To ask what you would think about someone that had masters degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge?

[Zorbing]

That's the question!

Its not me, obvs. But I am wondering what assumptions, if any, you might make about someone like this (justified or otherwise).

Would you think they were highly intelligent / had a strong work ethic? Or just lucky and privileged?

Would you think that they're probably a bit of a dickhead?

Its a woman incidentally, not sure if that makes a difference.

I have three masters and no, not from a privileged background at all.

That she has plenty of money because you can only get the MA funding once.

That she has plenty of money because you can only get the MA funding once.
Unless an employer pays for it or they have a scholarship .....

I have a number of PG qualifications and I haven't paid for any of them and I'm certainly not from a privileged background.

[quote ThreeLocusts]@IllForTooLong

No that's not what follows. I've taught in other MA programmes where you didn't have the 'finishing school' effect, because the institutions in question didn't have the same cachet as Oxbridge. People were there for the content, not for the name of the institution on the certificate.

My own MA is from Univ. of London and it was the most work-intensive year of my life getting it. And again, a lot of the students in the Oxbridge MAs I was involved in worked very hard and were very committed too.

I'm trying to counter the impression that everyone who gets a degree from Oxbridge is a freaking genius, as some ppl still seem to think. That assumption is very, very regressive because it serves to justify the privileges that ppl with access to Oxbridge degrees often (not always) enjoy.[/quote]
Exactly - I said this earlier in the thread, having extensive experience across two totally unrelated fields, one STEM and one not quite.
Compared to other ‘lower ranked’ universities Oxbridge taught MA’s are expensive with nothing in terms of content to show for the extra money. Teaching is often worse than in other institutions. A lot of people who take these degrees are either career changers hoping that the ‘name brand’ will help them get a nice, fat salary or people who think ‘Oxbridge = best’ without doing any further research. Either way they won’t be very well regarded because our best people prove their worth through hours spent in practical experience/research.

If OP is in a similar field it explains why her colleagues had such impressions.

@TheDevils

That she has plenty of money because you can only get the MA funding once. Unless an employer pays for it or they have a scholarship .....

I have a number of PG qualifications and I haven't paid for any of them and I'm certainly not from a privileged background.

Employers rarely go for money spinners though (unless you’re in management consulting or similar). In fact they’re more likely to work with lower ranked unis. Also bear in mind professional qualifications like the ICAEW are in fact NVQ Level 7. So is the CFA. There are a lot of options depending on the field that can be more useful than a degree. And an expensive one at that. Having spent a lot of time at top unis - academic integrity is a thing of the past. Now it’s all about money and how much can a brand name generate.

Also to add all of this is very field dependent!
There are also the programs with ‘similar’ names, one of them is the money spinner…

Employers rarely go for money spinners though (unless you’re in management consulting or similar). In fact they’re more likely to work with lower ranked unis.

It's often these 'lower ranked unis' that have pockets of excellence and are fantastic for professional qualifications

Also bear in mind professional qualifications like the ICAEW are in fact NVQ Level 7. So is the CFA.

I'm a qualified careers adviser so I'm very familiar with all of these.

There are a lot of options depending on the field that can be more useful than a degree. And an expensive one at that.
Having spent a lot of time at top unis - academic integrity is a thing of the past. Now it’s all about money and how much can a brand name generate.

As a university academic who runs MA level programmes I'll try not to be too offended by this.

Academic integrity is taken very seriously at my university

Well, if they said they had studied for an MA at Cambridge (rather than an MPhil or MSc), I'd think they're a liar, as Cambridge don't do that.

Otherwise, I'd think they love studying and hard work.

Lying if they say they studied for the MA above and beyond the BA, but I think some people consider BA to have been converted into an MA and they did study for the BA so would consider themselves to have studied for the MA in that sense.
That said, I actually ended up with an extra BA I didn’t study for though:
Step 1, take BA as normal at Ox or Cam (all undergrad degrees are BA, even science)
Step 2, change to the other university and incorporate rather than matriculate, receive second BA from that university.
Step 3, take masters as normal at the second university.
Step 4, a couple of years pass and receive MA from the original university.

I'd wonder why they did 2 masters instead of going on to do a PhD to be honest.

I'd assume they were rich and able to take 2 years out of their career too.

I don’t put my spare BA on my CV though and I put my original degree as BA rather than MA to avoid people judging confusion

@TheDevils

Employers rarely go for money spinners though (unless you’re in management consulting or similar). In fact they’re more likely to work with lower ranked unis.

It's often these 'lower ranked unis' that have pockets of excellence and are fantastic for professional qualifications

Also bear in mind professional qualifications like the ICAEW are in fact NVQ Level 7. So is the CFA.

I'm a qualified careers adviser so I'm very familiar with all of these.

There are a lot of options depending on the field that can be more useful than a degree. And an expensive one at that.
Having spent a lot of time at top unis - academic integrity is a thing of the past. Now it’s all about money and how much can a brand name generate.

As a university academic who runs MA level programmes I'll try not to be too offended by this.

Academic integrity is taken very seriously at my university

For an academic you seem to have great difficulty in grasping the main point of my post. Which is that there are postgraduate degrees from ‘brand name’ universities that are not good value for money. Why? Because they are expensive but do not offer better teaching/support or content. People with no background knowledge like HR managers might be impressed but people in the field know the truth. Example of such degrees include the LSE’s MSc Data Science and the UPenn MCIT. You can also look up complaints about York University’s online MSc Computer Science which resulted in formal action being taken by the students. For online degrees in the subject York is the best ranked along with Bath (but Bath’s content is so different so as not to be a direct competitor).

The point , again is that undergraduate degrees from ‘brand-names’ may mean something. Postgraduate brand name degrees do not, on their own, mean anything more compared to a postgraduate from a lower ranked uni.

And to add - may even count against the applicant if it’s known as a cash cow degree and there’s no further evidence of additional work done by the candidate to prove their ability.

They have prolonged entering the real world and getting a job for as long as possible. Also from a wealthy background. It would put me off hiring them

Castawayqueen I'm not sure if you mean to sound so patronising?

If you read any of my posts you'll see that I'd moved on to talking about postgraduate study in general.
I take great exception to people assuming that someone with multiple PG qualifications is avoiding work, is indecisive or extremely privileged.

I would wonder why they didn't get a job or do a PhD after the first masters to be honest.

I would mostly want to know why someone has two Masters degrees / how the degrees fit with their broader career trajectory. I would have some doubts about someone who has gone straight from A-levels to UG to Master 1 to Master 2. In contrast, I'd have no qualms hiring someone who has done an UG, then a Masters degree, then worked for a few years before doing a 2nd Masters degree to facilitate a career change.