masters

XSarahX

hi guys,
dont know if this is the right place and if im asking the right questions as its not directly related to me.
my sister is in her final year of college doing a joint honours degree of maths and physics. she is pretty stressed over the double workload so applications for masters programmes and further study are often pushed aside. im basically trying to find out how a few things for her.
im wondering how competetive it is to get the masters? do the majority of people who apply get one?
what im really wondering about is how to get grants. she has no idea how to go about getting funding if she was accepted. there doesnt seem to be much information.
she went to the career guidance counceller in college but as her joint honours course has so little aplicants then there is very little knowledge there to help her.

i know i probably left out important details such as what she wants to do her masters in but il find out if people need me to. any help with master appliactions with regards to maths/physics would be a great help.

thanks!

ps i dont know if this should be moved so feel free to move it.(sorry!)

Take a look through the postgraduate forum too, you might find out more information there.

Podge_irl

It depends on where she is applying. If she is thinking of applying to Masters programmes in the UK then she would really want to get her applications in by month's end. Several universities will have in-house grants and others will automatically put you forward for grants. Others again will require you to source your own funding, but a lot of deadlines for these grants are approaching quite quickly.

Professor_Fink

Hi

XSarahX wrote: »

im wondering how competetive it is to get the masters? do the majority of people who apply get one?

Usually a 2.2 is required for a masters, although a 2.1 may be required for a research based masters. A 1st class honours degree will essentially gaurantee acceptance, and a 2.1 will make acceptance very likely. A 2.2 tends to be a bit borderline, but it depends on the course, and demand for spaces. It's not impossible to do a masters with a 3rd, but it is much harder, and you would need to convince the course director that you would fit in well.

XSarahX wrote: »

what im really wondering about is how to get grants. she has no idea how to go about getting funding if she was accepted. there doesnt seem to be much information.

Forget about funding. Other than means based schemes, it is almost non-existant for masters. IRCSET do fund research masters students, but it is very competitive and your sister would really need a 1st to stand any chance of getting the funding. And if she does get a 1st, and is considering research, she might be better off looking into PhDs, which are much easier to find funding for. Actually, it is a really bad idea to do a PhD in science without funding.

XSarahX wrote: »

she went to the career guidance counceller in college but as her joint honours course has so little aplicants then there is very little knowledge there to help her.

Yes. University careers offices are less than useless for physicists.

XSarahX wrote: »

Ps i dont know if this should be moved so feel free to move it.(sorry!)

Here is fine.

XSarahX

Thanks a million! you gave me more info there in that post than in a few weeks of research! we have got the right guidelines to get the ball rolling.

thanks again!

Professor_Fink

XSarahX wrote: »

Thanks a million! you gave me more info there in that post than in a few weeks of research! we have got the right guidelines to get the ball rolling.

thanks again!

No problem. If you have any more questions, just ask.