Admission to the German Postgraduate School and how to decide on the theme of the thesis
Imagine a situation that you decided to enroll in graduate school in Germany. Excellent article about the pros and cons of this decision, as a way of migration is here . I would like to talk about the specifics of postgraduate education in Germany and give some tips on what steps would be taken to facilitate this process.
The first and most important thing is to understand how you will provide for yourself during your studies. You can try to get a scholarship. Another way is to get a job at the department of your professor. As a rule, you can count on a permanent workplace only after a long work in the department. All others extend the contract once a year.
So it makes sense to pay attention to current projects that are conducted at the department. Such projects are sponsored by either firms or research funds, of which the money is paid including the work of graduate students.
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Description of projects and vacancies can always be found on the department website, however, not all existing vacancies are published, so it always makes sense to ask about them.
It should be borne in mind that for informatics very often this work implies the possession of programming skills. It would also be desirable to write articles.
In addition to projects, graduate students often hang themselves: conducting seminars and lectures, writing proposals for new projects (very hard and long work), conducting and checking exams, etc. As a result, about 10% of free time remains for a thesis. Although, in some departments the situation is much better.
For admission to the German postgraduate school it is not necessary to speak German. Everything depends only on the wishes of the professor, since in the university environment everyone is fluent in English.
Nevertheless, language proficiency is a big bonus, the Germans are very respectful to those who speak their native language.
Writing a resume from the Germans is a whole science that has strict rules and even includes requirements for the paper on which it is written (if the resume is not electronic). In the scientific community, these requirements are often relaxed, but it is advisable to get acquainted with them.
It is very important to understand that a professor in Germany, figuratively speaking, is a king and a god, he determines the requirements for candidates, he decides to accept you or not. Officials have great respect for invitations, statements of material support and other papers from professors.
Formally, there is no need to have published articles for admission to graduate school. Also, there is no need to have a formed theme - many are looking for a topic during the first year. Nevertheless, the availability of articles will be a serious plus, as well as the initial topic, which coincides with the interests of the professor. At a minimum, it is necessary to indicate the area of your interests in the motivation letter, to show that you are good at understanding it.
What may be important. If you come from the outside, then the reputation of your university and, oddly enough, your grades will be important. It would be nice to get recommendations from a pair of professors of your university, one way or another connected with the area in which the professor is involved.
The two most important skills are writing text in LATEX and, paradoxically, the ability to read articles. When you are engaged in a project, or your dissertation, you will have to read articles in dozens. Unaccustomed to it is very difficult, it takes an insane amount of time. And most importantly, in such a sea of information, the essence begins to get lost. Therefore, the experience and ability to read articles will greatly facilitate your first months of adaptation in the workplace. Gaining experience in reading articles before entering is easy if you persistently search for a topic of interest and begin to understand it quietly.
To this list, you can add more the ability to make presentations, as they have to do a lot. That includes creating good slides, not just a presentation. However, this is not at all necessary, since with experience this skill will come.
We will discuss what to do in case you have not closely followed the scientific articles in the field of interest to you, and if this area is too wide for now. As a rule, this moment causes strong doubts and worries for people who have just come to science. Therefore, the main thing is not to lose heart, but to follow the simple algorithm given below. It is not even an algorithm, but simply an indication of the direction in which you can move in order to facilitate your task.
So, it would be better for you if the topic of your dissertation coincides with the topic of a major project. Then your employment on it, as well as your articles written for it, will go to the treasury of the dissertation and the time for writing it will be significantly reduced. I wrote above that, on average, 10% of free time remains for writing a dissertation, which largely contributes to the widespread term of writing a dissertation in 10 years. A foreigner is given a maximum of 6 years by officials, if I am not mistaken.
Therefore, it is desirable to start the search by viewing current projects in the department (departments).
I hope the fragments collected here will help you in entering. If you have any interest, you can discuss any aspects in more detail.
Financing
The first and most important thing is to understand how you will provide for yourself during your studies. You can try to get a scholarship. Another way is to get a job at the department of your professor. As a rule, you can count on a permanent workplace only after a long work in the department. All others extend the contract once a year.
So it makes sense to pay attention to current projects that are conducted at the department. Such projects are sponsored by either firms or research funds, of which the money is paid including the work of graduate students.
')
Description of projects and vacancies can always be found on the department website, however, not all existing vacancies are published, so it always makes sense to ask about them.
