

but thanks for your very descriptive reply, much appreciated bud :smile:

The postgrad loan scheme is run by SFE, aka the people who did your UG loans.

Although I reread that and meant *academic background, obviously I had funding on the brain while writing :tongue:

Reply 12

Original post by artful_lounger

The postgrad loan scheme is run by SFE, aka the people who did your UG loans.

Although I reread that and meant *academic background, obviously I had funding on the brain while writing :tongue:

ah well im reading a financially-related UG degree at a top 30 university. have decent alevels and on for a strong first.

so taking into account the 10k from SFE, id have to save up the rest to do a masters at either oxford or cambridge? or at any other institution for that matter?

Reply 13

Original post by ozilll

ah well im reading a financially-related UG degree at a top 30 university. have decent alevels and on for a strong first.

so taking into account the 10k from SFE, id have to save up the rest to do a masters at either oxford or cambridge? or at any other institution for that matter?

Barring any institution specific funding (which there is a fair bit of at most colleges at Oxbridge) yes.

This is part of the reason it's not unusual to researchers at Oxbridge/LSE/etc to have done their masters elsewhere. However business related courses normally have massively inflated course costs because they know most undergrads are applying to them as a one off and have no interest and possibly aptitude for a PhD - which is where the real money is for them - so they bump up the price because they know the demand is there anyway from people trying to "trade up" to a better university to have that name on their CV for an IBanking job.

Reply 14