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MSc Theoretical and Computational Chemistry - Oxford

Hi!

Did anyone on this forum apply for the MSc in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry at Oxford?
I just got an informal acceptance on Sunday (17th March) and I'd love to connect with others who got accepted!

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Reply 1

Sakai04

Who's your professor lol

Reply 2

lot.burgstra

Original post by Sakai04

Who's your professor lol

What do you mean?
I don’t have my official acceptance yet, just the informal email the department sent me so I’m not sure what you mean by who my professor is? Did you get accepted too?

Reply 3

Sakai04

Original post by lot.burgstra

What do you mean?
I don’t have my official acceptance yet, just the informal email the department sent me so I’m not sure what you mean by who my professor is? Did you get accepted too?

I have the offer holder whatsapp if you want to join

Reply 4

Sakai04

Original post by lot.burgstra

What do you mean?
I don’t have my official acceptance yet, just the informal email the department sent me so I’m not sure what you mean by who my professor is? Did you get accepted too?

I'm just wondering if your supervisor is Fernanda haha

Reply 5

lot.burgstra

Original post by Sakai04

I have the offer holder whatsapp if you want to join

Oh yes please! Can you PM me the link or send it in here? I haven't got my offer yet so I don't know who my supervisor is just yet. If it's like Cambridge though, the supervisor on your offer letter doesn't mean too much and is more generic as I believe we get to choose/get assigned a supervisor later on when we figure out what we want to do the project in.

Reply 6

Sakai04

Original post by lot.burgstra

Sure, I'll pm you

Reply 7

CommanderShep

Original post by Sakai04

I have the offer holder whatsapp if you want to join

Hey, could you also send me the link?

Reply 8

lot.burgstra

Original post by CommanderShep

Hey, could you also send me the link?

Hey! Are you an offer holder for this MSc in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry or a different course? The link that is talked about in this thread is just a generic one, but if you got accepted onto this course specifically, I have the link to that chat.

Reply 9

LivanC21

Did anyone here have to interview for this course? If so, what did the interview entail? (Any detailed answer would be massively appreciated!)

Reply 10

lot.burgstra

Original post by LivanC21

Did anyone here have to interview for this course? If so, what did the interview entail? (Any detailed answer would be massively appreciated!)

Hey!
I interviewed for this course all the way back in February.
The interview was rather technical with some questions on foundational quantum mechanics and then some statistical mechanics.
I didn't think I did terribly but also didn't answer anything correctly straight away (i.e. I needed a little bit of prompting) but that seemed to be fine.

The guy who did my interview (Prof. Mark Wilson) is lovely and super funny, so hopefully he won't make you feel too nervous, he really does try to make you feel comfortable.

Let me know if you get an offer!

Reply 11

pinkyviolet

Hi! Does anyone have any advice for writing their statement of purpose/personal statement for this course?
For example what particular skills to highlight and how technical/detailed your statement was?
Thanks :smile:

Reply 12

saffiya2002

Hey everyone,

I have a 15 min interview coming up with prof. Mark Wilson for this course. Does anyone know what sort of questions will be asked & what topics? It’s such a short interview but I know a lot will be covered.

Thank you!! :smile:

)

Reply 13

lot.burgstra

Original post by saffiya2002

Hey everyone,
I have a 15 min interview coming up with prof. Mark Wilson for this course. Does anyone know what sort of questions will be asked & what topics? It’s such a short interview but I know a lot will be covered.
Thank you!! :smile:

)

Hey!

Congrats on getting an interview! I was the original poster of this thread and am now currently sat in the Radcliffe Camera (Radcam) at Oxford where I'm studying this course! How things can change in a year 🙂

Mark Wilson is a super lovely guy and the interview should be very chilled and relaxed. Yes, it will be technical, but he is super funny and should make you feel comfortable throughout the interview.
For me, he asked me questions on foundational quantum mechanics concepts (particle in a box) and then he asked foundational statistical mechanics concepts. I hadn't done any statistical mechanics in my undergrad and hardly any maths, so for those questions it wasn't so much necessarily about getting the answer right, it was more about showing him that you can be taught new concepts quickly and adjust and he wants to see the way you think so make sure to think out loud throughout the interview.

I must say, the course can be quite hard and tough since we only have 8 week terms, but it is definitely interesting and the staff are very good.

Good luck with your interview!

Reply 14

santiago124

Hi All,

I would be incredibly grateful if anyone could offer some guidance on their application/statement that they completed and also any key areas to brush up on before any interviews.

Thanks so much for any help!

Reply 15

saffiya2002

Original post by lot.burgstra

Hey!
Congrats on getting an interview! I was the original poster of this thread and am now currently sat in the Radcliffe Camera (Radcam) at Oxford where I'm studying this course! How things can change in a year 🙂
Mark Wilson is a super lovely guy and the interview should be very chilled and relaxed. Yes, it will be technical, but he is super funny and should make you feel comfortable throughout the interview.
For me, he asked me questions on foundational quantum mechanics concepts (particle in a box) and then he asked foundational statistical mechanics concepts. I hadn't done any statistical mechanics in my undergrad and hardly any maths, so for those questions it wasn't so much necessarily about getting the answer right, it was more about showing him that you can be taught new concepts quickly and adjust and he wants to see the way you think so make sure to think out loud throughout the interview.
I must say, the course can be quite hard and tough since we only have 8 week terms, but it is definitely interesting and the staff are very good.
Good luck with your interview!

