Right. I must be hallucinating my two friends with 3rds who got accepted onto Master's degrees.

Juno...if you dont mind me asking, which unis did ur friends get accepted to and what courses?

Both Loughborough; it was an organic chemistry course, apparently.

I think what swung it for them was that they both had a few years' industrial experience. There was also a senior scientist in a cancer research group at my current uni (not giving the name cos trying to retain a bit of anonimity)who got a third 20 years ago, but since then got a Masters whilst working in industry, then a full-time PhD after that.
So it's not the end of the world, but you do have to work hard to show a course leader why they should take you on - you probably wouldn't get accepted straight after graduating with a 3rd.

Well if they went to a polytechnic it might be possible.

Well there you go Juno I was right, that was an exceptional circumstance which you didn't mention before.

Work experience is hardly exceptional.

I didn't mention it before, did I not?

To quote myself:

"But a 3rd with work experience in the pharmaceutical field - even admin - is a different matter."

Yawn...

Well it must have been exceptional work experience for it to be enough to be accepted into an MSc, as that is very rare. It takes away the whole point of "postgraduate".

Thanks for all your comments. After spending a very unrewarding six months as a global studies assistant and trying a completely different career I have finally decided to do a post-grad diploma in Nursing. Having worked part time during my degree as a nursing assistant I have chosen to pursue this further. It will also help later on if i do decide to pursue a masters as well as a fullfilling career. Thanks for all the advice, your comments all proved that a 3rd isn't all that bad.

Sounds great Tammy, good luck!

As for verypoor, whenever I read anything you write (or insist is the utter most correct and only possibility) I remember the thread where you insisted that no pure science student could get funding for Masters with a 2.2, even when people who had completed science Masters with funding came along (myself included) and said it was possible. Yes, we are all lying, only verypoor the great master of the world, the all-knowing has the answers to everything.

LOL H! My thoughts exactly.

Good luck Tammy, keep in touch and let us know how you get along.

Hi Alexfong, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. As to your questions, I did my undergraduate degree in Chemistry with Biochemistry at Queen Mary (University of London). Then I undertook a M.Sc. in Medical Molecular Gentics at the University of Aberdeen before enrolling on an M.Sc. in Neuroscience at King's College London. As to my major, I am about to commence my Ph.D. in Behavioural Neurobiology with an emphasis on psychiatric illness.

H I did ask you in the that thread what funding councils fund 2:2s *in biology* (I never mentioned anything about pure science. I did not graduate in that and it's not even something there are courses on) and you never told me. I made that thread to find out about funding options for *microbiology* and you never gave me any advice, instead you excused me of doing no research on the bases of nothing! I checked all available options after gaining a 2:2 and there is no funding unless it's private or via a loan.

Which funding council funded your MSc? You and Juno keep on insisting that the classification someone gets in their first degree makes no difference, which is very misleading!

Good luck Tammy btw.

Also good luck Yafesi! Your PhD sounds fascinating!

VeryPoor, I'm not sure what you think Pure Science is but I mean it to be actual science subjects like chemistry, biology, physics rather than computing, social sciences.

If you go back to the thread in question, you will see that you kept saying "That means I can't get funding from rsearch councils or whatever as they only fund people who get a 2:1. This is the case for sciences". I asked you if you had checked at your department, which you never actually replied for and gave me rude replies when I was just trying to help.

My funding for my masters came from the EPSRC. I happen to got funding whilst a guy with a 2.1 didn't. So I guess it doesn't ALWAYS matter what you get for your degree.