Masters funding?

jmhduck

jmhduck

jmhduck

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For various reasons I'm currently looking at doing at masters starting next years. Does anyone know what the funding situation is like? I've tried looking into this a bit and it seems that other than a grant/scholarship the best that's available is basically little better than a standard loan.

I'm hoping that I'm missing something...
 
Yer your not missing anything.

Grant/Scholarship is the only option sadly for Masters. You can get career development loans but ultimately you need to self fund.
 
It depends what you're doing it in, but some jobs will actually pay for your masters degree. My father's job offered to pay for his Ph.D a few years ago.

For instance, at the local authority that he used to work at, there was a graduate scheme that would offer employment with the possibility of masters funding from the off.
 
is this the case with a normal uni course? i think its a bnc honours degree in games development im wanting to do, how much are standard student loans nowa days?
 
naffa said:
It depends what you're doing it in, but some jobs will actually pay for your masters degree. My father's job offered to pay for his Ph.D a few years ago.

For instance, at the local authority that he used to work at, there was a graduate scheme that would offer employment with the possibility of masters funding from the off.
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That would be really cool, unfortunately for me the two jobs I have currently are about 99% unlikely to support me doing a masters.
 
DefiantAsh said:
is this the case with a normal uni course? i think its a bnc honours degree in games development im wanting to do, how much are standard student loans nowa days?
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My computer science course has me in about £25,000 of debt over a four year course (I did a year in industry). Approx 3k fees and 4.5k maintenance per year and the loan you get is with very favourable terms and conditions, interest rate is basically inflation.
 
jmhduck said:
My computer science course has me in about £25,000 of debt over a four year course (I did a year in industry). Approx 3k fees and 4.5k maintenance per year and the loan you get is with very favourable terms and conditions, interest rate is basically inflation.
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woosh!

didnt catch any of that :D

how much did you get per annum for a student loan?

and how much did you get paid in the industry?

...i am trying to get onto a 4 year sandwich course, 2 years uni, then 1 year in a company then final year at uni :)
 
student loan = 7.5k*3, placement year fees were £700 and the student loan was about 3k. I got paid about €1100 after a tax per month for my placement year as I was working in Austria. Hope that makes sense.
 
Depends on what you're planning on doing and where. Mine was 3k, which is cheap compared to a lot of others out there.

I'd say that you should be 100% in your desire to undertake one. Also, you should apply for funding as if you've got the skills/good grades then you'll have a good shout for it.

I'd say start saving now, earn some more cash and apply for funding. The extra experience in the workplace will only help you in the future.

Have you considered part-time Masters? A lot of my old coursemates did part time jobs and a part time study regime to ensure that they could pay for it. Also part time Masters gives you a lot of flexibility and I'd say puts you at an advantage as you can dedicate much more time and thought to your chosen modules and thesis over the two years.

Best of luck: I'd 100% recommend you to do one as it was the best study I've ever done!
 
I think I'd struggle to get funding as I won't be studying a subject I did as an undergrad (trying to increase the number of areas I can work in). This means I'd probably need to do a two year masters that I think would take ages to do part time...
 
There's not many ways to get funding for MA's unfortunately in my experience. Your employer may pay it for you if its relevant to the job, or a charity in the field.

For example, the Howard League Sponsors one person per year to do a Masters course at my University. I only heard it as I did my Undergraduate in Sociology and Criminology though.

There are certain schemes setup aswell for disadvantaged individuals, but the competition for those is normally fierce and the paperwork is enormous.

I looked into a few of these myself before starting mine, and ultimately you have to pay it yourself by any means and hope that by getting the MA it will benefit you in the longtime.

Good luck with it :)
 
What area are you looking in? Courses and likelyhood of funding vary massively depending on th area.

I'm doing one now and the fees are £6k and unfortunately that's all coming out of my future earnings, however about two thirds of the class are either part or fully funded due to the type of course (some got outside grants/scholarships whilst others got scholarships designed for the specific course).

Unfortunately if you don't get funding the best you can do loan wise is a career development loan.
 
ghost101 said:
Masters funding has to be via university scholarships or through research councils.

There's also this but its more of a conventional loan with a 1 year interest holiday.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Educati...dultLearners/CareerDevelopmentLoans/index.htm

Postgraduate Masters are expensive!
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Or from Industry,

Think in our class of 25 there are 5 NERC funded places, around 6 industry funded places (through the uni) and another 2-3 outside uni (funding from industry they sorted themselves) as well as a couple part funded through another organisation.
 
Amp34 said:
What area are you looking in? Courses and likelyhood of funding vary massively depending on th area.

I'm doing one now and the fees are £6k and unfortunately that's all coming out of my future earnings, however about two thirds of the class are either part or fully funded due to the type of course (some got outside grants/scholarships whilst others got scholarships designed for the specific course).

Unfortunately if you don't get funding the best you can do loan wise is a career development loan.
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Areas I'm looking at are management/business/economics. I'd be interested to get a job as a consultant but have just been rejected as a CS grad with reasonable work experience from both Bain and McKinsey. What I'd really like to do is increase my general employability I feel like at the moment it's really only programming/db jobs that I have a high chance of getting...
 
I have no idea about that area TBH. However as far as I know it generally goes something like this: The better the masters course is viewed in industry (ie not the presitigiousness of the uni but of the specific post grad course), the more funded places and the more vocational the masters course (ie it's designed for a specific job) then the more likely it is to have funded places.

I wouldn't have thought business/management would have that many funded places unfortunately.
 
jmhduck said:
Areas I'm looking at are management/business/economics. I'd be interested to get a job as a consultant but have just been rejected as a CS grad with reasonable work experience from both Bain and McKinsey. What I'd really like to do is increase my general employability I feel like at the moment it's really only programming/db jobs that I have a high chance of getting...
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Well economics will require you to do a postgraduate diploma adding to the cost.

To get into Bain or McKinsey, you really have to be looking at the very best business schools or management departments. That won't come cheap.

Where is your CompSci degree from? There is an element of nepotism when it comes to universities as well I'm afraid.
 
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ghost101 said:
Well economics will require you to do a postgraduate diploma adding to the cost.

To get into Bain or McKinsey, you really have to be looking at the very best business schools or management departments. That won't come cheap.

Where is your CompSci degree from? There is an element of nepotism when it comes to universities as well I'm afraid.
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I've got a CompSci degree from the University of Kent... did a year in Industry for Siemens in Vienna which was cool.
 
jmhduck said:
I've got a CompSci degree from the University of Kent... did a year in Industry for Siemens in Vienna which was cool.
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I think if you really want to become a top management consultant, I'd work for a couple of years in a relevant job for a few years. Then do an MBA at a good school, and then you should hopefully be in a good position to get into a large consultancy firm.

These jobs at McKinsey&Co, BCG and Bain&Co are extremely competitive (I would class them as the most competitive graduate/experienced jobs to go for). You may find depending on your work experience you can get into more specialist consultancies more easily.

Here's a nice list to look at when you apply. Vault.com has a lot more information as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_consulting#Management_Consulting_Companies_Rating
 
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