MSt in Practical Ethics

Hi @gjd800, apologies @gjd800 I was not as engaged in the initial conversation with you yesterday, my daughter had to go to hospital, she is ok now but we were in A&E until 3am so I was both distracted and knackered. Good luck to us all.

Glad to hear that your daughter is OK- that sounds incredibly stressful!

Yes it was, 6 hours in A&E. Still she is ok so I am grateful. Now back to the stress of waiting for a decision. Are you involved in admissions at your university? How is it from the other side of the fence as it were, when making the admissions decisions?

Very pleased to hear it.
Not directly, the nitty gritty of the admissions process is really done by a dedicated professional services team with input from an academic (or two) from each department. I have a bit of a unique position insofar as I am attached to an Econ Dept in a student support capacity in my day to day (and look after 200ish undergrads for them), teach in philosophy and/or religion, then work on recruitment strategies and student support on a School-wide basis.
We aren't Oxford level but we are usually oversubscribed, mostly as a result of the Chinese intake. This year is shaping up differently because of the change in visa rules and all that stuff so it could be a strange year for us intake-wise. Not that I expect Oxon to have this issue!

Very interesting, it sounds like a varied role especially as you have the support role for econ students but teach different subjects and then have a recruitment/student support on top so each of your roles is completely different and the students you come across varies as well.
What is the issue around the visa rules, that they cannot obtain a student visa and then switch to a different visa type like a work visa without completing their studies? Yes, I anticipate Oxbridge has no issues, even during the pandemic when I understand a lot of institutions took a hit on application numbers, there was not a big downturn for Oxbridge.

Hey, I wonder if anyone else here applied for the MSt in Practical Ethics at Oxford? 😀

The roles all sort of blend into one, to be honest. There are no major differences between what I do in terms of support, participation, recruitment, other than I don't tend to teach these students (I might, sometimes). As an academic you are expected to wear many hats and it's not unusual to have 3 or 4 ostensibly distinct things going on.
Yes, and the other big one is the no dependents unless on a research degree. obviously this messes things up for mature applicants wanting to pursue other postgraduate degrees.
I was reading at Oxon through the pandemic in 20-21, it was very strange indeed.

I applied for the January deadline!
On a side note, I'm interested in what everyone else applying is like beyond what has already been said.
Some quick info about me:

Also, please DM me if anyone wants to swap personal statements or submitted applications

Yes, understood. Yes not being able to bring dependents is a very big deal for mature students and post-graduates tend to be of an age bracket that is much more likely to have dependents. It must have been weird, pretty empty I take it? Most classes were online I guess?

Ok, that is great. Your thesis certainly sounds interesting. The two different programmes contrast a lot at first look, deep springs involves physical labour and a liberal two year degree course?

We were online for about half of it, then in person but with about 2m between us all, it was odd. Oxford itself avoided the worst of the tier system until quite a far way in, for whatever reason!
I was teaching in a school for most of it so my day to day was pretty normal because we didn't go fully online save for a single 2 week period. It was being cooped up after which was hard, we were really on our own in College accommodation and saw nobody except the people in our households. Even then we weren't supposed to, for example, use the kitchen at the same time!

Yeah, Deep Springs and the MSt in Practical Ethics do differ in a lot of ways, but in regards to my goals they both overlap in promoting intellectual inquiry towards the Good.
The MSt is a lot more straightforward by offering specific modules which will directly contribute towards my practical treatise, i.e. the wellbeing and AI modules create a liminal space for transhumanism which is one pathway I imagine Artificial Superintelligence could compliment the realization of the Philosopher King, or rather a modified Neo-Platonic framework.
Deep Springs is a little more tangential insofar as it is more service oriented: its ethos is supporting the moral order of the universe through enlightened service to humanity. I envision my time at Deep Springs to be a visceral experience (hence the physical labour) in what creates an intentional community (akin to Platonic social engineering) that harmonizes with the moral order / the Good; essentially Deep Springs will be able to indirectly contribute towards my practical treatise by offering precedence for elements of what a Kallipolis could look entail.
On a side note, I received your DM but TSR won't let me send private messages until I've been a user for 3 days and I'm unsure what the regulations about posting other links and/or emails are for this site. I'll get back to you in 3 days for sure though.

Has anyone heard anything back yet or seen any change on the application portal? Best of luck to you all!

Hi all!
I'm also a fellow applicant but feel as though my background pales in comparison to you guys - you're all super accomplished!
In contrast, I have an LLB Law degree and Masters in Business from the UK. I current work in tech research (having only worked full-time for roughly 2 years) and am most interested in the Artificial Intelligence Ethics course (as are some of you).
Also applied to Christ Church and hoping for funding, should I be offered a place.
Fingers crossed we hear back soon and good luck to you all!

I’m not sure whether to believe the button theory, but mine has disappeared !

I have just received a rejection!