Oxford Postgraduate Offer Holders 2023

Hi! I'm not an international student, I assume they are still sending out invites as someone in the postgrad applicant thread said they got their interview weeks ago

Hi everyone.

It has been almost three weeks since I received my offer for MSc Modelling for Global Health and I still haven't heard back regarding application. I put Oriel down as my preference - is it worth emailing them or should I just wait it out?

Cheers

Hi everyone.

It has been almost three weeks since I received my offer for MSc Modelling for Global Health and I still haven't heard back regarding application. I put Oriel down as my preference - is it worth emailing them or should I just wait it out?

Cheers

An initial funding confirmation letter came through today for me stating I had been nominated for an MSD Graduate School Scholarship (though since I have to accept/ reject I assume that means I was successful unless the current funding is not an MSD GSS but something else?) and that my stipend would be no less than the UKRI for 3 years. It stated on the letterhead it was a Clarendon Scholarship but the body of the text stated that funding could come from many sources including Clarendon, the colleges, charities and research councils so I'm not sure if I definitely just have a Clarendon Scholarship or whether it may be a mix match. Apparently a funding breakdown will come eventually, which I hope comes soon as I now have more questions than before the email.

Also a little stressed as apparently most MSD GSS are tied to colleges so it seems like I'm going to end up at either Wolfson or Keble based off which colleges Clarendon Scholars from my department are usually in (literally the 2 I wanted the least 😅).

Got the same letter last week. I was told by my department that I received a Clarendon, but like you said, the letter said funding could be a mix of several sources, so no idea what's going on...

And yeah it does seem like there are many funding packages tied to colleges which kinda sucks... I put down St Catz so I really don't want to go to Wolfson or something smh

Also same case with MSD studentship, I've been offered a place at a really pretty and old college and don't want to be moved... I asked Clarendon and they told me:

"Historically, the majority of Clarendon Fund Scholarship recipients have had a college-linked partnership award in the funding package. This does not always mean that they have had to change college; sometimes they already held an offer from the partner college or they may not yet have held a college offer when the partnership funding was agreed so are simply assigned to the partner college from the start. But, when an applicant holds an offer from a different college we will move their application to the partnering college so they can take up their Scholarship. They cannot take up just part of the funding and not change college.

Last year (2022-23 entry) was the first year in recent memory when less than half of Clarendon Scholars had a college-linked partnership award as part of their funding package. This is because our scholar numbers have risen – there has not been a decrease in college partnership awards offered, but their increase hadn’t kept pace with the increase in scholars. I cannot tell you what percentage of Clarendon Fund Scholarship offer holders will have to have their applications moved from one college to another in order to take up their scholarships this year. If I had to guess, I would say we may go back up to having over half of scholars with a college partnership award in their funding package."

RIPPPP
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I guess we shouldn't complain since we're getting funding but still, would've really liked to have a say in this partnership funding rather than it being all a black box facilitated by administrators... our college preferences might even work out for the better and make everyone happy smh

If it's worth anything most Clarendon scholars seem to end up at the older and richer colleges so hopefully, things will still work out

Congrats to all of you who have funding on the horizon! I wish I was in your place, would go to any less popular college if it meant my studies were funded.

Did anyone else request for their assessment form? I was expecting a bit more detail but it was really underwhelming. And the comments on my form sounded so lukewarm, so even if I got an offer, I really might not get any funding.

Would love to hear comments especially from those who have received news on potential funding!

You can request an assessment form? Like a form that they filled out when assessing your application? Didn't know that was possible... how does one go about requesting that?

So it's unlikely to be achieved, but not impossible, correct?

I'm fairly certain Oxford doesn't give "soft rejections". They accepted you, so they do want you! If they didn't, they would have outright rejected you. Oxford playing a game like "he/she will never meet the conditions anyway so we can use this as a roundabout rejection" doesn't make any sense. You definitely should talk to your department at St. Andrews and/or the admissions offices at Oxford about the requirements if you truly think they're near-impossible to achieve.

Also just learned about it when I read through the oxford threads from previous years. I think it's part of their subject access request policy.

You basically have to email [email protected] requesting for your assessment form, and include details of your application such as name, program, applicant number, date of birth, proof of identity (such as photo of passport), and alternate email or UK phone number. I think you can also indicate whether or not you would like to have access to your reference letters. But if you do, they will have to contact your referees first. So if you don't want that, just say in the email that there is no need to include the referee data.

It takes about a month though before they finally give you the form. And again, mine was a bit underwhelming after that long wait haha. So if you manage to get yours, do let me know please because I would love to know what the assessment form of a stronger candidate nominated for funding looks like.

Does that influence our application process in any way? I am really curious to see mine 👀

Also just learned about it when I read through the oxford threads from previous years. I think it's part of their subject access request policy.

You basically have to email [email protected] requesting for your assessment form, and include details of your application such as name, program, applicant number, date of birth, proof of identity (such as photo of passport), and alternate email or UK phone number. I think you can also indicate whether or not you would like to have access to your reference letters. But if you do, they will have to contact your referees first. So if you don't want that, just say in the email that there is no need to include the referee data.

It takes about a month though before they finally give you the form. And again, mine was a bit underwhelming after that long wait haha. So if you manage to get yours, do let me know please because I would love to know what the assessment form of a stronger candidate nominated for funding looks like.

They definitely do - always more offers than places, I know multiple people who got very high offers they couldn't make

Also just learned about it when I read through the oxford threads from previous years. I think it's part of their subject access request policy.

You basically have to email [email protected] requesting for your assessment form, and include details of your application such as name, program, applicant number, date of birth, proof of identity (such as photo of passport), and alternate email or UK phone number. I think you can also indicate whether or not you would like to have access to your reference letters. But if you do, they will have to contact your referees first. So if you don't want that, just say in the email that there is no need to include the referee data.

It takes about a month though before they finally give you the form. And again, mine was a bit underwhelming after that long wait haha. So if you manage to get yours, do let me know please because I would love to know what the assessment form of a stronger candidate nominated for funding looks like.