hey jojo, good to hear that you had a nice weekend away!

and yes i know what you mean about missing the forum people. sometimes i find it a bit scary, too, because what would i do if this forum suddenly shut down or something? what if some people just never came online anymore... you'd never know what happened.

i guess we just have to live with that - the uncertainties of online communications and communities.

ouch! is this getting personal?

your grades really don't mean anything to me. i think you need to apply some own judgement.
- do you think your grades, overall, are good, above average? did you do well? compared to other students, did you get better grades than your friends? were you among the best x% students of the year?

- would you be admitted to a Norvegian uni for a PhD with these grades?

hey,
if you're worried about expenses, you should not be looking at living in London! living costs in London are so much higher than elsewhere in the UK, that people who work in London get paid extra (so called "London allowance") because otherwise nobody could afford to live/work in London. People commute into London for work from as far as 2-3 hours out, because they can save so much on living costs.
if you want to check out actual travelling times, go to www.nationalrail.co.uk for train timetables and www.tfl.gov.uk for public transport within London (tube etc.). personally i would avoid commuting by car at all costs, but if you are considering doing that, you can always use maps.google.com to estimate travelling times.

bedr, i really can't say. you could try www.ukcosa.gov.uk for help. they are very good and helpful.

do i understand you correctly: you got E, that is, the worst possible grade, on 4 courses, and 2, again the worst possible grade, on 2 more courses? does that mean that you failed these 6 courses? or does that mean that you got the worst kind of pass?

there must be some sort of "translation" between the former and the new grades. like, someone who would have gotten a 5 in the old system, what would he/she likely get in the new system? then you could estimate your own "average", if your uni doesn't provide you with one.

either way, it doesn't seem very promising. it seems you barely managed to pass your masters. if you only just passed your masters, why do you want to continue to PhD?

would you be admitted to a norvegian uni for PhD study with your grades? if not, then, likely you won't be luckier in the UK.

i should think you need to ask your uni. wouldn't rely on wikipedia for such questions...

ha! have been winning for more than a month now!

and:

MPhil/PhD

Normally a UK taught master's degree or a non-UK equivalent in a subject appropriate to the research to be undertaken. The most appropriate supervisor for your work will be allocated with particular reference to your research proposal.

check out http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/graduateAdmissions/InternationalStudents/ for details. i guess other universites have similar information on their homepages.

Graduate School

Applicants offering the Bachelors degree (since 2003) would need to offer grades of B/Very Good for entry to the Graduate school.

We also accept the Candidatus Magisterri, with an overall average grade of 2.5 or less.

This is our general minimum requirement; however, some programmes have specific requirements in terms of degree result required and subject background. Please see the Graduate Prospectus for specific course requirements and information about the application process.

look, there's no general answer. i don't know what norvegian grades mean. how good is a C? as a rule of thumb, you will need to have "good" grades. what that means for your norvegian masters is up to you to say.

then, specific universities have specific requirements. for example the LSE lists their requirements exactly. for norvegian degrees, they state the following:

as i said before:
http://www.hero.ac.uk/rae/rae_dynamic.cfm?MyURL=http://195.194.167.103/Results/byuoa/uoa38.htm

(copy paste the whole link)

will give you a list of all economics departments in the UK, plus a ranking of them (5* is the best).

and yes, i agree with jouri: if you get a "conditional admission" and then fail your language test, you won't be admitted. that could have serious consquences, for example if you have already quit your previous job, moved countries... if your visa is dependent on your status as registered student... so i would really only go down that path if you are confident that you can pass the TOEFL satisfactorily before the course starts.
or, you can still apply, and if you get an offer for a place, you can defer it to next year and take the english course in the mean time.

second honours: i suppose you mean a "honours degree", "second class". this refers to your undergraduate degree. 70-100% is a "first class honours" degree, 60-69% is a "upper second class honours", 50-59% is "lower second class honours" (usually you need 40% for a pass). that is, in the british system. obviously, many foreign students arrive with degrees using completely different designations; usually, the university's admissions offices know what to do with them. roughly, i would say if you have a degree that can be classified as "good" or higher, that is enough; if it is only "average" or lower, it isn't.
when i applied, i didn't have anything of the sorts required here. but my university's website listed for all countries (ironically, except mine) what grades from those countries are minimally required.

i might be mistaken, but as far as i know, the GRE test is not a language test but more of a general abilities test. usually, you should not have to take it, given that you have a Masters from a European university.
i do not understand your second question.
you can always get in touch with potential supervisors before you apply formally. they might show interest and encourage you to apply, which would be promising, as that would mean that they are indeed interested in your topic. however, they are not the people who make admission decisions. and often they do not know the precise requirements. so they might give you incorrect advice if you ask them about admissions.

inexperienced supervisor: can also be a plus. my partner is in that situation: yet to finish his PhD but probably going to start supervising PhD students soon. he has seen how some other supervisors (the experienced ones) treat their students, and he has his own "very recent" experience of being a PhD student, and he is determined to do a better job. no guarantee that it works, though. high risk, but the chance of high gains!
if lacking experience becomes a problem, there is always the experienced second supervisor to go to.

having been self-funded for a while, i would choose funding over self-funding every time - given that the funded project lets me do something i'm interested in.
the good name of the uni is no guarantee AT ALL for a good PhD experience.
the point about having to move would be the least important on my priority list.