Oxbridge MA funding

[JustChill]

Does anyone have any experience with Oxford or Cambridge providing funding for Master's programs? In their acceptance letter Oxford said that they'll "likely" be able to provide some funding, but it sounds very ambiguous and uncertain. I want to wait a few weeks before emailing them about it, but wanted to see if anyone has personal experience with this. I've heard that Oxford and Cambridge are notorious for accepting Americans without giving them any funding.

[gumby4]

yes they are terrible about funding americans. I was accepted into Cambridge (mphil) and didn't find out until july about funding, which by this time you have had to make decisions. You can get US federal loans which is a pain, but the US loan disbursements are divided throughout the year like here in the US but being international you have the pay the tuition up front. Also, to get a student visa you have to show the brit gov you have had all the money in the bank for at least the past 30 days and if you are leaving in Oct you apply for a visa in Aug/Sept. These are all things I had to figure out alone!!!

Go ahead and email them, from my experience they are super nice and really, really willing to help those admitted.

[Bukharan]

I agree that you better e-mail the department you are interested in.

In Oxbridge, a Master's degree would most probably be M.Phil. or M.Litt. or M.Sc. rather than M.A.

Oxbridge (or indeed any other university in the UK) does not have much funding for Master's students from the USA or the UK or any other country.

The safest bet would be to secure funding from the USA for study in Britain, or apply with area-specific, subject-specific or college-specific scholarships in mind.