ZakV

Hey again, is anyone waiting on Oxford?

SAIS if you have the money .

K_Angie may reply to this because she is looking to pick between these two universities aswell (although she's doing the Mdev) .

If you look through some of the previous pages of this thread both IHEID and LSE have been discussed quite recently for their pros and cons . Beyond job prospects that seem to be your main criteria, consider departmental specialities and whether there are any academics/topics that particularly interest you for which I would direct you to the university websites.

If you're interested in wine there are actually some great courses on it for instance 'Wine and Wine Research' at Plumpton College in association with the University of Brighton , remember reading about it and finding it quite interesting .

As a way to pass the time and because I haven't posted here in a while: Previous Degree/Grades: BSc Geography/1st class and award for highest overall grade (lower ranked UK uni), graduated last summer. International Experience: Travelling, fieldwork experience in Greece and Morocco, week in Red Cross/UN agencies in Geneva. Previous Work Experience: 6 months as a planning consultant (legal side of construction and erecting renewable technologies). Maths/Econ Background: Nothing extensive but averaged 90% in two statistics modules; proposed research also draws on knowledge of econometrics. Languages: Fluent in English. Interested/beginner in French/Chinese for research and professional purposes. Hoping to improve my language skills during postgraduate study. Intended Field of Study: Interested in entrepreneurship, innovation (noting context), knowledge (how it is disseminated/contained; by whom/how/why?) and what these represent to ID. Long-term professional goals: Interested in research, finance (investment/risk/credit/funds etc) and consultancy (similar to business organisation but more inter rather and intra relations). Schools Applied To and Funding: Oxford MPhil in development studies. I want to continue on to the DPhil and their department resources/potential supervisors suit my interests the best (I'd rather reapply next year than go with a backup). Hoping to receive ESRC funding through the university based on DPhil proposal/Clarendon's funding otherwise I'll pay for the MPhil through savings/family and reapply for funding with the DPhil/PhD. Edit: Apologies for all the slashes.

I haven't applied to IHEID, with the popularity here I feel like I'm missing out haha! Though I empathise with the anxiousness/excitement, will be getting a reply for admission and phd/dphil around the same mid march time. I'm away on vacation at the moment so it could potentially be crappy news when I get home . Fingers crossed for you all, best of luck!

My point is that development has more to it than project officer roles and that notions of experience are being amalgamated with direction or focus in a way that may be veiling. Departments at Oxford are quite independent and really have their own way of doing these things, within reason. I've heard that calling or emailing can give you an idea of thoughts on an application but 'official' responses are usually distributed alongside others as noted.

Ah you must be really happy that you have quite a few options though and oooo tense then waiting for IHEID to respond . Thanks for the good luck, you too- I'm also hoping to get MPhil/DPhil funding so exciting times .

Hey K_angie, know you from The Student Room . Applied to the January deadline for the MPhil at Oxford, put all my eggs in one basket but I have my heart set on doing a DPhil there. I notice that you've been accepted to a a fair few courses K_angie congratz!! Where have you been accepted to and from who are you waiting for a reply? Well at least you can prepare yourself . A lot of people who go into development related graduate degrees don't understand the difficulty of finding a job afterwards and fall on the first hurdle x). For my degree application I had to highlight what sort of feasible direction I would like to take upon graduation. I disagree, I think pinning it on the undergrad to masters with little experience simplifies/reduces it too much. In my opinion the issue of employment is more that a lot of people go into development studies and the likes thinking that it is almost vocational, as a stepping stone into a job "helping people"- in the UK it's a very middle class thing to have a gap year, help build a school and to take some moral grandiosity from it all. Unlike say engineering where you get the training and BAM jobs are thrown at you, with development studies you need a passion beyond sympathy in a specialisation that you can excel at and make real contributions to field/peoples lives that others can't. So when people apply to this field without specific research/employment interests then that is where the issues lies. In fact it irritates me a little when I read about seemingly random applications to these sorts of courses. While this does relate to experience, people can come from undergraduate with the right mindset. I'm not disagreeing with the statement as such but how it generalises experience, e.g. experience within a particular role or wider wisdom that experience affords. Excuse my rambling haha!