<p>I am currently a student at Middle Tennessee State University majoring in Anthropology. This coming up spring semester will be my final semester, so it is time I begin thinking about what graduate school I would like to go to. </p>
<p>I have the intention of eventually moving to England permanently, so it is probably in my best interest to go to a graduate school in England. </p>
<p>I have a 4.0 GPA in my Anthropology courses, and a 3.7 total GPA(I didn't do to well in my math courses that I shouldn't have even taken.). From everything I have read so far my GPA would be good enough to at least be competitive for admission, but I am worried that because I go to a poorly funded American public University that they will not give me a chance. </p>
<p>Do you think that I have a chance of getting accepted into graduate school at Oxford, Cambridge, UCL or should I just apply to a school like Manchester or Liverpool?</p>
<p>There are indeed a lot of US grad students at both Cambridge and Oxford. According to my own experiences, most of them comes from the Ivies and the like, many people comes from elite LACs such as Williams, Wesleyan, etc, and an other, albeit smaller proportion comes from the best state flagships such as Berkeley, Michigan, Illinois, UCLA. But the same student body goes to HYPSM grad schools too. At Oxbridge I have never ever met anyone from flagships like Tennessee, LSU, Ole Miss and the like, but again, this is just my own experience. I personally know professors who were undergrads at less famed institutions, and went to Harvard or Columbia grad school, so it not impossible </p>
<p>The real problem is that Cambridge and Oxford asks for a GPA around 3,6 as a minimum, but needless to say, it’s slight harder to achieve that at Yale or Penn than MTSU, therefore I assume GPA 4,0 would be what Oxbridge will ask for. But, again, getting an offer is not all about GPA…it’s also fairly important where you got that GPA. </p>
<p>The fact that you are attending to an underfunded state university is not a problem at all, the problem is that Middle Tennessee State its not even ranked…U of Tennessee is the flagship of the T system, but it’s also a very-very weak institution. Sorry to say, but the only good university Tennessee have is Vanderbilt, and even Vanderbilt is far from being a top 20 or 30 university (in a worldwide scale). </p>
<p>But don’t give up, nothing is impossible, and who knows, maybe you will be lucky enough to get in ;)</p>
<p>I’m an American with an undergraduate degree from University of Missouri. I did a master’s degree at Cambridge, where I am now doing a PhD. In my experience, Cambridge requires “first class honors,” which equates to 3.7 or higher just to apply. Most applicants who actually get in are closer to 3.9 GPA though, but that’s not strictly required. Gerald is right that many American grad students at Cambridge have Ivy backgrounds, but I’d say that would only give a slight advantage to your overall application. Maybe I’m over-generalizing on my own case though.</p>
<p>That being mentioned, Mizzou (if Columbia) generally ranked higher than Tennessee, whereas MTSU is simply unranked… Be as it may, a good strategy can be to apply for a masters at a decent UK university, and then you will have way better chances to get into an Oxbridge PhD/DPhil program. I have seen such things, as a fellow student at Oxford who was an undergrad at Colorado State did a masters at York (or Liecester?) and got accepted to do a DPhil at Oxford. It’s not impossible. </p>
<p>However, I would argue against that attending to an Ivy gives you only a slight advantage when it comes to applying for grad school. The particular reasons why elite grad schools are filled with people with elite undergrad education lies in the fact that admissions people know that they can expect from the candidate, and they know that the candidate can bear heavy workload. You have to be really clever and hardworking to get a good GPA at, say, Princeton or Penn, but the same not necessarily goes for students at lover ranked universities. And, let’s face with it, MTSU is everything but a highly ranked institution. It’s a way harder to get a good GPA at an Ivy than at a university ranked around 30-40 nationally. Not to mention the others. The students might indeed be really clever, but the major points on your application are your undergrad. institution, and your GPA. Of course, there are many additional factors, but these are the two most important things. </p>
<p>Moreover, it’s beyond the shadow of doubt that the quality of the student body is hardly comparable at, say, Yale with that of Penn State, even if there are gems and geniuses everywhere, of course. But if you have a degree from a top notch uni, people at least know what they should expect fro you. </p>
<p>But, again, nothing is impossible! The other option I mentioned, also makes sense - do a masters at a decent university, and then apply to Oxbridge.</p>
<p>Graduate admissions at Oxford and the Russell Group has more to do with individual achievement and the ability to pay than pedigree, at least for overseas students. Yes, a 3.7 is “worth” more at Swarthmore than Missouri State (or is it, considering the grade inflation at the top LACs and Ivies?) to admissions at Oxford, et al, but like anywhere else, your course work, preparation, grades, statement of purpose/research proprosal, and ABILITY TO PAY (this is especially true for oversease students) matter the most. This is where those attending Ivies have advantages: money and a wide range of course offerings that their institutions offer. </p>
<p>If you’re an amazing student (+3.8 GPA) at an unknown college, have a brilliant idea for a research proposal and contact an advisor to help you prior to applying you stand a good chance.</p>
<p>well…first, as everyone above have said a person should be able to pay. Second, I can only speak from myself. I am an international student, who had received a double major degree from a small private college in Virginia (GPA 3.9 and many awards, +the highest award given by the college, highest awards given by both of my departments, graduated with double highest honors: for both political science and music performance). Last year I got into all of grad school that I have applied to (Including Oxford for MPhil in Politics, Uni. of Maryland for PhD in government.) And this year I have got an offer from the Uni. of Cambridge (MPhil in IR and Politics). So, nothing is impossible. Please do not get discouraged and believe in yourself!</p>
I got 7A* 1A 1B in my olevels and gave 3AS for physics economics and Maths and got straight As in them. Apart from that i gave internal exams for Further Maths and Comouter Science in which i got As too because our school does not allow us to give AS for these two subjects. I have done 2 years worth of community service which includes teaching to under previleged people and fundraising. I am also a keyboardist for like 8 years now and have been playing in my class team in football and cricket for like 4 years in total. Do you have any idea what are my chances at LSE if i want to apply for UG in economics with Maths?
Start a new thread with your question in the title. people will answer the lead question in the thread (despite the fact that it’s from 2011) and not yours.
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