If you’re looking to undertake a postgraduate degree following your undergrad you’re in the right place.
Well you might be.
So undergraduate and postgraduate… What’s the difference??
The setting
My experience comes from studying Marketing at the University of Derby just so you know where my advice and experience is coming from.
We also must first establish the fact that I went straight into the Master’s months after I graduated from my degree.
And that I went from studying Digital Marketing to Marketing Management.
Similarities
Now from MY experience, there wasn’t much difference between undergraduate and postgraduate in terms of content.
In fact one of my postgraduate modules was a complete replica of an undergraduate one I did two years prior (I didn’t get a bad grade on that as you can imagine).
The content for me was built on (or sometimes cloned) from undergraduate.
Unfortunately I had to sit through lectures of content I’ve actually heard over and over again such as SWOT, PESTLE etc…
Differences
I reckon the one big difference is the workload. 3rd year was extensive but the Master’s course really throws more at you.
Because a Master’s is only a year or two long they need to cram more in, meaning an extra module a semester.
Another difference was the word counts on assignments. They are enlarged by at least 1,000 words BUT this actually helps!!
One of the biggest challenges as an undergraduate was getting all your arguments and discussions together under a word count.
Well thank you Master’s degree. I didn’t have to worry about this as much.
Advice?
I honestly advise you NOT to take a break from undergrad to postgrad.
Even if it’s just for the year.
Going straight into the Master’s meant I was still in the flow of writing up reports and doing research.
I can imagine this being a lot more effort if I had a break because I’d forget little tips and tricks that I’ve picked up along the way.
Because of this I’ve been able to finish assignments weeks (months) before the deadlines and to a high standard (distinctions).
But what if you want that break?
If you do take the break or know you’re about to, I’d save every piece of uni work you’ve done at undergrad and organise it all into folders.
TRUST ME this will save you a lot of time.
Doing this allowed me to go above and beyond on my postgrad assignments where I was able to add additional models, content, and research to back up my work.
And I still completed these assignments MONTHS before the deadlines.
You see the common theme here?
**This will only work if you’re doing a degree that follows the previous one (I.e. Marketing to Marketing).
So what??
All of the above is exactly why I was able to join Eighteen halfway through my Master’s.
Because I was able to demolish the extensive workload relying on my experience at undergrad.
There’s no right answer, but that was my experience.
I controlled my experience.
I controlled the navigation.
I took shortcuts.
I’m glad I did.
