Postgraduate Scholarship

gerry87

Got the most pointless letter from ucd yesterday saying i got a postgrad scholarship. All well and good... if it wasn't february, when most people would be either working or already in a course. So now i've got this great thing that i can do absolutely nothing with unless i want to spend three years of my life doing a phd so i can save about €2k a year.

Anybody here get the letter and in a position to use it?

Is there's any way of getting some cold hard cash out of this??

Donald-Duck

Why would a scholarship entitle you to cash?

/you don't walk into a shop that has a sale in and just demand they give you the 50% off in money rather than off the item

Sarchasm

gerry87 wrote: »

Got the most pointless letter from ucd yesterday saying i got a postgrad scholarship. All well and good... if it wasn't february, when most people would be either working or already in a course. So now i've got this great thing that i can do absolutely nothing with unless i want to spend three years of my life doing a phd so i can save about €2k a year.

Anybody here get the letter and in a position to use it?

Is there's any way of getting some cold hard cash out of this??

I got the same scholarship a year ago, its not an unusual occurrence.I was already doing a masters, I asked them what I should do.They said I could defer it for a year if I wanted to do another masters or a PhD or I could use it to pay for the Masters I was doing at the time.
I chose to accept the scholarship. I had already paid my fees at the start of term but was very happy to receive a cheque that paid me back half of it. You don't have to do a Phd, you could do a masters.

Getting into a state just because the timing doesn't suit you makes you sound very ungrateful. They didn't have to offer you anything. No, I'm pretty sure there is no way of 'getting some cold hard cash' out of it.

gerry87

I know it's not an unusual occurrence, i'm not getting in a state and didn't mean to come across ungrateful... But even from UCD's point of would it not be better to inform people when it's likely to make a difference. I was really debating between a course in ucd and one somewhere else, it would have been nice to know about it sooner and be able to use it.

In trinity people get the option of a room on campus or cash each year, so the 'cold hard cash' was a genuine question whether something similar might possible here, there's no info online.

emeraldstar

Sarchasm wrote:

I got the same scholarship a year ago, its not an unusual occurrence.I was already doing a masters, I asked them what I should do.They said I could defer it for a year if I wanted to do another masters or a PhD or I could use it to pay for the Masters I was doing at the time.
I chose to accept the scholarship. I had already paid my fees at the start of term but was very happy to receive a cheque that paid me back half of it. You don't have to do a Phd, you could do a masters.

Getting into a state just because the timing doesn't suit you makes you sound very ungrateful. They didn't have to offer you anything. No, I'm pretty sure there is no way of 'getting some cold hard cash' out of it.

Only within UCD I presume?

My mom rang me yesterday, apparently I got such a letter.
I'm in the middle of a Masters in NUIG so it does seem a bit pointless receiving it now, tbh.

But the letter said something about it going on your academic transcript anyway and that it's a good addition to your CV ...would this still be the case even if you do not accept it?

annie1000

emeraldstar wrote: »

But the letter said something about it going on your academic transcript anyway and that it's a good addition to your CV ...would this still be the case even if you do not accept it?

I think that it'll go on your academic transcript that you were offered it, regardless of whether you take it or not, it says something about that on the third page of the letter.

I started a two year masters this year, so I'm delighted, it's money for nothing as far as I'm concerned. If they'd let us know in advance that it was available, I'd say there'd be a good few more from my class still in UCD. Maybe it's their way of saving money? It goes on everyone's transcript, so it seems like UCD offer loads of scholarships, but they only have to pay out a fraction of the money.

ophelia09

Hi All,

I realise this is an old thread and possibly won't get any replies but here goes anyway.

A lot of my classmates were offered this in January, recently I was talking to one of them and she reckoned I was probably entitled to one too as I recieved a good first in my final year exams last year.
She suggested I enquire about it in case I am entitled to it but the letter was posted to the address I lived at last year.

I asked in the School of English office and they said I should send an email and they would look into it, but I needed to know the offiical name of the grant/scholarship.

So my question is, Is it simply called the UCD postgraduate scholarship or is there another, more official, name for it?

any help or insight into this would be appreciated,
thanks.

david_etc

Super old thread, my apologies for clawing it back up, but I got a similar offer there yesterday and I was hoping someone who's had it before got clear something up,

is it an "either or" sort of option, like pay for my masters this year OR pay towards the PhD (if I did one) for the next three years? The wording is extremely unclear. Thanks if anyone can enlighten me on the subject!

