The applications

In August 2010 I completed a gruelling Honours thesis and vowed never to study again. By September, I was desperately seeking out Masters courses throughout the UK. My reasoning was that I could pursue further study, while also seeing the world. I have been on international holidays before, but I wanted to live somewhere and enjoy everyday life in another country. I figured if I based myself in the UK, with some of the world's best institutions, I could see a fair amount of the rest of Europe while I was there.

My first stop was to check out the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. I then made a list of all institutions in the UK which ranked higher than Australia's top ranking university (University of Melbourne at #36), and investigated whether they had taught Masters in my field of interest. I decided on a taught Masters due to many bad experiences in my Honours year with disorganised faculties and supervisors - I didn't want to get stuck in an institution halfway around the world with a clueless supervisor and a messy research project. I thought a taught Masters would introduce me to a new institution and give me time to find people I would want to study further with, while also giving me time to develop my interests and specialities in my field of criminology a little more without being committed to one research project.

The top institutions in the UK, Cambridge and Oxford, ranked equal sixth on the world ranking with the top five institutions all being in the USA (where I had no desire to study). There are better funding programs and studentship opportunities available in the US, but I just couldn't bring myself to commit to a year in America. Europe was my goal (maybe the PhD can be in the USA...). So I applied away.

Only a few of the universities required an application fee, and once I had put together the appropriate paperwork such as a statement of purpose, copies of my transcipts and degrees, samples of writing within specific word limits, and a comprehensive CV, I could upload them to most of the application websites. I chose to apply directly through the institutions rather than use a third party website or organisation. I also started applying for other institutions which had courses designed by theorists I admired, or had lecturers I'd heard of. The added benefit of the UK institutions was that an Honours degree awarded at second class first division or higher was sufficient to apply, whereas the majority of US institutions required you to sit the GRE. After doing a sample GRE online, I was both scared of having to sit such a massive exam, and daunted at the prospect of organising the test as they're only held a few times per year in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. So I didn't do it.

The first university to get back to me was the University of Edinburgh in Scotland which offered an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice through its Law School on 24 November 2010. However, the unconditional offer of a place also required me to make a decision before 22 December 2010. At this stage I hadn't even finished all my applications, but Edinburgh was the third highest ranked institution in the UK which offered criminology courses (Imperial College London and University College London both ranked higher, but had no courses in my field). I decided to accept the offer, but continued to apply to a few other institutions just in case.

Apparently, the 'just in case' wasn't necessary, because over the next few months I was subsequently accepted into every institution I applied for:

• MA in Criminology at University of Kent (8 December 2010)
• M. Phil in Criminological Research at University of Cambridge (11 February 2011)
• MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice at King's College London (16 February 2011)
• MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice (Research) at University of Oxford (1 March 2011)
• MSc in Criminal Justice Policy at London School of Economics (9 March 2011).

But now that it seemed that overseas study was a viable dream, I was faced with the task of choosing where to go, and figuring out how on earth I was going to afford it...