Difficulty of getting into master courses

IrishEyes19

Hi all,

Thinking of doing a masters next year in UCC in either English or History. Might also branch into some other masters also if I can, depending on the requirements degree wise.

Just wondering how difficult it is to get into the masters. Many of them have 10 places per course, and the requirements say 2:1, but you hear all sorts like that you need a high 2:1 and then often hear that based on interview, a near 2:1 could also be acceptable.

Just looking for advice therefore from people who have applied and got it before and their experiences on getting into the courses. Really appreciate it, thanks.

JohnMearsheimer

You shouldn't really have any trouble getting into a masters course. A 2.2 or above should see you through for most of them. I applied for 5 or 6 masters courses in the UK when I was finishing up in UCC and got offered them all. To be honest, if you can pay the fees, the university will want you there. Masters courses are big revenue generators for universities.

Censorsh!t

For English they specify a 2:2, dunno about history.

I'm applying for an MA in english also, and although I don't think there's ever many in the Medieval to Renaissance I'm still aiming for a 2:1, just to be safe.

Byron85

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

You shouldn't really have any trouble getting into a masters course. A 2.2 or above should see you through for most of them. I applied for 5 or 6 masters courses in the UK when I was finishing up in UCC and got offered them all. To be honest, if you can pay the fees, the university will want you there. Masters courses are big revenue generators for universities.

What universities did you apply to, if you don't mind me asking that is! It's just that i'll be applying for some postgrads in the U.K too come November or so and i'm curious to know what I should be looking out for with regards to my application.

Plautus

IrishEyes19 wrote: »

Hi all,

Thinking of doing a masters next year in UCC in either English or History. Might also branch into some other masters also if I can, depending on the requirements degree wise.

Just wondering how difficult it is to get into the masters. Many of them have 10 places per course, and the requirements say 2:1, but you hear all sorts like that you need a high 2:1 and then often hear that based on interview, a near 2:1 could also be acceptable.

Just looking for advice therefore from people who have applied and got it before and their experiences on getting into the courses. Really appreciate it, thanks.

I can't speak for English but the interview isn't usually used in assessing History applications unless they're borderline or unusual. The minimum grade is a 2:2; with up to 20 places on most of the MA courses. You'd think that would mean a huge crush for a tiny number of places but that's not the case. The MA in IR (History) this year was undersubscribed, for example.

For History you need to submit a 1,000 word research proposal with the agreement of a provisional supervisor. You aren't bound by this proposal or the supervisor and can change both once you get on to the course (if you want.) They will also give cognisance to strong grades in research components of your primary degree (e.g. a final year dissertation) if places are limited.

As an aside, just because MA degrees are easy to get on to these days don't assume they don't demand effort!

IrishEyes19

Plautus wrote: »

I can't speak for English but the interview isn't usually used in assessing History applications unless they're borderline or unusual. The minimum grade is a 2:2; with up to 20 places on most of the MA courses. You'd think that would mean a huge crush for a tiny number of places but that's not the case. The MA in IR (History) this year was undersubscribed, for example.

For History you need to submit a 1,000 word research proposal with the agreement of a provisional supervisor. You aren't bound by this proposal or the supervisor and can change both once you get on to the course (if you want.) They will also give cognisance to strong grades in research components of your primary degree (e.g. a final year dissertation) if places are limited.

As an aside, just because MA degrees are easy to get on to these days don't assume they don't demand effort!

Thanks, great amount of info there. Haha, well no worries there that I'm underestimating the amount of effort the masters take. It was more my fear of getting into the course overiding any thoughts of it being easy to get into, particularly since History is a popular subject. It's moreso that I love History and I would very disappointed not to get a place.

JohnMearsheimer

Byron85 wrote: »

What universities did you apply to, if you don't mind me asking that is! It's just that i'll be applying for some postgrads in the U.K too come November or so and i'm curious to know what I should be looking out for with regards to my application.

I applied to Cardiff, Newcastle, Leeds, Warwick and Bristol for politics related postgrads. The applications were pretty straight forward really. Filled out the application forms, arranged for academic references, wrote personal statements on why I wanted to do the postgrads and sent off my 1st, 2nd and 3rd year transcripts (sent off the 4th year ones after I got the results). I had to write research proposals 3 of them as well. The hardest part was trying to get references off lecturers. They were always forgetting to write them and I had to bug the crap out of some of them to get a reference out of them. After that it was a waiting game. Anyway, I ended up at Cardiff University for my masters.

Some postgrads may require you to submit a research proposal with your application, usually 1000 to 1500 words long. If you have to do this make sure there is someone in the department in the university you're applying to whose research interests are a match with yours (departmental websites should have profiles and research interests of their lecturers). Proposals should include a title, an aim (be as straight to the point as you can, a single line should be enough), a rationale (why you feel your area of research is worthy of study), a research logic (a few rough points on chapter outlines) and a research method (a rough outline of how you're going to write it. I see myself using qualitative research for X and quantitative research for y etc).

Proposals are not set in stone so you're not tied to them. You could end up writing 3 or 4 of them before you actually start writing your dissertation. My masters dissertation ended up having nothing to do with my first research proposal.

yosser hughes

With regard to academic references.What exactly are these? References from your lecturers or tutors? I don't think any of mine would particulalry remember people very well. Especially if you have already left the university and were applying after some time away. How do you go about getting these references?Is there a particular procedure that has to be gone through?

Eliot Rosewater

yosser hughes wrote: »

With regard to academic references.What exactly are these? References from your lecturers or tutors? I don't think any of mine would particulalry remember people very well. Especially if you have already left the university and were applying after some time away. How do you go about getting these references?Is there a particular procedure that has to be gone through?

Yes, they're staff members - lecturers, professors etc. It seems alot of lecturers will give you a reference even if they're not too familiar with you, though it's obviously best to get them off staff you know well enough. Endeavour to choose staff who will give you a good reference ("nice" lecturers might'n't necessarily), and who are high enough up the chain (a reference from a PhD student obviously wouldn't be as good as one from a lecturer).

I was recently looking at some English uni websites, and it seems your references are a big deal - as important as your results with some, as they can't guage how meaningful your results are with different standards.

Byron85

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

I applied to Cardiff, Newcastle, Leeds, Warwick and Bristol for politics related postgrads. The applications were pretty straight forward really. Filled out the application forms, arranged for academic references, wrote personal statements on why I wanted to do the postgrads and sent off my 1st, 2nd and 3rd year transcripts (sent off the 4th year ones after I got the results). I had to write research proposals 3 of them as well. The hardest part was trying to get references off lecturers. They were always forgetting to write them and I had to bug the crap out of some of them to get a reference out of them. After that it was a waiting game. Anyway, I ended up at Cardiff University for my masters.

Some postgrads may require you to submit a research proposal with your application, usually 1000 to 1500 words long. If you have to do this make sure there is someone in the department in the university you're applying to whose research interests are a match with yours (departmental websites should have profiles and research interests of their lecturers). Proposals should include a title, an aim (be as straight to the point as you can, a single line should be enough), a rationale (why you feel your area of research is worthy of study), a research logic (a few rough points on chapter outlines) and a research method (a rough outline of how you're going to write it. I see myself using qualitative research for X and quantitative research for y etc).

Proposals are not set in stone so you're not tied to them. You could end up writing 3 or 4 of them before you actually start writing your dissertation. My masters dissertation ended up having nothing to do with my first research proposal.

Thanks for that!! I think only one of my applications will involve sending a research proposal so i'm lucky in that sense.