I am a rising senior at Yale with a 3.86 GPA (top 20% of class). I major in history and would like to pursue a masters in either history or public policy at Oxford. While I have not published historical research (almost no undergraduates at Yale do), I have quite a large amount of high quality research that I’ve done for courses. I can also provide 3-4 strong letters of recommendation from professors at Yale.
How hard is it to get into these masters programs at Oxford? Does coming from Yale help? Is my GPA on par? What are other factors that they consider? Thanks!
Bump? If it adds any info, I can pay the full price of the degree and I have fantastic ECs from college (though, I know that this doesn’t matter much for UK schools).
People from worse universities than Yale surely get in to Oxford, so go ahead and apply. It’s always a bit of a lottery, isn’t it? You sound to be fine, rather. As far as I understand it’s just the research being a problem? Can you include it in your application that almost nobody publishes in your course, but you have some coursework?
Oxford and Cambridge are very large, so in some ways they are less competitive than Yale. You should have a shot at it, as well as top US schools. It might be hard to get a masters in Britain in a somewhat different field than your undergraduate, like public policy. I assume you have money, as of course you could get free tuition and a stipend at a US school.
one of the beauties at a school like Yale, is the over-abundance of counseling resources. (They literally have a whole group that assists students to apply for a Rhodes.)
I’d ask around on campus. Ask your Dept profs. Heck, Yale should even have some Oxford grads on faculty. I’d bet you can find some local experts.
The only issue could be preparation. English students will have 3 years of only history plus A-levels Rhodes Scholars traditionally have studied for undergraduate degrees. They are into preparation and advanced material. Partly, undergraduate admissions is not based on money or hooks so much, but they use preparation to take private school students and not ones from poor areas.
I am jealous about the resources. I went to a top private university, and the emphasis was on research, which very little effective counseling resources.
Okay, thanks. Again, I do have significant research, it’s just not published. And, I’m sure it’s as good if not better than what oxford undergraduates produce.
I am just speculating, but I don’t think the issue would be research. It is just that English students would have 3 years of history versus about 2 and more in high school with A-levels. The Oxford program seems oriented toward European history and early time periods. Therefore, it is possible they might not think you were qualified in terms of course work. If you don’t get accepted, it is possible to apply when finishing a masters somewhere else. Not sure you would want to do that.
It sounds like you have the record to apply there as well as top US schools though.