Heyy!

Thank you so much for replying, sorry for taking so long to reply!
“I was the originalposter of this thread and am now currently sat in theRadcliffe Camera (Radcam) at Oxford where I'm studyingthis course! How things can change in a year 🙂” woah this must feel so nostalgic for you!! well done for getting in!!

Thank you for letting me know what was asked in your interview, i did actually do some statistical mechanics in 2nd year and my degree is Chem w/ maths so I’m quite scared the questions are going to be really hard bc I haven’t revised any of this in a year🥹 But it’s good to know it’s more about learning ability rather than accuracy- putting me in an interview setting already introduces a huge error in the results 🦦

Yeah I can imagine it’s a really tough course, it covers so much as well, how do you find the teaching, do you get any personalised feedback throughout the course? (I’m coming from UCL and all our feedback tends to be very general).

Thank you so much!!

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 16

lot.burgstra

Original post by saffiya2002

Heyy!
Thank you so much for replying, sorry for taking so long to reply!
“I was the originalposter of this thread and am now currently sat in theRadcliffe Camera (Radcam) at Oxford where I'm studyingthis course! How things can change in a year 🙂” woah this must feel so nostalgic for you!! well done for getting in!!
Thank you for letting me know what was asked in your interview, i did actually do some statistical mechanics in 2nd year and my degree is Chem w/ maths so I’m quite scared the questions are going to be really hard bc I haven’t revised any of this in a year🥹 But it’s good to know it’s more about learning ability rather than accuracy- putting me in an interview setting already introduces a huge error in the results 🦦
Yeah I can imagine it’s a really tough course, it covers so much as well, how do you find the teaching, do you get any personalised feedback throughout the course? (I’m coming from UCL and all our feedback tends to be very general).
Thank you so much!!

No worries at all!

I get your nerves, but please don't try to stress too much. When I applied for the course, I was on a placement year and working full time, so I hadn't studied for over 6 months and the topics that were relevant to the course I hadn't studied for over a year! You'll be absolutely fine don't you worry!

I'm not going to lie, there's no formative assessments so there's not really many ways to get feedback on your work.
I'd say it would definitely help to be strong in maths, because the classes are only an hour long but he sets like 20 odd problems for each class so you just have to get used to not being able to get a step by step working of most questions. He does upload the solutions afterwards though. For all the other modules, we also have classes and for those we tend to all go up to the front of the classroom and present one of the answers to the rest of the students. I found this to be really useful and engaging and since there is only 16 of us on the course, we get close to everyone so it doesn't feel scary having to work through a problem while you're in front of everyone.

One of my closest friends on the course has also just come from UCL actually!
I'm sure you will have a great time once you pass the interview!

Reply 17

pinkyviolet

Original post by saffiya2002

Heyy!
Thank you so much for replying, sorry for taking so long to reply!
“I was the originalposter of this thread and am now currently sat in theRadcliffe Camera (Radcam) at Oxford where I'm studyingthis course! How things can change in a year 🙂” woah this must feel so nostalgic for you!! well done for getting in!!
Thank you for letting me know what was asked in your interview, i did actually do some statistical mechanics in 2nd year and my degree is Chem w/ maths so I’m quite scared the questions are going to be really hard bc I haven’t revised any of this in a year🥹 But it’s good to know it’s more about learning ability rather than accuracy- putting me in an interview setting already introduces a huge error in the results 🦦
Yeah I can imagine it’s a really tough course, it covers so much as well, how do you find the teaching, do you get any personalised feedback throughout the course? (I’m coming from UCL and all our feedback tends to be very general).
Thank you so much!!

Aaah! I just got the email that I'll be having an interview too. I'm soooo nervous, I didn't think I'd hear back so soon. Good luck to us both!! I'm scared as well as I have a lot of work to do alongside interview prep and my course doesn't go super in depth with maths.

Reply 18

saffiya2002

Original post by pinkyviolet

Ahhh omg good luck!! Same I’m so so nervous & I’ve had so much coursework due this week:’) every five minutes I’m swapping between it won’t be awful to why tf did I apply :biggrin:

this Oxbridge thing is too much idk why we do it to ourselves:’)

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 19

isajsh

Original post by lot.burgstra

Hey!
Congrats on getting an interview! I was the original poster of this thread and am now currently sat in the Radcliffe Camera (Radcam) at Oxford where I'm studying this course! How things can change in a year 🙂
Mark Wilson is a super lovely guy and the interview should be very chilled and relaxed. Yes, it will be technical, but he is super funny and should make you feel comfortable throughout the interview.
For me, he asked me questions on foundational quantum mechanics concepts (particle in a box) and then he asked foundational statistical mechanics concepts. I hadn't done any statistical mechanics in my undergrad and hardly any maths, so for those questions it wasn't so much necessarily about getting the answer right, it was more about showing him that you can be taught new concepts quickly and adjust and he wants to see the way you think so make sure to think out loud throughout the interview.
I must say, the course can be quite hard and tough since we only have 8 week terms, but it is definitely interesting and the staff are very good.
Good luck with your interview!

I was just offered a place to this program (yay!!!) I was wondering what your plans are once you graduate? is anyone in the program this year going on for a DPhil at Oxford? Thanks so much!