Application Process Part II

Continuing from my previous post....

Here is the list of other documents required by the universities:

4. Recommendation Letters: Almost all universities require you to send them atleast one recommendation letter but it is preferable to send them two recommendation letters. Here are some tips on recommendation letters.

- If you are still in college, get two recommendation letters from your professors. Try your best to get it from a professor who has a PhD and not from a junior lecturer or an assistant professor. It is always recommended to have the letter neatly formatted (full justified, proper margins on all sides, Arial or Times New Roman 10pt. font), spell checked and printed under the college letter head or under the letter head of the concerned professor and don't forget to get the signature and seal of the professor in the letter. Once the letter is complete, put it an envelope carrying the name of your college. If that's not available put it in a white envelope, seal it using good quality glue and take a seal and signature of your professor across the flap of the envelope. Please avoid using brown, orange or any other coloured envelopes for recommendation letters.

Remind your professor to include following details without fail: 

- His/Her contact number (preferably mobile number)

- Email ID (preferably the ID supplied by the college and not the personal ID which uses Gmail, yahoo etc.,)

- Full address of the college

If you are employed, you need to provide one recommendation letter from your immediate supervisor and one from a professor who taught you during the bachelor course.

When taking a recommendation letter from the company, it is always better to take one from the highest possible authority under whom you are employed, like tower head, head of your business unit, director or atleast from your project manager. Avoid recommendation letters from people who are in the same hierarchy as you are!

As for the letter and it's format; make sure it is in the company letter head which carries the following details:

- Company logo (ask your HR to spare one letter head for you and don't try to show your skills in MS Paint by trying to make a letter head of your own!)

- Company website

- Telephone/Fax numbers

- Full address of the registered office

Ask your recommender to include following details without fail:

- His/Her full name

- Designation

- Official e-mail ID (personal mail Id's from Gmail, Yahoo etc., should be avoided)

- Contact number (mobile number as well as the office phone with proper extension number)

Enclose the recommendation letter in the company envelope and get the signature of your recommender across the flap of the envelope. As far as I know, none of the employees in private sector companies carry a seal. So, seal is not required. You can inform this to this to the admission office of the German university if they are very particular on having a seal!

I was informed by a few students in Germany that if a recommendation letter can be obtained from a foreign client for whom you worked, it will improve your chances exponentially! But many companies (especially US based MNC's) have rules in place which prevents you from asking personal favors from a client. So, before shooting a mail to your client, talk to your manager or HR and make sure you are not breaking any rules by doing so!

Important: Some universities have their own specific format for recommendation letters. You need to download the form, get it filled by the recommenders and send it to the university in a sealed envelope or from the official mail ID of the recommenders. Make sure you visit the university website or contact the course coordinator to know exactly how the recommendation letters need to be sent.

5. Experience Certificate: Contact your HR to get the experience certificate. Each company has it's own format for issuing this certificate and universities do not insist on any specific format. But make sure that the certificate is in the company letter head and carries the signature of HR Manager. Experience certificate can be sent as it is and not in a sealed envelope.

6. German language certificates issued by Goethe Institute or any other recognized authority.

7. Bachelor Degree Certificate: Take a good quality photocopy of the degree certificate on an A4 bond paper and get the seal and signature from your college principal or a public notary. Get multiple copies of degree certificate authorized as you will be sending it to many universities. For information on notarization see my previous blog entry on university transcripts.

8. Certificates issued on completion of internship or academic project: Take a good quality photocopy of the certificate on an A4 bond paper and get the seal and signature from a public notary. Get multiple copies of this certificate authorized as you will be sending it to many universities. For information on notarization see my previous blog entry on university transcripts.

9. GRE and TOEFL score report: Take a good quality photocopy of the these reports on a A4 bond paper and get a seal and signature from a public notary. Get multiple copies of these reports authorized as you will be sending it to many universities. For information on notarization

see my previous blog entry on university transcripts.

Note: Most of the universities ask for a notarized copy of the GRE and TOEFL score report and it is not required to report the scores through ETS. But a few universities require the scores to be sent officially through ETS. So before reporting the score through ETS make sure the university is asking for it specifically. This will save you a lot of money.

10. Miscellaneous Certificates: If you have received any professional certifications like PMP, Six Sigma, Microsoft Certifications, CISCO Certifications, PTC Certification for Pro/E, ANSYS Certifications or certificates issued by an organization of international repute, you can send them to the university. It will definetly add value to your application. Certifications issued by institutes like NIIT, Aptech, IIHT etc., may not be of much use!

NOTE: While sending authorized photocopies of a document, make sure you send the original authorized copy to each university and not the photocopy of the authorized document. e.g. If your are sending a notarized copy of your bachelor degree certificate, make sure it is the original notarized copy and not a photocopy of it! This is also true for recommendation letters.

