Hi everyone.

I am about to start a taught masters at a top university in the UK in a humanities subject. I want to then go on to do a PhD at that university in a related topic. I stated on my personal statement that this was the case. However, admissions to the programme depends only on whether you have a 2.1 equivalent (which I do), and I do not think that individual grades are taken into consideration (mine are quite poor).

My concern is this: I am about to spend a lot of money on a masters, which I am happy to do, but only if I am to be accepted onto a phd afterwards. I am sure that I can get the grades necessary for my masters, but will my past academic record prevent me from getting in to do the PHD? I scraped a 2.1. It's just that I don't know if I can afford to take the risk!

What would you do? Thanks Ali

A 2.1 is fine to do a PhD with.. why do the MSc? if you want to do a PhD, you could just go straight for it! a Msc is a lot of money, and I doubt that most supervisors pay much attention to whether you have an MSc or not.. but that is just my 2 cents worth! (I am more au fait with the sciences though)

Hey! While it is true that you can go straight to PhD from undergrad for some subjects, this is not true for all of them, especially the more competitive ones. I am in clinical psychology, and in the Psych department here an MSc is an absolute requirement for doing a PhD, even with a first at undergrad. I have friends in Biology who just had a 2.1 at undergrad and weren't required to have an MSc and got a fully funded PhD quire easily, but it would be best to check with individual supervisors and their departments whether they would like you to have one or not. Also bear in mind that even if it not a requirement, most likely you will be competing for funding against people who have one in the more competitive areas. I'm not suggesting that you jump straight into your MSc, but you should try to find out more about the specific requirements and the state of the competition in your field before you decide! Best of luck with it, KB

I second all said below. Also, if you are doing MSc in the hopes of getting known and proving yourself in this uni then whether you can compete for a phd or not wil be dependent on your performance there more than any previous results. Some fancy UK unis are known to keep only the top one/two of their masters class, although often places are arranged in other unis for the rest of the top students. Be careful about doing the masters if you don't really want to do it, can wreck your motivation. Best of luck with whatever you decide on.

Hi all, thanks for your replies. In my field, I need to do a masters (at least, at this particular uni I do). I wouldn't want to do a phd without the MA training any way. I'm just worried that when it comes round to applying for phd i don't get a look-in because of my shoddy undergrad grades, and then i'll have wasted a lot of money on post-grad training which is effectively not good for any thing other than a career in academia.

My BA(Hons) was a 2.1 too. I started a humanities taught Masters. I got a distinction in the end, which made my undergraduate degree pretty irrelevant. To be honest I think a good pass in a Masters pretty much does that, as long as your undergraduate degree wasn't appalling. And I started a PhD, and applied in my first year for AHRC funding for the rest, and got it. So it's doable.

I'd be inclined to say give it a shot if you are confident that you can do well. Doing a masters degree is potentially a very rewarding an enjoyable experience. I got a 2.1 and a good masters and I got in to do a phd. However, I do think that your undergraduate degree marks DO play a part, especially for funding. That's not to say you won't get it, but just that I don't think that masters necessarily overshadows undergrad in every case. If you ended up with a 2.1, are you sure your undergrad is THAT shoddy!?

Yeah, it's not very impressive at all. Especially not for the university I'm hoping to stay at. My honours years grades are: 72/63/60/59/59/59/57 and 68/68/65/63/65/63/57. and my pre-honours grades are very low. Do you think that's okay? I'd love to do a phd. I completely regret being such a slacker at uni! How are you supposed to know when you're 19 that all those nights out will come back and haunt you?

They don't look too bad, a few 2:2s in there, but no fails and no thirds and you've got firsts and strong 2:1s too. Lol at the 19 year old you, yes, unfortunately most teenagers aren't to know the effect it can have. I can't see why, if you get a good strong masters that you wouldn't be accepted to do the PhD - funding is another animal altogether though - I have a first class BA, (nothing below a 67 - I'm a mature student and so wouldn't know a late night out drinking if it got up and bit me with 3 kids to look after) and a distinction at MA and still didn't get it! In my case it wasn't the strength of my grades but that my area fell between funding bodies, so neither would fund me lol - I did get awarded a uni scholarship though and also my fees are paid, but it would have been nice to have full funding.

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It really does depend on your subject and where your funding is from. I have a pal with a 2.2 and a pass at MSc who walked into a fully-funded PhD in health economics, so if you're in the right place at the right time then in some subjects you don't have to have an absolutely outstanding academic record. There are a lot of people in my department with 2.1s and a distinction at MSc, although none with less than a high 2.1 and a merit at MSc. I think if you get a good MA, you should be in with a shot of a funded PhD. I reckon a good masters can make up for a 'weaker' undergrad degree to some extent, but then there are some sources of funding that will probably insist on a first at undergrad- I wouldn't have got my funding with less than a first and a distinction as it was from an academic achievement based scholarship, but then I was offered funding from elsewhere which wasn't dependent on the distinction. In terms of doing the masters, I think it's a good decision- again, I know it's different for different subjects but I wouldn't have been anywhere near prepared for my PhD if I hadn't done the MSc first. So go for it- get yourself a good MA and you should be in with a chance, but ask around and find out who wants what! Best of luck, KB