Germany Unofficial

My last article was about the Best case scenario of what could happen, when you land in Germany. If you had missed it then, here is a link ( Best case scenario ).Let me simulate the worst case scenario of what could happen and it is just a word of caution to prepare yourself for the worst. Disclaimer: Nothing of this sort will happen to you, but the below scenario is an excerpt from my observations and experiences Worst case scenario: Assumptions: Your semester intake: Winter | Your destination city in Germany : Dresden | Your landing airport: Frankfurt | You have got Rail&Fly offer along with your flight ticket | Your student buddy has agreed to pick you up from the railway station. You started to apply for the winter intake only in the month of March, hence most of the top courses are already way past their deadline. So you settle for some mediocre course and start with all the process of blocked account, VISA, etc., The D-day has come for you to leave to Germ...

Name: Seles Abraham VI Date: 4th January 2018 Consulate: Mumbai Visa approval mail received on: 29th January 2018 University: SRH Heidelberg Course: Master’s in Applied Computer Science (SAP Module) EXPERIENCE Initial Step is to book an appointment through VFS (by call or by mail). No online booking provision is available for Mumbai Consulate. I got the visa interview date for 4th of January 2018 at 9 AM. I reached the Mumbai German consulate at 8:00 AM (Nariman Point). At around 8:15 AM the security guard asked all the applicants to stand in a line and proceed one by one from the main gate for security check. Once you enter the main gate, they ask you to carry only your files and documents and ask you to switch off your mobile. Then they ask you to keep your bag in a locker and a token is given (to be precise locker token). The guard then gave me a checklist page and asked me to arrange DD and two DD form with a photograph separately. And the two s...

Everyone likes to hear positive things and are least concerned about the negative things that can/may happen, until and unless it happens. This will be a two part article, in which I am trying to prepare you for what might happen when you arrive in Germany for the first time. There are two possibilites when you arrive in Germany, either you can get a warm welcome or get really pissed off. Let me simulate the best case scenario in this article, of what may happen during your first few days in Germany. My next article will simulate the worst case scenario (link), that can happen to anyone. LIKE our facebook page for the updates: Unofficial Studying in Germany DISCLAIMER: The following scenario is just a excerpt from my experiences and it doesn't mean that, the same will happen to you. But I suggest the reader to take it up as a possibility. BEST-CASE SCENARIO: Assumptions: Your semester intake: Winter | Your destination city in Germany : Dresden | Your landing airport: Frankfurt ...

Over the past years, there have been many candidates whom we have helped with respect to studying in Germany. One common thing where most of the applicants go wrong is their application documents. This post is to emphasize on the importance of the application documents and especially why Statement of Purpose is the most important document in the application. Before we go into the article, could you please LIKE our Facebook page It is totally understandable that, since the application process for Germany is not similar to that of U.S or other countries, also it is relatively new to most of the candidates and therefore one can expect to make mistakes. But from German university point of view, it is not acceptable at any case. Amazing | Informative | FREE newsletter : SIGNUP   To start with, culturally German are "perfectionists" and they expect things to work as per the procedure/rules in their regular life. The candidate needs to understand this first. Mak...

Let's say you are applying to 5 or more German universities and all of those universities asks you to send in your degree certificates, scorecards, achievements, etc., But you have only one set of these certificates as ORIGINALS and you definitely cannot send the original to the universities, as they will not return those documents. So, what will you do in this situation? That is where "Notary" comes in place. Let's see what, why, and who can notarize the documents: What is Notary? Notarizing a document is a way of confirming that the information produced in the document (photocopy) is true and no changes have been made with respect to the "original" document. In simpler terms, it is nothing but attesting your photocopy by a Government official.  Why should you "notarize" your documents(photocopies)? You need to "notarize" the photocopies of all your documents, so that the University/course that you are applying for c...

In the recent times I get lot of requests from many people, who see my answers in Quora or my blog posts, etc., Most of them ask me to evaluate their profile and suggest them universities. If you are also looking out for any profile evaluation services or suggestions, then this blog is for you.  The main questions are: Can you please evaluate my profile and tell me if I can get an admit? Can you please suggest me some universities for "so and so" course? What are the job opportunities after completing the course? I have answered so many students with these same questions. From my experience, majority of them wanted the following answers: Yes! Your profile is good and you will get into TU universities You have to apply only to these "5" universities and you will get an admit for sure. You will definitely get job and your field is very good.  These are the respective answers that most of them expect, but on the contrary these are my honest a...

One of the biggest challenges in getting an admit to an international university in Germany is to choose the right course for your profile and also the one which matches your career aspirations. This is the first step in chasing your study abroad dream and it is always recommended to start searching for the right course at least one year prior. These steps are created by people who have already gone through the same process and reached their goals.  Types of universities: Germany has both public and private universities. Again there are "Universities" and "University of applied sciences". About 60% of the universities are funded and collect very minimal tution fees. The private universities might also be recognised but will ask for huge amount of money as semester fees. Visit www.daad.de website for see the list of courses available. This will be the first step in getting to know the study culture in Germany.  Types of courses: There are a...

In the recent years, Germany has become one of the most sought-out destinations for higher studies. With many International programmes being offered in Germany, there are many students who would like to pursue their studies. Unlike U.S or Canada, the application process in Germany is not the same. There are some difficulties that the aspirants/applicants face, when applying to German courses. This post is aimed at helping those aspirants with a step-by-step procedure on how to get an admit in German universities.  Here is a Infographic explaining the step-by-step procedure on how to get an ADMIT in German Universities: START WITH THE INTERNET: In this Information age, everything is available in the Internet; it just takes some time to look out for the correct information that you need. The first step in your study-abroad in Germany plan is to visit DAAD website and check out for the courses, scholarships and various other information about studying in Ger...

How to write a SOP for German Universities Writing an excellent SOP is an art. Statement of Purpose or Motivation letter is one of the most important documents in your application to the Universities. It can ''make" or "break" your application. This is the document where you explain the admission committee about your motivation towards the course and the reason why you want to study this particular course in this particular university.  Related: How to get an ADMIT in German Universities? Let us go through a scenario from the Admission committee's point of view. When you application documents arrive at their table, they will open your application with all the supporting documents and start going through your application. First and foremost, any normal person will verify whether your profile matches all the admission requirements listed in the course website. After that, they will check your grades, experiences, etc., So till now, they know ...

This post provided the list of post-graduate/masters course related to Civil engineering domain and if you have some extra courses that we have missed out, then please do mention them in the comment section, so that we can add them to the list. Please do note that, not all the courses will be suitable for every Civil engineer profile for MS in Germany. But, this list would serve for all the courses that are similar to Civil engineer studies. Some advice on what, how and when to do: Since there are no rankings in Germany, this list is compiled without any order/rankings. We do not believe in the format of applying for 7 universities - 2(Dream) + 2(Mediocre) + 3(Easy). We suggest everyone to apply to ALL the courses that they seem fit for their profile and aspirations. Many candidates think that, if one studies in TUs then he/she will get only into research field - which is completely false. There are many students, who studied in TUs and get into companies. Do...