To be continued in my next post......

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Application Process Part I

Now to begin with the actual process which involves preparing all the necessary documents to be sent to the university for processing.

In one of my previous post I have mentioned that many universities require the students to fill up an online application. This application, sometimes, will be used to shortlist the candidates! If the university finds your profile suitable you may receive an e-mail from the course coordinator asking you to send the paper documents. Yes, rejections can happen at this stage!

Now coming to the documents that one needs to keep ready;

1. SOP (also know as Letter of Intent, LOI for short)

This is the most important part of an application. Spend considerable time on preparing, refining, proof reading this document. Think of what will go through an admission committee members mind if he/she finds silly spelling or grammatical mistakes in your SOP!! It's a clear indication of lack of professionalism on your part.

Keep it short - within a page or two. Don't write an eulogy praising the university, they know its good. Don't reproduce your CV because you need to send it separately :-)

Focus on why you are interested in that particular specialization, how your BE course has prepared you for this particular specialization (give details about your electives, projects, seminars etc.,), your long term research interests, possible research topics for your MS thesis and  what are your plans after completing the master's course.

Word of caution: Do not copy ready made SOP's available in the internet. Use it as a template but blatant copy-paste job makes it easier for the reviewers spot it and that can ruin your chances!

Here is a very good guide for writing SOP published by UC Berkeley.

2. CV

Detailed CV (one or two pages) containing your personal information, educational information (bachelor's and 12th grade is sufficient), work experience (including any internships), paper presentation in national or international seminars, publications in reputed journals and your hobbies/extracurricular activities. In the extracurricular activities section mention only about the recognition or prizes won at the state, national or international events. Do not include stuff like won inter-school dancing competition while in 5th grade or adjudged as the best singer of our apartment block!!!

Here is an amazing guide to prepare a CV published by Stanford University.

3. University Transcript

Though not all university ask for an original transcript; it's not a bad idea to send them an original transcript unless they are very specific about not wanting to receive an original transcript!

Ideally the transcript received from your university should be inside an envelope, which is sealed and carrying a seal and signature of the registrar across the flap of the envelope. A word of advice, take atleast 5-7 transcripts in one go. This saves you a lot of time at a later point as you don't have to go back to the university and spend time on getting the transcripts ready! If the university transcript is not in English, it needs to be translated to German by an authorized translator under his seal and sign. Goethe Institute offers translation services.

For VTU students of Karnataka, going to Belgaum is the quickest possible way to get the transcripts. You will get it in just one day! but if you apply through your college it may take upto 3 weeks for delivery! First copy of the transcript will cost Rs.250 and every subsequent copy will cost Rs.150. You need to take a DD in favour of Registrar, VTU, Belgaum for the right amount from a bank as cash is not accepted. VTU will give the transcripts in proper format. Transcript issued by VTU will be in English and the back side of it will contain an explanation of how classes are awarded and the hours of teaching for theory and practical classes.

If a German university asks for a notarized copy of the transcript, here is what you do: Take a good quality photocopy (xerox) on an A4 sheet (preferably a bond paper). Go the nearest district court and look for Notaries. They are lawyers who are authorized by the government to act as an authority for authenticating a document They have a seal bearing their registration number and Government of India insignia (National emblem, Pillar of Ashoka). Pay them the prescribed fee and get their seal and signature (in green ink) on the blank part of the paper so that it does not mask any important information.

If any university (TU Dresden has this absurd rule of not accepting rubber stamps) objects to the rubber seal of a notary and insists on an embossed seal, reply to them saying that the judicial system in India does not allow for the use of embossed seal on unimportant papers like photocopy of a marks card!

My enquiry with notaries of a district court revealed that the use of embossed seals are restricted to certain higher officers and notaries do not carry such seal.

To be continued in my next post....

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Pre-Application Part III

.....Continuing from my previous post

1. There is a service called Uni-Assist which helps international students and the universities with the application procedures. Students can submit a copy of their application to Uni-Assist and the same will be verified and forwarded to your universities of choice by Uni-Assist. I personally feel that this service is waste of money! They charge Euro 55 for the first application and every subsequent application is charged at Euro 15. Apart from the high processing fee, many reputed universities like TU Munich, Erlangen-Nuremberg, TU Darmstadt and TUHH do not endorse this service! Moreover Uni-Assist also says that even if a university is covered by their service several of the courses in the university may not accept applications sent through them! So, students are advised to send their applications directly to the university.

More info on Uni-Assist can be found here.

I think I have covered almost all the information needed to start the actual application process. Now to begin with the application process...

P.S. If I come across any other useful information, it will be updated here.

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Pre-Application Part II

Few important things to keep in mind:

1. Not all universities offer english-taught courses. So, blindly applying to a dozen universities is not going to help!

2. If you are specific about attending only the english-taught courses, a comprehensive list of such courses can be found in the DAAD website. For many universities, information provided in the DAAD website is outdated! So, don't forget to check the university website to get accurate information.

