I think the personal connections angle is often under-appreciated by those who simply see the formal rules and bureaucracy.<p>For example, if you can get a job working at a university, that can make it a lot easier to get into a postgraduate course than if you're some stranger walking in off the street; and it can end up cheaper, or even funded through part-time work, etc. This is the de facto angle my girlfriend used to get into an economics PhD program at LSE, starting in a relatively low-level research position when getting out of the boring banking sector before the proverbial hit the fan.