Aspiring Student in an abroad country

University of Stuttgart

8.0(29 Reviews)

Reason for choosing my college

• The fact that it is a public university with an extremely affordable semester fee. Also, it falls under the TU9 alliance, making it one of the top premier institutes in Europe. Excellent strength of international students, creating barrier-free interactions among the fellow students.

Otto von Guericke University

7.5(1 Reviews)

Reason for Rejection

• The reason behind my rejection was due to my GPA criteria that couldn't be fulfilled. Although the university rank is comparably lower as compared to the ones that I had applied to. In a way, I am not affected by the rejection.

• It would be best to explicitly mention your aim of targeting the country you are looking forward to, to pursue your studies and build a career out of it.
• Also do mention the benefits of the targeted country. It is very important to include details of how and why exactly you decided to choose your desired field.

• As you know, Technical University of Darmstadt is a public university that falls under the TU9 alliance. Germany is popularly known for having semiconductor fab manufacturing industries and my career goal has always been to work in a chip design company, overall making the right choice.
• I am currently doing my Masters in Information and Communication Engineering (with a specialisation in Hardware). Particularly, the course has been broadly divided into three specialisations, such as communication networks, Algorithm and hardware, thus giving more flexibility for the students to go in the right direction of their career.
• Darmstadt is about 20 minutes away from Frankfurt am Main, making it more accessible for the residents to commute for work or travel to places in Europe. I did struggle during my initial days of my course since I was pretty new to the teaching methods and the difficulty of the exams.
• The campus has numerous extracurricular activities to provide since there is a club associated by the university itself offering different kinds of sports, dance classes, gatherings, etc.

• There is no fixed schedule of classes for anyone. It depends on the course that the student has enrolled in. But normally there might be just 4 or 5 classes in a week, maybe each in a day or two every day. The timings of the class vary, but any lecture begins at 8 a.m. and the last lecture usually ends at 5 p.m. There are about 150 Indians in my course.
• Also, our courses are very theoretical-based modules and hence there are not many assignments to do. All modules have just one final exam at the end of the semester.

• The professors have an excellent foundation in their fundamentals and have deep theoretical knowledge on the course. Sometimes the departments offer student assistant research positions based on a project that is currently under progress.
• In this way, a student can manage both their expenses as well as their lecture schedule. In fact, another advantage is that a student can take a break for a period of time when they need time to prepare for exams.

• There are two campuses in total. We have a library that can be used by the public. We also have a sports complex next to our other campus, which includes a running track, football field, swimming pool, mini-trek setup, etc.
• German universities are very conservative and hence you will not find any sort of fest or any event happening on the campus.

• It is usually quite challenging to get a working student job if you are really seeking industry experience since you need to crack your interview confidently and show interests in their culture. One way is to start learning and speaking the local language.
• A lot of Indians do take up part-time jobs in a company but quite a few also take up part-time jobs such as a rider for a food delivery company, a salesperson in a bakery, or a sortation employee in a warehouse company (that was my first part-time job when I arrived in Germany).

• You can always go for a working student/part-time/minijob/student research assistant at the university. The idea behind these kinds of jobs is that they are made flexible to not interrupt your study schedule and sufficient enough to cover your expenditures.
• For research assistant jobs, it is best to talk to the PhD holders of the respective department you wish to work for and acknowledge them with your interest along with your CV.
• The alternative way to seek industrial experience as a working student is to refer to job career portals such as stepstone.de, indeed.de, XING, stellenwerk.de, etc. Mostly you would find all the job postings on LinkedIn (that is how I got my working student job).
• As a student, you are currently allowed to work up to 22 hours per week, as compared to 20 hours per week until 2024. Normally the hourly wage ranges from 12.41 to 15 euros per hour.

• There are quite a few full-time job opportunities available in Germany; however, it usually takes a longer time for one to secure a full-time job. Also, statistically speaking, we cannot predict if all the students from one batch secure a job within 6 months but roughly around 30–40% do find a full-time job. On average, the net salary of an entry level would be between 1700 and 2000 euros.

• Finding an accommodation is the most difficult situation in Germany due to a lack of housing for students. Also, it is quite impossible for students to stay as a sublet tenant for a longer duration since one needs to register themselves at the municipality to notify the authorities of their stay. This is a crucial step in order to proceed with opening your bank account, receiving your health card insurance or even getting a SIM card with a contract.
• Easier ways to find accommodations are through WhatsApp groups or the best way is to find them through platforms such as WG gesucht and immoscout 24,.