2020 Oxford English MSt applicants

Original post by bluehue

Hi all, I thought it might be useful to start a thread specifically for Oxford English lit applicants! Which course are you thinking of applying to, how far through your application are you and what colleges are you looking at? Also any advice from graduates would be helpful!

Hello, so glad someone else had the same idea! I applied for the 950-1550 course. What about you?
With the applications finally closing today I'm already dreading the 8-10 week wait.

Reply 2

OP

Original post by jollottie

Hello, so glad someone else had the same idea! I applied for the 950-1550 course. What about you?
With the applications finally closing today I'm already dreading the 8-10 week wait.

I feel relieved the deadline has now passed and I can forget about it for now! I've applied for 1830-1914, and I'm surprised that I haven't heard from any other applicants until now. Have you applied to a specific college?

Reply 3

Original post by bluehue

I feel relieved the deadline has now passed and I can forget about it for now! I've applied for 1830-1914, and I'm surprised that I haven't heard from any other applicants until now. Have you applied to a specific college?

I definitely need to take a leaf out of your book and just try and forget about it.
I’m surprised too! I thought there would be heaps of equally stressed/nosey people.
I applied to Lincoln. I tried to find a college that offers a good bit of graduate funding but also has a tutor with work that aligns with my research proposal. But I imagine lots of people apply to Lincoln for the funding so I’m not hopeful... What about you?

Reply 4

OP

Original post by jollottie

I definitely need to take a leaf out of your book and just try and forget about it.
I’m surprised too! I thought there would be heaps of equally stressed/nosey people.
I applied to Lincoln. I tried to find a college that offers a good bit of graduate funding but also has a tutor with work that aligns with my research proposal. But I imagine lots of people apply to Lincoln for the funding so I’m not hopeful... What about you?

Perhaps more will come out the woodwork now that the deadline has passed, although not much can be offered now but moral support!
Lincoln sounds like a good option. My supervisor suggested I applied to Wadham so I went with that, but I know they have funding opportunities too. I don't know anyone else going through the same process so I'm feeling a little out of my depth!

Reply 5

Hi, I've applied for 1830-1914. Applied to Exeter because I attended the 2018 Summer Graduate School there and it was a great experience. Good luck to everyone. I put a countdown calculator on my phone for 20 March, only 33 days, 22 hours, 1 minute and 7 seconds remaining :smile:

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 6

Original post by Steve96818

Hi, I've applied for 1830-1914. Applied to Exeter because I attended the 2018 Summer Graduate School there and it was a great experience. Good luck to everyone. I put a countdown calculator on my phone for 20 March, only 33 days, 22 hours, 1 minute and 7 seconds remaining :smile:

Gosh having looked at the main thread it seems the English Department has started sending out offers today, so it seems like you can shorten that countdown dramatically! I thought I would be excited but now I’m more terrified to hear back 😫

Reply 7

Original post by jollottie

Gosh having looked at the main thread it seems the English Department has started sending out offers today, so it seems like you can shorten that countdown dramatically! I thought I would be excited but now I’m more terrified to hear back 😫

Amazing. Looking at the application threads from years past, offers didn’t go out until early or even mid March. Crunching the numbers from years past it looks like everyone is in a pool competing against at least three or as many as five applicants per slot. Congratulations to all those who have already received an offer. I hope they will come on the thread so the rest of us can get an idea of how fast offers are trickling out.

Reply 8

OP

It looks like they only started to trickle through last night so I think there's still hope!

Reply 9

Countdown to March 20 now at 29 days :-) Has anyone actually seen or heard from a verified Mst in English Literature offer? I poured back over the threads, I see lots of undergraduate offers and declines being posted. Just going from past years, offers didn’t go out until at least early March with decline notifications following about a week later. So no need to sweat 😓 until it’s official. Also found some interesting numbers for The acceptance rate of 1830-1914 for the 2014/2015 cycle. There were an average of 79 applications with 27 offers and even fewer who accepted, The site says roughly half of those who received offers ended up in the program. Numbers broke down to a 34% acceptance rate that year.

Reply 10

Missed this one ...
FlexyWex101
Badges: 8
Rep:
#795
Report
13 hours ago
Rejection for 1830-1914 Mst in English came through today. Bit bummed out and kinda surprised as I thought I had a decent application. Ah well, there's always next year. Best of luck to all those still waiting!

Sweating 😓 now appropriate.

Reply 11

Original post by Steve96818

Missed this one ...
FlexyWex101
Badges: 8
Rep:
#795
Report
13 hours ago
Rejection for 1830-1914 Mst in English came through today. Bit bummed out and kinda surprised as I thought I had a decent application. Ah well, there's always next year. Best of luck to all those still waiting!

Sweating 😓 now appropriate.

I’m also still sweating here 😫 coming up with theories on which order they’re sending things out. Have they sent out all the offers and are now onto rejections? Have they gone by application date? Who knows, I’m just desperate for an answer to put me out of checking my emails every 10 minutes 😫
Best of luck and know you’re not alone waiting!

Reply 12

QHF

11

Original post by jollottie

I’m also still sweating here 😫 coming up with theories on which order they’re sending things out. Have they sent out all the offers and are now onto rejections? Have they gone by application date? Who knows, I’m just desperate for an answer to put me out of checking my emails every 10 minutes 😫
Best of luck and know you’re not alone waiting!

It could be as arbitrary as alphabetisation, or it could be affected in a way that’s effectively random, from your point of view, by the UCU strike action. I realise that waiting is frustrating, but the healthiest thing you can do is try to forget about it, as much as possible, until you hear one way or another. One positive side to this is that if you do spend time in academia you will spend much of that time waiting to hear the outcomes of processes into which you have no insight, so getting some practice in now will come in handy.

Reply 13

lyonscornerhouse

5

Hi guys. I applied for Mst 1830-1914 right before the January deadline, and so far have had no decision, good or bad.I've been keeping an eye on this and the main thread for a few days, and am also wondering the order they use to send offers/rejections. The wait is killing me! Good luck to you all.

Reply 14

Admittedly, trying to guess the order/method of evaluation is an exercise in futility. However, waiting anxiety must be burned so I don’t think its by date of application because I had mine in within 2 weeks after start date. Probably not alphabetical because that seems arbitrary. My favorite theory is that initial offers go out to very top Candidates eligible for scholarships. Best wishes to everyone. We wait together in the same boat.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 15

OP

I have a feeling that the UCU strikes are going to impact when we hear back which is frustrating, but it's comforting to know we're all in similar positions. Good luck everyone :smile:

Reply 16

It’s official, I’m out of the running. Received the decline notice. Guess I’ll go back to taking literature classes just for fun. :smile:

Many congratulations to those who receive an offer. For those who don’t, I can tell you as a retired physician who was the director of an admissions committee for a competitive residency (we were located in Hawaii) that popular programs often must decline many quality candidates because of limited space. If you are applying to the Oxford MSt program in the first place, you’ll be fine, offer or not this time. Dust off, reapply if you like or see what other door opens for you that, in the end, will be equally satisfying. Best wishes.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 17

ButterflyBlue

9

Received the rejection for Mst World Literature this morning. I have to admit that it broke my heart a little. I was afraid of disappointment so I hadn’t thought about it until the decisions drew near but for the past few days I thought Oxford was the one for me. Kind of feeling like my biggest crush turning his back on me but I guess time will heal the wound

Reply 18

OP