What Really Matters When Choosing a Masters?

Here’s a quick question: do you know how long the description for a typical course is here on FindAMasters? About 500-700 words. That’s not too long, but then we do list about 23,000 programmes at any one time. At a low estimate, that’s. . . *gets calculator* about 11 million words. And no, I haven’t read all of them.

You don’t need to read all of them either, but you probably should read at least some of them. The ‘spin around in your chair three times, click the first course you see and apply to the university’ method is 100% guaranteed to lead to awkwardness when you have to ask a Physics lecturer which novelists you’re discussing this week.

But even reading the details for a few course descriptions still means reading a lot of words, digesting a lot of information and making sense of a lot of stuff. Which bits matter? When you’re comparing two or three options, which details should you base your decision on?

Fear not! I’m here to help in my official capacity as Someone Who Once Chose a Masters Degree, Did a Masters Degree (Then a PhD) and Now Works for a Company that Lists Around 23,000 Masters Degrees.*

Below are five things I think you should definitely look at. I’ve ordered them by the priority I’d give them and explained why, but that’s just my take. See what you think.

*May not be Mark’s actual job title.

You are quickly going to realise that Masters course content varies a lot. Unlike undergrad, you aren’t studying to get a broad knowledge of your subject area: you’re specialising in it.

Even very general courses will probably look like they’re made up entirely of those ‘niche’ modules from the third year of your Bachelors. Less ‘Introduction to 19th Century British Politics’, more ‘Working Class Politics and Protest in 1840s London’.

And different courses specialise in different ways. Don’t just assume that you’ll get on with a Masters in X Subject because you like X Subject.

I actually chose between two specialised English Literature MAs. They were both on Gothic Literature (‘my thing’) but one included a lot of twentieth-century novelists (really not ‘my thing’). Thing is, that would actually have been an easy thing to miss – had I not taken the time to look closely at the course content and module descriptions. So that’s a thing you should do.

And remember, regardless of the coronavirus, how you study doesn't change what you study

This is really part of course content, but it's important enough (and easy enough to overlook) that I'm giving it its own heading.

As a rule of thumb, Masters courses in similar subjects will tend to assess in similar ways. In the Humanities, for example, you’re probably looking at one or two essays per module, then a dissertation, with little to no formal exams (the ones in a hall, with a desk, some paper and an inexplicably broken pen).

But things can still vary and those variations can be really important. If you’re someone who hates exams, maybe don’t go for the one Masters in your field that includes an end-of-term test. If you struggle a bit with word counts, think about that when choosing between a course with two short essays per module and one with a single longer assignment.

All of this information is usually there in the course descriptions, so there’s no excuse for getting to the end of your programme and saying ‘but I didn’t know this MA in Philosophy was examined solely through the means of sudoku time trials!’.

Masters degrees are where scholars get to share their specific research interests in a way that doesn’t really happen on a Bachelors (where much course content needs to provide a ‘101’) or even a PhD (where it’s the students’ research interests that really drive the degree).

Trust me, this experience can be very, very cool: Two of the modules on my Masters were essentially based on my tutor’s most recent books. Exploring someone’s area of expertise alongside them and having your own ideas taken seriously by them is brilliant.

You probably don’t know that much about your prospective course tutors yet, but you can easily remedy that. Look for them on the course details and find out a bit more about their research specialisms and recent work. That info will all be there on their university web page and if it’s a good fit with your own interests that’s a massive plus.

Incidentally, I’d be a bit more wary of using those ‘rate my. . .’ sites. If their ‘reviews’ have something sensible to say about a lecturer’s approach or feedback style, maybe consider with a pinch of salt. If they set out to assess a tutor’s personal appearance or other such nonsense, remember that you’re better than that.

By which I mean ‘the university and where it is.’ Both of which are important.

Things are a little different this year, of course, but bear in mind that most UK universities are offering some form of on-campus teaching in 2020-21 (the same is true in Europe and elsewhere). Unless you're planning to study an entirely online Masters, you'll want to pay some heed to where your university is located. It goes without saying that other elements of a university still matter for distance learning programmes (but I said it anyway).

Some of the things that make a ‘good’ postgrad university should already have come out in #1 and #3 above. Different departments do specialise in different things, but that’s pretty obvious from the courses they offer and the specialists they have teaching them.

Still, there are some other things you can look at. An obvious one is rankings, but you need to know how to use these. I used the term ‘department’ deliberately above. It’s nice to say you did your Masters at a ‘top x’ university, but it’s even better to be able to say you studied x at one of the top universities for x. It’s also a lot more likely to mean your course is / was better.

Read about your university city, see what the university itself says about its area and maybe quickly check the train timetables. This stuff may not be crucial, but it could help with a close call.

As challenging, interesting and fun as it will be (yes, really) your Masters won’t last forever. In a year or so you’ll be looking to take your next step and it could be worth bearing that in mind now.

This is particularly important if you’re considering a PhD after your Masters. Not everyone stays at the same university for this but it’s fairly common and quite sensible if you’ve found a good department and academics you work well with – the tutor I enjoyed studying under did end up becoming my PhD supervisor.

Of course, universities don’t tend to write in detail about PhD research in their course descriptions here on FindAMasters, but you can always find out more on their own website. You can also hop over to FindAPhD and take a look there. If you do find a Masters that could also lead on to the PhD you want to do, that’s a legitimate factor for your decision.

I won’t say as much about career prospects, simply because it’s very hard to judge them for specific Masters courses. You could look at subject areas (and we did have) but that’s not the same thing. If your programme claims to have a good graduate employment rate that’s great (though check what that statistic actually measures). Otherwise though, I’d file earnings under something not to get too hung up about. But maybe that’s a future blog post. . .

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