My experience of doing MBA from Hochschule Pforzhei.

Reutlingen University

Reason for choosing my college

• The reputation and the location of the college made me choose my college. There are many big companies like BMW, whose HQ is in Stuttgart, which is very close to Pforzheim. Also, it's in the heart of Black Forest, which makes it a very picturesque place as well.

• Just upload all the documents asked for. You can add some more certificates and educational documents, but it doesn't make much difference, I guess. Apply with only documents that are explicitly asked for.

• I particularly had no choice of colleges in Germany. I randomly applied to two colleges, seeing the low education cost for MBAs and also looking at the manpower shortage in Germany. I would say the choice was good as I could find some student jobs and it was very much manageable financially to complete my master's from Germany.

• As already mentioned, I had several great professors, but as not everyone is alike, so we're the professors. Some professors were very practical and understood what was more important from an MBA perspective, but some professors paid more attention to research-based topics, which weren't very relevant for us.
• Usually, we had 3-5 hours of classes daily, except Fridays as we had less classes that day. Out of 19, 11 we're Indian students. Assignments didn't take much time, so it was more like my bachelor's.

• I would say the faculty-to-student ratio was good and it was, may be, around 1:5. I especially liked finance-related topics and the professors. I even did my thesis with my finance professor. He was very friendly and always helpful and accommodated my needs.
• Usually, faculties do not support getting a part-time job, but yes, some professors did help my batchmates find a part-time or internship.

• Our college had only one campus but two different buildings, very close to each other- one for engineering and one for economics. We were in the economics side building. Library was nice. We had some clubs to join sports as well during the semester break. I was not in any such activity but used to play cricket on the basketball court with my batchmates.

• Most of the Indian students in our batch found internships and working student jobs in reputed big companies or some smaller family-owned companies.
• The pay varies from 14 to 18 Euros/hour and most of our batchmates found the job within 6 months; the remaining found the job later but by the end of the first year, all were working.

• Every year, 1-2 students do get TA roles within the department and the pay is usually 14–15 Euros/hour and the work week is usually 10–20 hours/week, depending on the need. Its not easy but not impossible, to find a student job in good companies.
• As students, we were allowed to work 20 hours/week during the semester and 40 hours/week during the break.

• In Germany, placement systems are not there and you have to search for yourself. Around 60% of students found a job in the first 6 months after completing the course.
• The salary varies from 50000 to 85000 euros per year, so I wouldn't say average, but that was the range. The usual salary is around 60000 euros/year.

• For accommodations, college helped us by providing the links to apply for dormitories before even reaching Germany.
• We applied from India and all of us found an accommodation in one of the dormitories that our college provided after we secured the admission. The process was smooth; the only issue was the timing of your arrival, as you need to pick up the keys but that can be managed by talking to other students via a WhatsApp group and someone can take it on your behalf if you are reaching at an odd time.