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Hey TL
My undergraduate career is in its autumn days, and I started the ominous task of surveying potential grad schools when a childhood dream of mine to study at Oxford came rushing back. So I'm just curious if any of you TLer's could offer me some insight into the school.
I've got a fairly high GPA (3.8 or 3.9/4) and quite a bit of relevant volunteer experience in my field of interest (History), so I'm not overly worried about admissions, rather I'm more concerned about lifestyle, what college to apply to, cost/availability of scholarships, and the major differences between taking a Mst or a Mphil?
Cheerio!
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My advice probably isn't going to be too great. I live in Oxford, (not a student) have done for years. I can say that the lifestyle of the friends of mine who have gone there is harsh, but that's to be expected. Though Oxford is still an awesome town, even if your social life is limited.
An Mphil is just basically the course that leads towards your Ph.d, it's not a stand alone degree like an MSc. I personally would be worried[ about admissions, almost every student that applies will have you grades, and your volunteer work. There are no bad applicants to Oxford. Normally it's essay work which will make you stand out.
As for scholarships, I'd look in your home of Canada. There are post grad scholarships here I hear about in my subject (philosophy) but England is a much less scholarship heavy country than the USA and Canada.
As for the colleges Trinity, Christ Church and Magdalen are probably the best looking. My friend used to go to Trinity, so I can attest how nice it is on the inside. Try not to get into St. Catherine's as it's the newest one built in the 1970s and not very nice.
My advice is apply.
If by some miracle (and no matter how amazing you are it's still a miracle) you get into one of the most desireable post graduate positions in the world, then sort the rest of the stuff out.
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On December 09 2010 08:59 TheLardyGooser wrote:I've got a fairly high GPA (3.8 or 3.9/4)...
Your GPA scale is out of 4? What's an A? 3.5?
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An A is a 4, B a 3 and so on.
I don't really have anything to add but just wanted to say good luck on getting into such a prestigious school if you do decide to apply, I myself wouldn't dare to try haha. Struggling undergrad atm, I wonder if any grad schools would even accept me when I graduate T_T
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Not contributing towards Oxford, but I'm just curios as to why you are so confident about your acceptance...
Isn't Oxford highly selective, comparable to top U.S. schools?
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United States43343 Posts
On December 09 2010 11:49 Cambium wrote:
Not contributing towards Oxford, but I'm just curios as to why you are so confident about your acceptance...
Isn't Oxford highly selective, comparable to top U.S. schools?
Yeah, you need more than perfect grades to get in, if you don't have those you don't bother applying. I also think his confidence is misplaced. There again I had friends apply who I was fairly certain would get in so maybe he's right. Some people clearly belong in that kind of environment.
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Also, yes, it doesn't really only depend on grades although that is the fact.
When colleges tell students to apply they are really stating this, " Apply so that we can reject more students, therefore maintaining our prestige and statistics which label us as a highly selective and top notch school."
I have a 3.85, that's useless, but I also have a second GPA, and well that's suffered. Out of a scale of 5 on the Weighted Scale, I sadly only have a 4.4, as opposed to Freshman year of 4.6. I'm now only Top 1-5% in my school? To get into Harvard you need to have perfect grades and extracurriculars.
Case in point, someone at my school had a perfect GPA, started Freshman year with Geometry then finished with Calc 3 + Linear Algebra. (Of course there were classes in between) He was e-board for several clubs and had a very well-dressed resume. However, he only get into Darthmouth.
Another student, had a lesser GPA, yet had more accomplishments in terms of extracurriculars ( Won gold at state for Science Fair, etc) He got into UPENN. That is a 10-11 rank difference, it's not grades that matter really in the long run, it's what sets you apart.
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On December 09 2010 12:18 KwarK wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2010 11:49 Cambium wrote:
Not contributing towards Oxford, but I'm just curios as to why you are so confident about your acceptance...
Isn't Oxford highly selective, comparable to top U.S. schools? Yeah, you need more than perfect grades to get in, if you don't have those you don't bother applying. I also think his confidence is misplaced. There again I had friends apply who I was fairly certain would get in so maybe he's right. Some people clearly belong in that kind of environment.
Thats a good point, I didn't want this to become a brag blog though, so I didn't list some of the specifics. But I've got some fairly well regarded published papers and two of my referees for the application are Oxford alumni. So I am pretty confident in that respect, but you are right, its better to assume the worst.
I am really just looking to see if its right for me though before I even have the address the issue of admission.
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That's great to hear!
In this case, you should just apply to all of the schools that interest you, and determine the best fit after you get your acceptances.
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I'm in my third year out of four here now (studying chemistry).
I know next to nothing about history (or the humanities in general) though so I don't think I can be of much help :p
Regarding choice of college it kind of depends, for a taught course I'd say you want a college with a tutor for your particular subject that you really want to study for. If you are doing research work the standard procedure for new incoming postgrads to my knowledge is to simply pick the same college as their supervisor.
Other things that differ is how rich the college is (=avaible bursaries etc etc) and what kind of accomodation they offer (Many of the more central ones won't actually allow you live on the college site but as a postgrad that might actually be a good thing). Then there is the kind of people going there (if you care about that).
As a non EU student scholarships and such can be very difficult to get I fear, but you should obviously check anyway.
Personally I love studying here, for good and bad the place breaths competition.
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EPT