Work at the Department
It should be borne in mind that for informatics very often this work implies the possession of programming skills. It would also be desirable to write articles.
In addition to projects, graduate students often hang themselves: conducting seminars and lectures, writing proposals for new projects (very hard and long work), conducting and checking exams, etc. As a result, about 10% of free time remains for a thesis. Although, in some departments the situation is much better.
Tongue
For admission to the German postgraduate school it is not necessary to speak German. Everything depends only on the wishes of the professor, since in the university environment everyone is fluent in English.
Nevertheless, language proficiency is a big bonus, the Germans are very respectful to those who speak their native language.
Summary
Writing a resume from the Germans is a whole science that has strict rules and even includes requirements for the paper on which it is written (if the resume is not electronic). In the scientific community, these requirements are often relaxed, but it is advisable to get acquainted with them.
Requirements for a candidate
It is very important to understand that a professor in Germany, figuratively speaking, is a king and a god, he determines the requirements for candidates, he decides to accept you or not. Officials have great respect for invitations, statements of material support and other papers from professors.
Formally, there is no need to have published articles for admission to graduate school. Also, there is no need to have a formed theme - many are looking for a topic during the first year. Nevertheless, the availability of articles will be a serious plus, as well as the initial topic, which coincides with the interests of the professor. At a minimum, it is necessary to indicate the area of your interests in the motivation letter, to show that you are good at understanding it.
What may be important. If you come from the outside, then the reputation of your university and, oddly enough, your grades will be important. It would be nice to get recommendations from a pair of professors of your university, one way or another connected with the area in which the professor is involved.
What skills will facilitate your first time in graduate school
The two most important skills are writing text in LATEX and, paradoxically, the ability to read articles. When you are engaged in a project, or your dissertation, you will have to read articles in dozens. Unaccustomed to it is very difficult, it takes an insane amount of time. And most importantly, in such a sea of information, the essence begins to get lost. Therefore, the experience and ability to read articles will greatly facilitate your first months of adaptation in the workplace. Gaining experience in reading articles before entering is easy if you persistently search for a topic of interest and begin to understand it quietly.
To this list, you can add more the ability to make presentations, as they have to do a lot. That includes creating good slides, not just a presentation. However, this is not at all necessary, since with experience this skill will come.
How to decide on the first topic
We will discuss what to do in case you have not closely followed the scientific articles in the field of interest to you, and if this area is too wide for now. As a rule, this moment causes strong doubts and worries for people who have just come to science. Therefore, the main thing is not to lose heart, but to follow the simple algorithm given below. It is not even an algorithm, but simply an indication of the direction in which you can move in order to facilitate your task.
So, it would be better for you if the topic of your dissertation coincides with the topic of a major project. Then your employment on it, as well as your articles written for it, will go to the treasury of the dissertation and the time for writing it will be significantly reduced. I wrote above that, on average, 10% of free time remains for writing a dissertation, which largely contributes to the widespread term of writing a dissertation in 10 years. A foreigner is given a maximum of 6 years by officials, if I am not mistaken.
Therefore, it is desirable to start the search by viewing current projects in the department (departments).
- We select those projects that are most interesting (and which are the most new).
- We look at the list of articles that were written in the project department, or which are referenced.
- We are looking for these articles. If they are not publicly available, go here and look again. This is a proxy that will allow you to download almost any article.
- We read articles. If they are very specific and are difficult, then for the first time we read superficially. The main thing is to understand the essence of the problem and how they are trying to solve it.
- Go to IEEE and ACM . There we find read articles. The point is that on these sites tags and references (references) are referenced in the article. These links on the site can be found and read abstract articles. Abstract allows you to quickly understand whether the article is interesting to read further or not.
- We are looking for references referred to in the article and find, first of all, review articles (survery ...) on similar topics. If it fails, then look for similar tags.
- Review articles are read very carefully, it is desirable to print them and highlight important points with a pen. When you read dozens of articles and want to return to the first, the selected fragments will help you quickly recall what was said.
- In principle, review articles should already help well enough to narrow down the range of possible topics. In order to understand the selected topics in more detail, you should carefully read the articles of interest on the links.
- It is very important in the chosen subject again to find all the articles of the professor to whom you want to enroll and read them. In the summary it will be nice to show off this knowledge. It will also help you understand how the professor and his graduate students work.
Finally
I hope the fragments collected here will help you in entering. If you have any interest, you can discuss any aspects in more detail.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/136908/
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