What Students Say
Likes
- Independence of course structure: For biology, there was no compulsory course, I took whatever I wanted
- Research internships and practical courses: These can be upto 10 credits which made my life easier by taking up lesser theoretical courses (and subsequent exams) and also gave me practical experience
- No compulsory attendance: Except for seminar courses (presentation courses) and practical courses, there is no compulsory attendance. As foreign students, this makes our lives easier by making our own schedule to balance with student jobs.
Dislikes
- Extracurricular activity: For some reason all the emphasis and enthusiasm shown towards extracurricular activities in Indian colleges goes to zero in German universities. I think there is choir group and some other drama or musical groups in TUM. This is mainly due to the culture here. European students were already working student jobs since they were 16 years old and they are taking paid sports classes or dance classes or pursue other hobbies on professional level. That is no one would even play badminton just like that, people pay 15 euros for 1 hour to play badminton in the court. All this money involved makes it hard for us as students to pursue our hobbies, especially on top of rent and insurance and our own expenses on other stuff.
- Student jobs: It can be pretty tough to land student jobs especially in pharmaceutical companies and so due to German language barrier or simply due to ease and preference of the companies working with European passports. However, it is easy to work in McDonalds, Dominos, as delivery partners in food companies, etc.
- Internships: Considering how pharma and biotech companies ask for industry experience, I think TUM Biology program can make an industry internship compulsory. Compulsory because it will make it easy to get an internship in industry. If after MSc degree, you want to go into industry, I highly recommend to do atleast one industry internship for 6 months.
Course Curriculum
10
- It was easy for me and I think people do not find it difficult because you take courses of your choice.
- Positive aspect: The General biology program makes a lot of choices available. I did courses related to biochemistry, virology, fungal biology, and bacterial biology, and there is so much more. Biology offers 7 specialisations, including ecology and plant biology, out of which you can take 3-4.
- Negative aspect: There were some courses that I wanted to take but were only available in German. And seminars and practical courses can be hard to get into due to the limited number of participants.
- Generally there are not more than one or two classes in a day if you are doing 30 theoretical credits. Classes can start as early as 8am. And I think the latest class that I did lasted till 6pm. However, a German language course can start at 8pm and last up to 10pm. Also, when you do research internships, usually you give whole days for 6 weeks.
- In Biology program in our batch there were maybe around 50 or 60 students and 25-30 were Indians.
Admission Experience
- Goettingen: Waitlisted after interview, Newcastle university: Accepted, LMU: rejected, Bonn: Rejected, TUM: Accepted, Wuerzberg: Rejected
- LMU and Bonn had cell biology programs; Indian Btech degrees do not provide that basic knowledge and the course structure does not match. Wuerzberg again had a very specific degree program of infection biology and again the course structure and experience of Btech degrees do not match. BSc degrees and experience can be favoured as compared to college rankings in Germany (this is opposite to UK universities, where they already have defined Tier 1, 2 and 3 colleges).
- General program and English language and, of course, the ranking of the university.
- I had to send the application via post (I used DHL) to the university with a CV, cover letter, degree, transcript, TOEFL result, and 10th and 12th report cards (before 30th March 2022). I also had to upload some things on the application portal of TUM and then I directly got an acceptance mail (on July 4th 2022) and on the portal I could see that my application scored 75 marks out of 100 and they directly accept you if you get 75 or above and invite you to an interview if you get 65-75 and directly reject you if you get less than 65. These numbers could have been changed now.
- They just need English proficiency of B1 level from standard exams like TOEFL, IELTS, etc.
- 2022, mid-March to early July. The factors that influenced my decision were the ranking of the university, the general degree program, the English program, and the location, and there was no cap on the GPA requirements since I had a low GPA from my bachelor's.
- After applying in March, I only got a confirmation mail and I could see the status of my application in the TUM application portal, which was "in progress," and then I finally received the acceptance mail directly in July. There were no other updates on the application status in between this time period.
Faculty
10
- I do not know about the faculty-to-student ratio.
- I understood 90-100% of what the professor was trying to convey in all of my classes except for some challenging courses like enzyme engineering, proteomics, etc. Professors mostly use only presentations and share the presentations and other reading material on moodle.
- To my knowledge, I do not think faculty members assist students in finding jobs.