UPDATE: A comprehensive list of English taught courses in universities spread across EU can be found here.

3. If you plan to apply for a german-taught course, be aware of the fact that many of the universities ask for german language proficiency certificates along with your application. So, you should have completed the certifications beforehand. Certifications issued by Goethe Institute are accepted by all the german universities.

4. Even if university website says that a course is conducted entirely in english, contact the representative of that particular department to get a confirmation on this. Because, electives which are taught by other department (e.g. you may be studying in the mechanical engineering department and opt for an elective taught by civil engineering or mathematics department) may be available only in german. Go through the entire electives list to make sure you are comfortable with the available options!

5. For most of the universities, application window opens in November and can last upto July for winter courses. For exact dates please refer the university website.

6. Some courses like COMMAS in University of Stuttgart, Computational Engineering in TU Braunschweig and all the ERASMUS programs like EuMAS, CINME (if you want to be considered for ERASMUS sponsorship) has very early application deadline which usually ends by Feb-15.

Continuing from the previous post, there are few other pre-requisites which the candidates need to fulfill before they can start the actual application process.

1. For all english-taught courses, either TOEFL or IELTS score is mandatory. Candidates are expected to have scored atleast 90 in TOEFL iBT. Higher the score, better the chances during admission process. Important point to note here is; some universities have restrictions on how old TOEFL score can be (some universities explicitly say that scores cannot be more than 1 year old). Please consult the university website or the program coordinator for exact details. Universities ask for the score report to be sent through ETS. So, its a good idea to make a note of 4 universities of your choice to report the scores when you register for TOEFL iBT. Reporting scores at a later date can cost you $17 (~Rs. 1000 as on March-2009) per report!! And to make matters worse, smart people at your credit card company will bill you at the maximum possible exchange rate on that day!!

2. Some universities require candidates to provide valid GRE score. Make a note of four universities that you are interested to attend so that you can report scores directly to those universities as soon as you are done with GRE CBT. Scores reported from the test center are free and any additional score report at a later date will cost you $20 per report. Important point to note here is; before reporting score to the universities, visit the university website and make sure they are asking for the score to be sent through ETS. Because, some of the universities ask for notarized copy of the official score report sent along with the application and not the report sent by ETS!! This saves a lot of money :D

P.S. GRE score of 1200+ can surely put you on top of the lot but I know a few who have received admits with scores hovering around 1000. Moral of the story; don't loose heart ;)

3. In the university website, look at the course fee and make sure you can afford it. As far as I know, only two universities, RWTH Aachen (for private english-taught courses) and TU Berlin for GPE Manufacturing and GPE Solar, charge in excess of Euro 13,000 as tution fee. You should be aware of the fact that universities do not offer any scholarship or funding. Candidates have to pay the fees through educational loans or apply for third party scholarships and pray ;)

4. Speaking of scholarships, universities do not offer any scholarships as they charge a nominal amount (~Euro 500 per semester) as tution fee and the burden of educating you lies on the shoulders of german tax payers :D....Socialism at it's best....So, do not flood the course coordinators inbox with mails asking for scholarships or funding!

5. Continuing with the scholarships, after spending many hours looking for the right scholarships, I have decided that it's easier to apply for an educational loan in a public sector bank and repay it later :D Almost all the scholarships require you to be admitted to a university before applying.

6. If you need any clarification regarding the admission procedure or if you want additional information about the course which is not published in the department website, do not hesitate to contact the course administrator or the international admission office. Prompt reply is guaranteed within one or two working days.

7. If you want to shortlist a university based on it's ranking and popularity, you can find it here. Ranking here does not mean the usual No.1, No.2 etc. Instead they tell you whether the university belongs to the top group, middle group or the lower group. This system of ranking is very confusing to me. Look at RWTH Aachen. According to the ranking system, it's in the top group for research but they say university is ranked low when it comes to equipments! Top quality research without equipments eh..!! or may be they are doing only theoritical research :)

P.S. Don't get carried away by the US system of university ranking (No.1, No.2 etc.,) published by some websites/organizations. General consensus is, any particular TU or FH is as good as all the other TU's and FH's when it comes to teaching and labs. Only things to worry about are internship opportunities, industry tie-ups, proximity of reputed industries to the university and cost of living.

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Pre-Application Part I

In this post I am going to discuss about the pre-application process. There are a few things which the candidates need to be aware of before starting the actual application process.

DO NOT go to consultants for getting your applications processed! They fleece you of your or your parent's hard earned money. Application procedure for German universities is very straight forward and simple. Also, none of the public universities accept applications forwarded by the consultants. If you want to apply, DO IT YOURSELF!!

