Your experience of Masters? Advice?

I had trouble making friends in my BA, was very quiet and intimidated by the large class/cliques. MA/MSc cohort sizes vary depending on course popularity, facilities available etc., so you might get a big or small class. My cohort was 26 people, which was great as we all got on at least speaking terms with each other. As everyone is that bit older too, you're likely to get less stand-offish behaviour.

Felt dissatisfied with the lack of direct tutor support. This will vary by university, department, and even individual lecturers. Best to ask current students wherever you want to study for advice on that.

Do you get supervisors at Masters level? You should be assigned a personal tutor, and a supervisor once you start your dissertation.

Any advice for getting along with people on the course? I think there will be much more diversity in age, work experience and research interests, unlike BA when we are mostly in the same boat. I have less experience and worried about feeling out of my depth. This is very normal. I did my MA in a theory- and research-heavy subject, when I came from a clinical/applied undergraduate background. At first I felt incredibly behind compared to those from Psychology/science backgrounds, but I quickly caught up once I identified the gaps in my knowledge (and made a conscious effort to fill them). I personally thrive in an environment with people from all different walks of life and ages, so that was never a problem for me.

See my answers in bold in the quote.

Thanks for all the info! How did you find the difference in spending costs?

I was lucky that the postgraduate loan covered my tuition fees in full with more than a third to spare; for some people, it doesn't even cover their fees.

I also worked for 3 years prior to my MA, so I had savings to live off of as well as my loan. I didn't need to rely on help from my family as a result. I felt that I was able to spend way less than during my BSc, as I was studying more intensely and socialising/spontaneously spending less.

Yeah I heard postgrad loans aren't as generous as undergrad! How come you managed to get more?

What have been the main differences between your undergraduate and postgraduate experiences? I am applying for an MA, but happy to hear from any course backgrounds.

I had trouble making friends in my BA, was very quiet and intimidated by the large class/cliques. Felt dissatisfied with the lack of direct tutor support. Do you get supervisors at Masters level?

Any advice for getting along with people on the course? I think there will be much more diversity in age, work experience and research interests, unlike BA when we are mostly in the same boat. I have less experience and worried about feeling out of my depth.

What have been the main differences between your undergraduate and postgraduate experiences? I am applying for an MA, but happy to hear from any course backgrounds.

I had trouble making friends in my BA, was very quiet and intimidated by the large class/cliques. Felt dissatisfied with the lack of direct tutor support. Do you get supervisors at Masters level?

Any advice for getting along with people on the course? I think there will be much more diversity in age, work experience and research interests, unlike BA when we are mostly in the same boat. I have less experience and worried about feeling out of my depth.

My MSc cohort is very large because the uni cancelled the other two similar postgraduate courses and just lumped everyone together, 80 people on the full time route, but most Masters courses have nowhere near that amount of people.
Everyone on my course has a supervisor who is also our personal tutor. You don't get masses of one-on-one time with them and mine randomly left over the Christmas holidays so I've just been given someone new who I've never met before plus now with corona we can't have face-to-face meetings with them next semester so everything will have to be done over Skype, but I imagine a lot of people are in the same position.
There is definitely more diversity on an masters course, my class is still mainly people who are fresh out of undegrad but there still quite a few of us who are in our late 20s and 30s. A handful are even in their 40s.
I felt out of my depth as I'd never studied the subject area before, I'd done a postgraduate diploma as my undergraduate degree was unrelated to the masters whereas the very large majority had done a full 3 years of psychology before. But I think being a bit older and having relavent experience really helps.

Hi @leopard202,

I have done two Masters and I'd say my experiences were different. A bit of context, I did BA (Hons) Combined Modern Languages at Portsmouth, MA International Relations and European Studies at Portsmouth and then MSc Social Research Methods at Southampton.

I chose to stay at Portsmouth because I had a good experience at undergrad so it didn't really make sense for me to start over somewhere else. The amount of people doing my course was super small, so one module I wanted to do didn't even run based on numbers. The number of students in my core classes was in the single digits. Even though the class was small, there was variety - I had one coursemate from bachelors, some had not studied at Portsmouth before, some people had worked and come back to do a Masters. Because my class sizes were so small, I don't remember us socialising at all outside of the classroom tbh, but we all got along really great, so it was a really nice class environment. I hadn't studied any IR before, and some of my coursemates had done Bachelors in IR, so I felt a little out of my depth the first few weeks, but I enjoyed the course, worked hard and I still ended up graduating with a Distinction. In comparison then to my undergrad, I'd gone from being friends with coursemates, to basically having zero social life, but I didn't really mind as my coursemates were nice and so enjoyed getting to see them each class. I had a part time job so I also socialised there. I felt due to the class sizes, we got better contact with the tutors.

My MSc at Southampton was part of the funding I received for my PhD. It was scary showing up on day one, meeting lots of new faces. There was a ton of diversity in terms of backgrounds, experience, age, research interests. Somebody suggested day one that we set up a group chat and I think that went a long way to establishing a cohort feel and forging a friendly atmosphere. We took a lot of core subjects together, and used the group chat to help each other out and I think there have been a lot of friendships made for life from that. I was totally unfamiliar with Southampton so reached out for help to those who had studied their undergrad there, and they were happy to do so. My class sizes were huge for Masters at Southampton - I didn't really get to know everyone in the class - so those that weren't on the same degree programme as me - and some of the tutors felt distant (probably because of class sizes).

That being said, the common theme from both experiences I guess was that I didn't expect too much in way of socialising or friends. On day one I am so in my shell, so introverted, and so socially awkward that I almost want to stay hidden and don't want people to talk to me, but then people do and things just happen naturally. It was enough to be friendly in class and have the support there but not necessarily feeling the pressure to socialise outside. But if that happens then great! Depending on the course, you may find similar class sizes to undergrad, or they could be very small. I think Masters has been made more accessible due to the loans now available. That being said, I think at Masters, you're only really there if you need the qualification, or if you're passionate about the subject and are pursuing research, so you might have more common ground based on that.

I hope that helps and if you have any further questions, please go ahead!

Danielle - Official Student Rep

Thanks for your response!

You say you felt out of your depth as you hadn't studied the subject area before, did you find it possible to get up to speed with the content?
Also, before corona happened, did you have to give class/oral presentations and how does that compare to doing them as an undergrad?

What have been the main differences between your undergraduate and postgraduate experiences? I am applying for an MA, but happy to hear from any course backgrounds.

I had trouble making friends in my BA, was very quiet and intimidated by the large class/cliques. Felt dissatisfied with the lack of direct tutor support. Do you get supervisors at Masters level?

Any advice for getting along with people on the course? I think there will be much more diversity in age, work experience and research interests, unlike BA when we are mostly in the same boat. I have less experience and worried about feeling out of my depth.