- Prof. Martina Anton from the Experimental Oncology Department. She gives really constructive feedback about presentations and lab work. I especially liked that she gave me her phone number and told me that I can directly contact her via whatsapp or call if I want to ask anything. She also made me quite disciplined by making deadlines for every little thing and taught me organisational skills by correctly recording experiments in lab notebooks and lab etiquette.
Campus Life
10
- TUM is located in Garching, Weihenstephan, Munich, Straubing, and Heilbronn.
- There are well-equipped libraries, a gym, a few cafes, one canteen, and lots of places to relax. I don't think they have medical services.
- There are some activities like dorm parties in different dorms on Friday or Saturday nights, open-air theatre, beer festivals, etc. There are also a lot of professional events going on, including seminars, conferences, etc. I do not know about other major festivals.
Part Time Jobs
- You can work as a working student or student assistant. Advertisements are displayed in university job boards online or you can find something on LinkedIn. Usually you get paid 15-20 euros hourly. Maximum hours can be 20 per week. If you are English speaking, it is difficult. Some of my friends were always working some sort of working student position and some of us never secured any such job.
- 15-20 euros. There is no attendance policy, so you can adjust your schedule to however you want. Search for jobs in university job boards or linkedin, indeed or glassdoor. They only take one interview and prepare a contract and you can start working. Some of them can have a binding contract for a minimum of 6 months or 12 months.
Placement
6
- I do not know about the jobs (but around 3500-4500 euros in jobs). PhDs are mostly 65% salary (2000 euros).
- No campus placements. International students mostly apply from job boards.
- I do not know. This is a university, and not everybody finishes at the same time. In my friend circle I have finished; however, my other 3 friends are still doing their thesis. So, I don't know. However, I really wish that they would have some sort of placements or at least counselling. We are basically on our own as soon as we graduate.
Accommodation
Off Campus
8
- For the first time going from India, since I did not know anyone, and due to the rising scams related to housing, I chose to rent a room from a trusted website called Habyt. The room was expensive; however, there was no chance of any scam.
- Habyt room was 950 euros per month (4 months) in Munich, then I shifted to Freising, where I rented a room for 600 euros per month (for a year) and then I had to shift to another room in Freising area, where I currently live (430 euros per month for ~1 year)
Exams
- TOEFL, IELTS (English B1 level). Some universities in Germany also accept if you had an education in English.
- Motivation letter is very important; since I had a low GPA, my motivation letter, experience and bachelor's college reputation covered it. As far as I researched that time about different programs related to biotechnology, I never saw a requirement of LORs. Sometimes some of them asked for things like "a list of different practical experiments, a summary of a bachelor thesis," etc. Some of them can ask very specific questions that you have to answer in your cover letter and they can also put a cap on the maximum number of words in your cover letter. TUM asked for a detailed CV where you cannot leave any gap year; even if you did nothing for a month, you can mention it, like I mentioned in the COVID year that I learnt driving, did yoga and lost weight from 80 kgs to 60 kgs.
- So, make sure to highlight your creativity and hobbies in your detailed "CV. However, other colleges asked for a normal CV where I just mentioned my professional experience. Another piece of advice that I want to give for cover letters is that often people say that you cannot write that you want to stay in Germany after your master's; however, that is not true. Please write whatever you feel; make sure to make it very personal while at the same time keeping the tone and language professional and connecting all the dots. I remember a student got in after mentioning the embryonic disease that happened to her own mother, which motivated her to pursue the master's. And of course they ask for your bachelor's transcript, 10th and 12th marksheets, and other standard documents.
- I did not have any interview.
Fees
- For our batch it was only 85 euros per semester; now it is 3000 euros or something per semester.
- ~1000 euros is enough if you have rent of <=500 euros. health insurance is 145 euros per month, deutschland ticket for students is ~40 euros, and this covers all the public transport, buses, trams and trains. Groceries can be 100 euros, but it can be more if you want to eat more indian food (as indian groceries are expensive) or if you have a very specific diet, for example, too many fruits or too many vegetables. I eat more milk, eggs, bread, tortillas, frozen fish, chicken, etc., so on bad months (more expense here and there) I still can get by on 100 euros or less of groceries. And then going out with friends can cost 15 euros or more, so I always keep some aside for that, but I was never able to save anything in these 1000-1200 euros. And then you might have to buy toiletries or kitchen stuff, which is an irregular expense, but for example, surf costs ~15 euros or so, so it can destroy your budget for that month.