Frank Grimes

david_etc wrote: »

is it an "either or" sort of option, like pay for my masters this year OR pay towards the PhD (if I did one) for the next three years? The wording is extremely unclear. Thanks if anyone can enlighten me on the subject!

Yeah, that's my understanding of it. I was actually doing a M.A. in another university when I got the offer so I deferred it as I wasn't sure if I wanted to do a Ph.D. at that stage. It's whatever amount they tell you for up to three years if you're taking the scholarship for a Ph.D., or else up to two years if you're going to do a master's. At least that is was what I was told at the time.

kkumk

What exactly do you get the scholarship for? Do you have to apply for it or do they just give it to people who have done well in their undergrad? Is it for every School or just certain ones eg Business, Comp Sci etc? I wasn't aware UCD were still doing postgrad scholarships, no info on their website!

Frank Grimes

kkumk wrote: »

What exactly do you get the scholarship for? Do you have to apply for it or do they just give it to people who have done well in their undergrad? Is it for every School or just certain ones eg Business, Comp Sci etc? I wasn't aware UCD were still doing postgrad scholarships, no info on their website!

The letter I got was not clear as to what exactly the award was for, it just makes reference to "exceptional academic achievement". I won another scholarship (and a nice medal!) when I was in third year which was based on my second year sociology results - this was made clear in the letter I got about that one. I can only guess that the postgraduate award was based on my overall degree results rather than being something specific to my results in either sociology or politics (the other half of my joint major).

Edit: Forgot to say; I did not apply for the scholarships either, I was just told I won them.

MaebhOC

Congratulations to everyone for getting the scholarships!

I got an email last Friday saying I received one too & that my letter is in the post. Does anyone know if the scholarship is for research Masters & PhDs? Or taught ones? I'm doing a taught Masters at the moment in UCD so will I get the money or do I need to begin a research-based postgrad next year?

I emailed the awards & scholarships centre in UCD asking them about this but still haven't heard back from them...

MaebhOC

& is there an awards ceremony for these scholarships? I got a different scholarship back in 2nd year & there was an awards ceremony with graduation robes which was pretty awesome! Also for that one there were no terms & conditions to accept, they just mailed the cheque in the post

david_etc

MaebhOC wrote: »

Congratulations to everyone for getting the scholarships!

I got an email last Friday saying I received one too & that my letter is in the post. Does anyone know if the scholarship is for research Masters & PhDs? Or taught ones? I'm doing a taught Masters at the moment in UCD so will I get the money or do I need to begin a research-based postgrad next year?

I emailed the awards & scholarships centre in UCD asking them about this but still haven't heard back from them...

I'm in the exact same position as you. To be honest, I'm not very happy that they essentially only give you a week to decide about it and like yourself they haven't replied to my emails at all. I'm gonna call them after lunch and see what the story is (I think their office is in Roebuck, but I dunno if it's alright or not to just sorta walk in there).

It doesn't specify what Masters it is available for, so I would assume both Taught and Research. I have no idea why the letter/email was so incredibly vague about the whole thing. I think either way I'm gonna defer for a year, a week is just not really enough time to consider whether I want to commit to a PhD.

david_etc

Some more information I received from an email today:

Your current Masters is sufficient to meet requirements. If you accept now, you will be given 2540 for this year of study. If you accept this scholarship now is for a max of two years’ consecutive full time or part time study in the case of Masters Degrees, and three years’ consecutive full time or part time study in the case of the PhD Degree (including the case of a student who pursues a Masters Degree immediately followed by a PhD).
If you do not continue your studies consecutively the scholarship will cease.
You can defer the scholarship for a max of two years. You do not need to specify which MA PhD you wish to do. Upon your registration with the University within the next two years you will be automatically receive the scholarship. If you defer you will only receive your scholarship within the next two years when you are fully registered.

I think this means that if you accept the scholarship and go straight into a PhD or another Masters that UCD will pay the money for this year AND the subsequent years of the PhD or Masters, but if you accept the 2540 for this year, and don't go straight into another course, then you won't receive the funding for a second Masters or PhD.

Ohhh UCD, four days is not very much time left. What are you guys thinking of doing? While it would be sad to lose the 2540 for this year's Masters by deferring, I just don't think I'm ready to commit to starting a PhD next September.