How are third and pass degrees regarded these days?

melancholly

talksalot81 wrote:

It may be because your course was hard. They undobtedly normalise somehow, but they may have settled with having a harder course and lower grade cutoffs... makes sense to me at least!

i'm happy with the fact i got my grade because of my work and not because of the arbitrary cut-off points too!!

studentphil

It looks like when you ask for help they are not very forthcoming with it. I will check my email again tomorrow.

melancholly

studentphil wrote:

It looks like when you ask for help they are not very forthcoming with it. I will check my email again tomorrow.

as someone else suggested, they may be more helpful if you ring them to arrange a meeting rather than relying on email. i know things are really busy at my uni at the moment with the impending start of term and an email is a lot easier to put down the priority list than a face-to-face meeting.

studentphil

melancholly wrote:

as someone else suggested, they may be more helpful if you ring them to arrange a meeting rather than relying on email. i know things are really busy at my uni at the moment with the impending start of term and an email is a lot easier to put down the priority list than a face-to-face meeting.

Email is the only way I can do it as I can not talk about it in person very well.
I know they are busy and probably because of what I asked he will have asked other people about it too.

talksalot81

I certainly agree with the point about email. I am doing a phd and am pretty friendly with my supervisor, but he almost never replies to my emails. It is not because he cant be bothered or doesnt want to, quite the contrary, he is happy to talk about any of the things I email about. He just doesnt get time to go through emails thoroughly and frequently. If something is urgent the opinion is that the sender would contact by phone. Therefore an email is not considered urgent and will get dealt with when time allows (meaning if it sits there long enough it will end up in the bin).

Irrelevant of your reservations, you must make the effort beyond an email. If those deciding on a masters knew that you were unwilling to pick up the phone, they would probably say your attitude isnt right for a postgraduate course. Yes you may have a disability, but a major part of your education is communication skills and if you cant learn them then you really shouldnt push to go further on courses where they are critically important (it would be a bit like Geri Halliwell insisting she should be allowed to compete in the world superheavy weight boxing!).

studentphil

I have called them many times and they never answer. I am in no rush for a reply and as I say he will probably have to ask my Personnal tutor before answering.

anewman

They should be able to give you times they are likely to be reachable by phone, or these could be displayed on their office door?!

studentphil

anewman wrote:

They should be able to give you times they are likely to be reachable by phone, or these could be displayed on their office door?!

I have rung in office hours and they dont answer. At this time od year they do not have to be reachable as it is out of term

annie-c

Ring your department/school admin office. It should be staffed 9-5 and they should be able to pass on messages. This time of year, lecturers are busy with enrolment and simply may not be available to read their emails every day. But if they are in University they will most likely pop by the office to collect mail/messages.

[Deleted User]

The minimum requirements for my MSc was a 2:1.. i spoke to the course administrator and got them to accept me on the basis of a 2:2.. 3 years later I was teaching the course at a better Uni as a Research Fellow

talksalot81 is very true.. never try to get hold an academic by email if it's urgent, my old boss was just the same, would spend an hour chatting about work but wouldn't reply to an email for a simple question.

You might get an MSc course with a 3rd, but I still wouldn't hire you. I've seen the inner workings of MSc course administration - I honestly don't think it's any more difficult than doing another 3rd year on an undergrad course.