After Bachelors degree, will the same university just accept you, or do i need to apply?

Question

This applies to both UK and US uni's, answers from both would be great, and are there any individual universities when the general rule would be broken.

If i did an undergraduate degree, for example, Economics at Harvard College, if i wanted to go on to do MBA at Harvard University i presume i would still have to apply for this, they wouldn't let me in straight away. If, for example, i wanted to make this a Masters, would i have to apply separately for that. The same goes for any UK universities.

Please don't go "ooooh you're grammar's useless, you'll never get in", just answer the question please.

(I live in UK, and am planning to apply to Oxford for PPE, and Harvard College for something business/politics related, haven't decided for definete.

Answer 1

USA

Yes, graduate schools are completely seperate from undergrad.  You have to submit results of tests, such as GMAT or LSAT and sometimes written essays, as well as your grades.  Its like applying for University all over again, except, more competitive.

Answer 2

you are correct. you can't just get into graduate school because it's in the same university where you got your bachelor's. you have to apply to be admitted into graduate school, no matter what university.

what's wrong with your grammar?

Answer 3

In the U.S., you have to apply for the graduate program, but your chances are much better if applying to the same school your undergrad degree is in. I had to not only apply to the same school for my masters, I had to take the GMATS ugh! I did well and got in though so it wasn't all a waste haha! Good luck!

Answer 4

Unless you apply specifically for a BA/MA program (which some schools do offer; you'd need to look into which ones yourself), you'd need to apply for the graduate program separately.  You might get a bit of an edge if one of your professors really liked you and wanted to continue working with you, but that's it.  On the other hand, some programs really encourage you to go to grad school somewhere else so you get exposure to a different set of experts, so it could just as easily work against you.  Decide where you want to go for undergrad first before you worry about the grad school process.

Answer 5

I did a similar thing and completed a MSc where I did my undergrad degree. You need to apply again to do this, but sometimes you'll get a bursary for returning, I think I got about £500 for doing my MSc there (although the fees were considerably higher then that...). It's worth having a look to see if there's anything similar. a lot of uni's offer a whole range of bursaries, but people don't always look into them.