What Students Say
Likes
- The CMS program is one of the most interdisciplinary programs out there. I come from a background of Physics and wanted to transition towards Computers and this was ideal for me. TUD is one of the 11 universities of excellence in Germany and highly ranked.
- Infrastructure. Dresden is a small city and TUD has relatively very good infrastructure. The research in the field of Bioinformatics is incredible there. Thus, anyone who wants to combine CS and Biology would love to study here. The faculty of Informatics is also quite advanced in the study of XR related fields such as VR and AR. The university offers free German courses to all students which is incredible as most universities in Germany do not offer such free courses.
Dislikes
- TU Dresden has some extremely restrictive rules and bureaucracy which results in many things becoming way harder than they need to be. For example there is a course called Philosophy of Good Scientific practices. The rules of the course require you to attend each and every class until your group is called for presentation. This means a student cannot do an internship or semester abroad or plan any trip outside Dresden as long as this course is going on. Although the university has many international students, still most events are in German which restricts the international community from taking part in them.
Required Exams for Admission
My experience at TU Dresden has been mixed. Though there are some beautiful things about Dresden and TUD, it does lack in certain areas and there is improvement to be done. Nevertheless, as one lives in Germany, it not that much of a rat race and everyone does their Master's at their own pace. Which is better in many ways.
Course Curriculum
The course curriculum is okay. It is moderately updated but could do better. I believe it is extremely theoretical and better for students who wish to pursue a PhD after their Master's. Otherwise it might not be as helpful as what you learn doing internships.
Faculty
The faculty is okay. Some are good. Mostly they are good researchers and not good professors. Some struggle with good English pronunciation which makes understanding them hard.
Campus Life
Campus life in Germany is very different from India. There is no one campus in which the university is there. Campus is just a bunch of university building not too far from each other. Extra curricular activities are mostly in German which makes inclusion hard unless you speak fluent German. Wifi is excellent. Libraries are quite good but you mostly see German books rather than English.
Placement
There is no placement process in Germany. One prepares on their own. The university helps with CV and Cover letter writing. Most companies do not ask heavy interview questions like India and it is based more on what is your skillset. Median salary in Dresden for a Software Developer/ Data Scientist will be 45000 euros.
Accommodation
The student dorms are offered by the organization called Studentenwerk Dresden. They are quite good. A room in a shared apartment costs around 250-300 euros. Cleaning needs to be done on your own.
Exams
I took the TOEFL exam with a score of 111. The admission requirement depends on the course. But most courses in our university are no NC which means that you just need to be eligible to apply. If you are eligible you get in without any competition from others. For my program, one needs to have done a Bachelor's in a technical field such STEM. The minimum grade requirement was I think 2.2 in German grading system. For CV, one can follow the Europass format but it is not necessary. SOP should be authentic but it is not required in many German universities as there is no NC.
Fees
There is no tuition fee. Only administrative 300 euros per semester.
