Oxford: Q&A for Applicants

I wrote this piece since I had a lot of people reach out to me via Linkedin with similar questions about applying to Oxford.

Is the MSc at Oxford only 1 year? Why?

Many, but not all, Master’s degrees at Oxford last approximately one year. From my experience in the Computer Science department, the aim of the MSc is to begin specializing in a field and to gain a taste of research before committing to a PhD.

Do CompSci MSc students publish a paper?

The MSc in Computer Science is a taught program, consisting of two terms of courses followed by a third term dedicated to thesis work. If you can manage your course load, you can unofficially begin your research earlier- to complete the MSc, students need to complete 6 courses, with a limit of 4 courses per term.

For intance, I completed 4 courses in my first term and 2 in my second term, and began work on my thesis already in my second term. Then in the third term, I focused full-time on my thesis.

The majority of students do not manage to publish a paper during the MSc, but several do each year. If you aim to publish a paper, discuss this with your potential thesis supervisor to ensure alignment on expectations. Some supervisors meet with students weekly and take the thesis very seriously, while others do not. I was fortunate to have two wonderful supervisors who met with me weekly.

What’s my opinion on applying for a PhD directly?

What I’ll say next applies primarily to international applicants who have not yet lived in England.

First, if you know exactly what you want to research and have identified a supervisor at Oxford who you are eager to work with, then applying for a PhD directly could be a good idea. However, for most students, I recommend starting with an MSc or participating in a summer internship at Oxford to collaborate with your potential supervisor and see how you two get along.

Furthermore, despite its beauty and charm, Oxford can be quite different from what you’re used to. It has many historical traditions and felt to me like a ‘bubble.’ Some students I spoke with found that staying for 4/5 years in this environment is overwhelming. Additionally, Oxford is a small town, which might not suit those who prefer larger cities like London.

For these reasons, starting with an MSc allows you to see how well you fit in at Oxford and develop your social life before committing to a PhD.

What GPA does one need in order to apply?

For American candidates, the minimum GPA for applying to Oxford is 3.55, equivalent to a 90 on a 0-100 scale. For applicants of other nationalities, there is no mandatory minimum, but accepted applicants are typically honors students.

In my cohort, most students were top of their class in their undergrad. However, I also met several students who had obtained marks around the 80s. Oxford does make exceptions occasionally. If you are passionate about your field and have a strong CV that complements your GPA, I recommend applying. What do you have to lose?

For the CompSci MSc, what coding skills should an incoming student have?

Great question. Many students I met came to the MSc from pure mathematics or more technical engineering backgrounds. You definitely shouldn’t be afraid of coding, as it’s required in most courses for the ‘practical’ sessions or homework. Most practicals aren’t difficult, with the exception of code-intensive course like “Programming Languages.” You can opt to enroll in the more theoretical courses with minimal coding, such as “Game Theory” if you prefer not to code as much.

For instance, I took a Machine Learning course that required Python for the practical sessions. These sessions required only about ~200 lines of code, and the focus was on developing select functions to enhance your understanding, rather than building up a huge project from scratch.