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Dec 16, 2011 09:43

Hello brainboxes - I wanna do an MA...do I just write to my Alma Mater and tell them to write me a reference? Or what?

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ultraruby December 16 2011, 09:50:32 UTC
There's usually an offical process. With mine I went on my original university's website and found a 'so you've been graduated a while but now you want to do more learning' link til I found the the email of the right person in the Registry to talk to. Bascially you make a formal request for your transcript and a reference, which sometimes costs a little fee and takes a certain amount of time, and then you get an important looking envelope with your official results in and (as I understand it) a reference from someone in your department that says you went there and didn't cause too much bother etc. I think perhaps they also send some reference directly to your new university/other institution as well - the main thing is to make sure you're following whatever process they've set in place and then it's all pretty simple.

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perfectlyvague December 16 2011, 09:56:55 UTC
Ah, it says that the receiving college must request it. Which is not how the receiving school is asking, they want the name of the person, but that person is no longer at my school. I can apply for my own transcript...but in my MA application they seem to think they'll get that in Tge reference which my Uni doesn't do. WARRRRGH.

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suicideally December 16 2011, 10:28:03 UTC
When Chris applied for his MA last year he sent an e-mail to his old tutor (when he tracked him down to a different institution from the one he had studied at) asking them to look out for a reference request.

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perfectlyvague December 16 2011, 10:44:21 UTC
My best and most relevant tutor is untraceable (and taught me 17 years ago) and my personal tutor never met me. I guess the best thing is to get Birkbeck to confirm what they need to know as they must have tons of Masters applicants even older than I!

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rosamicula December 16 2011, 16:22:32 UTC
Just answered your Q on FB. I am seriously considering doing a PhD at Birkbeck.

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perfectlyvague December 16 2011, 16:29:57 UTC
I may use you as my personal ref...I think the other one really should just be my transcript and a statement from Uni of Leeds. I got high 2.1s for all my Eliz/Jacobean stuff so I should look good on paper. What I'm not looking forward to is finding out what I got for my dissertation. It was utter bilge.

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achadachad December 18 2011, 08:31:11 UTC
have been on the do the jobs end of this, if you studied a while ago you should explain that and ask the uni to write a generic reference confirming you were there and got grade * whatever* and that *staff member name* who was your direct tutor is retired - if it was long enough ago for the records to not be computerised don't expect it to be done fast, as some poor overworked drone has to go to a microfiche machine in a dusty basement, switch it on, find the film and scan around in it to find you, and so they tend to batch up those requests and do it once a week. If you can remember a student number fr4m then, or your home address at that time, they will thank you for it

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perfectlyvague December 18 2011, 11:45:59 UTC
Yes, my Uni just has a website where you order such things, but the Uni I am applying to wants to do it the old fashioned human way - I'm not sure how to reconcile the two processes.

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