My MBA experience at prestigious Durham University

I applied to the following universities: University college London (BSc economics) Durham University (Economics and business management with placement year) Warwick University (BSC Economics) University of Manchester (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) Nottingham University (BA Economics) I was accepted to all the above universities. I chose Durham because of its high rank and college system. I chose Durham university because it gave me more flexibility with my course, like adding Business management with economics. It also allowed me to switch to a placement year. Moving from India, it was a smaller change going to a safer, closer-knit campus university rather than a big city. I first chose my 5 UK universities, then wrote a single personal statement and submitted my applications on the UCAS Portal. Then I heard back one by one from each of the universities that I applied to. I went for my undergraduate degree: requirements included TOEFL/IELTS, 96% in 12th boards, predicted Board marks during application (as it was a conditional offer), and maths was a requirement for economics. I found the UCAS Portal was extremely simple, just one portal and one personal statement. No specific challenges; very self-explanatory. I applied for Autumn (September) intake. It was viable for me, as I graduate from high school in May. The admissions process started in January, when I started selecting which universities and which courses I wanted to apply to. By march I had made my final decision and sent my UCAS Application. By April I received conditional offers from universities. In July, once I got my 12th board marks, I received an offer of confirmation....Read More

University of Durham- selected and accepted  University of York- Selected  University of Edinburgh- Selected  University College London- Reject (not strong enough experience in archaeology, as my experience was in History) University of Oxford- Reject (not strong enough experience in archaeology, specifically fieldwork as my background was in History, and lack of research skills demonstration in my Curriculum Vitae) Factors that influenced: My course is top 4 in the entire world- Archaeology. Other allied courses are also highly ranked so therefore the faculties are extremely respected in their fields.  Collegiate system: Builds camaraderie and provides social spaces.  Old College (traditional and Russell group) Location: Safer than other cities like London, Manchester and Leeds. Durham is extremely safe and people are welcoming  More Scholarships compared to other universities. I got 5000 GBP scholarship  Good Marketing that spoke to me Help availability even before admission in forms of webinars, seminars, help desks, Student helpers and so on  September intake Decision was made in 3 weeks...Read More

I applied for:  Queen Mary  Durham Edinburgh  Leeds Bristol  Liverpool  Warwick I got accepted by: Edinburgh Queen Mary Bristol Warwick Liverpool I got rejected by: Leeds saying I wasn’t qualified enough,  Didn’t opt for Queen Mary, as it’s in London, quite expensive, and its ranking was too low compared to others. The same goes for Bristol and Liverpool. Making a decision between Durham and Warwick was tough as they weighed similarly; I chose durham  Particularly for me, having a CGPA of 8.5 and good scores in English in 12th, getting to Durham was smooth enough; just the problem was the Statement of Purpose; one needs to make it very strong so as to show your interest; the minimum score required to enter is 7.5 average CGPA, and the needed subject of a bachelor's degree depends upon what you are pursuing. A minimum score of 6.5 is required in IELTS, but if you have good scores in your 12th CBSE or ICSE Boards (90 and above) then it’s not required. I chose Durham because it’s a prestigious college, has a high ranking and has a famous business school. I just placed a bet on this after doing a hell of a lot of research. I applied for the Sept 24 intake. My reply came in a week after the application was done. I gave my documents to my agent; he made the application, and the documents that I gave were the passport, 10th, 12th, and bachelor's mark sheets, statement of purpose, letter of recommendation, and resume. He submitted it and after some time, my letter of recommendation were verified by the university and then after a week, my reply came back...Read More

I had applied for the following universities: Bayes Business School for Msc. in Real estate- rejected Durham University for Msc. in Management- accepted Queen Mary University of London for Msc. in Management- conditional acceptance (3 cgpa) Cardiff University for Msc. in Management- accepted Brunel University for Msc. in Management- accepted University of York for Msc. in Management- accepted I think the main reason for my rejection was my less CGPA because my CGPA was 2.6/4 which is not at all good. However, their ranking is very low(356), but their acceptance rate is 14% which made it competitive for me. From all the colleges that I had applied, Durham University was best ranked(QS ranking 89 in the world and top 5 universities in UK) and part of Russel group, which was one of the most important criteria. So my counsellor was IDP, they were very helpful. In my first meeting, my counsellor , she sat with me for at least 2-3 hours. We discussed my course, my preferences, and then according to my grades and resume, we shortlisted universities. Then I wrote my whole Statement Of Purpose in around a day or two maximum and gave it to her, she made some changes and finalised it. She submitted all applications for me and everything was done smoothly. Only Durham University was the only university where I had to pay application fees, rest all the applications were for free. After which I received mails with the rejection and acceptance one by one. For the course which I had applied, I only had to give IELTS for some specific universities only(mainly QMUL and DU). Rest all didn’t require IELTS as my english 12th boards marks were more than 80 out of 100. And IELTS score required were more than 6.5 in all specific exams and overall too. Well there weren’t exactly any challenges included except for rejection which I regret due to my own less CGPA issue. Except for which Durham University had taken a lot of time to give me acceptance which was very difficult for me to pass the time. I applied for September 2024 intake as I completed my bachelors in may 2024 and did not wish to take drop so I was planning it since my 2nd year. So I gave my IELTS exam in 1st week of December and then was waiting for the score till mid December, after I received my score. I met my counsellor at IDP. She saw my grades, IELTS score, resume and then we shortlisted universities in that same meeting only. Then I wrote my SOP in 1-2 days and also collected my LORs from my teachers at my undergraduate university and then my counsellor applied at all universities on behalf of me. Then in 4-6 weeks till jan end or feb first week, I had received all of my acceptances and 1 rejection....Read More

I had a clear communication from the respective colleges. The ideal tip for being admitted would be to write a customised SOP and not have a copy paste SOP. You need to show that you are willing to study and that you want to return back to your home country after getting the education.  I was admitted to: Warwick, Queen Mary, Nottingham. I was rejected by Kings and LSE mainly because I did not have prior work experience.   Durham is a very good ranked university for law. It is a substitute to Ox-Bridge University. So it was a pretty obvious choice. The admission process was quite simple. You need to have 7.5 overall band in IELTS. It was on my SOP and my graduation percentage. You need to have a first class or distinction to get an offer.  The were not any hurdles in my admission process.  It took me 6-7 months for admission. My admission was delayed mainly because I graduated in the same year and the final marksheets were not readily available.  I also had to take letter of recommendation from 2 professors. Some universities ask the professor to upload the letter of recommendation onto the portal.  The good thing about UK is that they accept your marksheets and they do not require the transcripts. Please plan well if your university asks for transcripts. Some US and other Universities want the transcripts to be couriered by the University, which is a task as Indian universities are not much co-operative....Read More