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...

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...

If you're planning to study or already studying in Germany then you need to know the different student positions that are available in Germany. Please note that these are not the usual part-time jobs that you do on the weekends for some extra cash, these are the positions were you be a part of some larger project and help the Professors or your superiors with their research or project. If you're one of those students, who do not have any work experience or the one who has changed his/her domain and needs to gain some hands-on experience then, these kind of student jobs will be a treasure for you. HiWi HiWi - HilfskraftWissenschaftler is a student position mostly at the University under your department. You will be given a small project from your Professor/Supervisor and you need to complete it within the given time. You will be paid for the work you do and most of the time, it would be around 30 hours per month at the rate of 10-13 euros per hour. To get a HiWi p...

Germany VS Singapore Deciding a path to choose, when you have lot of options in hand is very difficult. When you are applying for Masters studies, there would be a lot of confusion in terms of which country to apply for and there was a question in Quora regarding Germany VS Singapore. Trust me, even I was in the same dilemma when I wanted to pursue my Masters course. Let me throw some light on the analysis that I had done, based on my experience in Germany(Masters studies) and my observations from my friends who are studying in Singapore. Climate:   Are you a person who likes Winters to be cold(around 0 degree Celsius)? Are you a person who likes to just have 2 months of Summer? If you’re from a tropical country, then there is high possibility that you will not like Germany’s climate, but on the other hand Singapore has similar tropical conditions, which makes it easier to adapt.  Winner:  Singapore Course duration:  Most of the courses...

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 ...

In our previous article we had seen about the reasons for studying Bachelors in Germany. Now, we will see a short road map on your journey from your country to Germany.  In month of February/March, most of the high school students will be concentrating on their final exams to score good marks. But at the same time, most of the parents will be thinking of the next steps for their son/daughter in his/her career. It would be right time to start inquiring about the process to Study in Germany for Bachelors and also about the various procedures for the same.  Then one can start applying for “Studienkolleg” (Private or Public) also known as Foundation course/Freshman year and reach Germany as soon as they finish their high school (12th standard). The “Studienkolleg” is nothing but, a 2-3 semester preparatory program that every International student needs to take up, in order to study Bachelors in Germany. This is because, the German schooling system is for...

The #1 rule to get an ADMIT in German Universities Over the course of 3 years in GermanyUnofficial, we have seen a lot of candidates who have got an admit with even 65% of marks in his/her Bachelor" studies and also we have seen candidates who have above 90% of marks and get a rejection. On doing some basic research and analysis, we got to know the #1 rule to get an ADMIT in German univerisities.  Apply ASAP YES. The #1 rule to get an ADMIT is to apply as soon as the applications open. To apply ASAP, one needs to have all the documents, transcripts, etc., ready at least one week before the applications open. Before all this, one needs to have the list of universities and courses that he/she is going to apply. RELATED: List of Mechanical Engineering courses in Germany We have seen candidates, who are bit lethargic with their applications and think that the admission deadline is 3 months away and thus, he/she can apply with in that 3 months. This is a BIG NO, with resp...

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 ...

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...

Warm welcome from Unofficial: Studying in Germany team. Since last month, we are getting a lot of enquiries with respect to admissions or applications to German universities. From this post, we have planned to document those enquiries along with our answers which will help lot of other students also. All these are for FREE and we do not cost you for answering the questions. Depending on the number of enquiries, these kind of posts will be posted once or twice a week. To get the latest posts, we request you to "SUBSCRIBE" to our portal  using the subscribe button on the top of this page. Also do not forget to LIKE our facebook page - Unofficial: Studying in Germany Here goes the Q&A that we have got till now:  Q: How much application fees per university? A: It depends on the University. Some universities have their own portal and ask the applicants to submit the application directly. Some universities ask the applicants to use "Uni-Assist" portal for...