Following is the ideal preparation schedule to be followed if one wants to avoid missing the deadlines:

1. Ideally one should start preparing about an year in advance. If you are trying for 2010 winter admits, you can ideally start your preparation during the months of august or September 2009.

2. August to September: visit DAAD website and university websites to see what courses are offered and to check out whether the courses of your choice are available. This also includes reading my blog :) Collect as much information as possible. Contact friends and seniors who are in Germany to get first hand information about the universities and courses.

P.S. There are some very good communities in Orkut like "Indian Students In Germany". Visit this community as it is very active and any questions you have get answered by students in Germany. Follow all the forum postings and threads. Apart from this almost all the universities have an Orkut community of their own which is run either by a student or an alumni. Follow the threads to find answers to most of your questions! Don't forget to check out other places like Yahoo groups, Google groups and Facebook for similar communities/groups.

3. September to October: After you are done with shortlisting the universities and courses, see what qualifications are expected from a prospective candidate. This includes GRE, TOEFL and German language qualifications. Ideally, you should have your GRE and TOEFL scores by the end of october. This way you can ensure that you have sufficient time to give GRE and TOEFL another shot if you've screwed up the first attempt! Also keep in mind the fact that GRE and TOEFL scores reported through ETS take about 3-4 weeks to reach the university.....so much for $170 you paid to ETS :-p

P.S. TU Munich requires Indian applicants to provide valid GATE score while applying to the international courses. So, you may want to give GATE a shot if you are interested in TU Munich. There has been a lot of discussion in various forums and communities as to whether applications without GATE score is accepted. My e-mail to the international course coordinator regarding this issue got a reply saying that such applications will be "strictly rejected". So think twice before applying to TU Munich if you don't have GATE score!

4. October to November: If the courses of your choice require you to show German proficiency you can register for German courses at your nearest Goethe Institute. Register for the course as early as possible since the intake is limited and the seats get filled up pretty fast! Plan the course in such a way that you have atleast A1 certificate by the end of November.

Meanwhile, if you don't have a passport, it's not a bad idea to apply for one!! Make sure you have ECNR stamp on your passport. If you don't have the ECNR stamp, check with the passport office as to how you can get that done. Nowadays, a pass in 12th grade is sufficient to get ECNR stamp. Earlier, a valid bachelor degree was required to get the ECNR stamp!

Update: According to information in the passport website, passports issued 2007 onwards do not carry the ECNR stamp. No stamp in the first page of the passport implies that you have ECNR status. However, this rule does not apply for passports issued before 2007. For more information check the passport website.

5. December to May: Application window for most of the universities open in the month of November. Contact the course coordinator to know the exact application procedure and the list of documents that needs to be sent. Many universities requires you to register online in their application portal. You will be asked to provide following details:

- Personal information (Name, Age, Residential address, Phone number, Nationality and Marital status)

- Educational Qualifications (Bachelor, 10th and 12th grades. Some universities also ask you to provide the score card of entrance exams like JEE, AIEEE or CET(conducted by individual states) etc., So, keep the score report handy!)

- Work Experience (do not forget to include internship done as a part of the bachelor degree)

- Research Experience

- Papers presented in any national or international seminars or publications in reputed journals.

- Name and contact information of the people who will give you recommendation.

- Brief description of your motivation to carry out studies in that particular department.

6. January onwards: You can start sending the application pack to the universities and also start praying to your favourite god ;)

P.S. Even though the application windows are open till end of may, early application (before end of march) is recommended!!

Few words about the classification of German universities.

There are four different classifications in their order of merit:

- Techniche Universitaat (Technical University/TU)

Technical Universities are more recognized and oriented towards research. They offer doctoral degree (PhD) in engineering. Studying in a TU might be a good idea if you are inclined towards a career in research or academics.

- Techniche Hochschule (TH) - There is only one TH; RWTH Aachen

They are considered as equivalent to a TU.

- Universitaat (University)

They offer bachelor's, master's and PhD in arts, pure sciences, economics, law and medicine. They rarely offer engineering degrees.

- Fachhochschulen (University of Applied Sciences/FH)

The FH's are more oriented towards the practical use of theoretical knowledge. Most of their degree programmes are in the field of engineering, natural sciences and business administration. Degrees in the field of humanities, social sciences are seldom offered at the Fachhochschulen. They maintain close contacts with industry and offer extensive opportunities for internships/practical work carried out in the industry. FH's do not award the title of PhD. Important point to consider is, FH/H graduates usually are NOT admitted to PhD, but there can be a few exceptions.

- Hochschulen (H)

These are similar to FH.

For a comprehensive list of German universities, check out this wikipedia page.

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Welcome

Hello everybody. I am creating this blog to help all the students planning to do their Master's in Germany. I will be posting my personal experiences as well as all the information collected by me during my application process and hope it will simplify the process for others!

Viel Glück!