Difference between Good II.i Honours and High II.i Honours degree
I am looking at 2 MPhil courses at Cambridge to apply, one says the minimum requirement is Good II.i Honours and the other one says High II.i Honours degree. Our system does not have the first degree and second degree thing, so I need this converted to a percentage - I managed to find that a Good II.i Honours is equivalent to around 60% or above (correct me if I'm wrong), but unsure of what the High II.i. Honours degree is. Is this basically the same as a first-class degree (over 70%)? On a percentage scale, how is this converted roughly?
Reply 1
Original post
by whitespider I managed to find that a Good II.i Honours is equivalent to around 60% or above (correct me if I'm wrong),
This can't be right, because the lower bound of a II(1) is 60%.
but unsure of what the High II.i. Honours degree is. On a percentage scale, how is this converted roughly?
I don't think there is a formal definition of 'good' vs. 'not good' in terms of a percentage. However, I'd consider a 'good' II(1) being ≥67 - i.e. 'nearly' a first class result. Anything ≤65 would almost certainly not be considered a 'good' II(1); rather a 'standard' II(1).
Is this basically the same as a first-class degree (over 70%)?
No. A first is ≥70, so by definition, a 'good II(1) is <70
Reply 2
I agree, there isn’t a consistent definition of ‘good’ or ‘high’ in this context. They may even mean the same thing but were drafted by different people!
As someone that works in postgrad admissions, I’d broadly consider any overall weighted mark of 65% to be good/high. That would be in the UK system, for overseas it would be whatever is the top half of a 2:1 equivalent. There is usually guidance on unis overseas pages.
As someone that works in postgrad admissions, I’d broadly consider any overall weighted mark of 65% to be good/high. That would be in the UK system, for overseas it would be whatever is the top half of a 2:1 equivalent. There is usually guidance on unis overseas pages.
Reply 3
Original post
by whitespiderI am looking at 2 MPhil courses at Cambridge to apply, one says the minimum requirement is Good II.i Honours and the other one says High II.i Honours degree. Our system does not have the first degree and second degree thing, so I need this converted to a percentage - I managed to find that a Good II.i Honours is equivalent to around 60% or above (correct me if I'm wrong), but unsure of what the High II.i. Honours degree is. Is this basically the same as a first-class degree (over 70%)? On a percentage scale, how is this converted roughly?
There is no difference except the language the webpage author used. Cambridge usually uses 67% as the benchmark for Masters, but of course that only works if the undergrad course has the same grading profile as Cambridge. Cambridge gets so many overseas and non-Cam post-grads, they have a very good understanding of different unis, right down to individual uni in any country, so long as the uni has a history of sending folks to Cam. So there is a fair chance they know what the equivalent is in your country/uni.
If you want a very general feel, that maybe if you are the top 15% of your undergrad cohort you could make a decent application, but you might need to be top 5% to be competitive for funding. But that is a very broad generalisation, because I know people with a 2.2 at undergrad who have got Masters funding, because of professional experience. But a course might be trying t improve it's academic standing, or be highly competitive and reality nearly everyone has a 70% equivalent, apart from a couple of folks with a stellar research proposal and recommendations.
There is a page on the Cam website somewhere which gives details of overseas equivalencies - or you can ask them directly.
Reply 4
9
thanks all for the helpful replies! About the 60% mark, I initially got it from the admissions team for that course (obviously their standard for a good/high II.i could be different from other courses, which was my main concern which I think is covered well in this thread) so hoping that will be the minimum eligibility criteria 🙂 But now I have a better understanding of what grades I should aim for this year to be on the safe side of things so thxxx
(edited 8 months ago)
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