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 For many universities, information provided in the DAAD website is outdated!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.

Don't forget to leave a comment :)