How to apply for PhDs in Germany, from the UK?
May 2, 2011 7:02 AM Subscribe
I'm currently living in the UK and am trying to apply for science PhDs in Germany. But how?
I graduated in 2008 with an MSci in materials science from Cambridge University and have been working in the Cambridge sci/tech industry since the start of 2009. I feel that if I were still at university, living in Germany or both, this process would be a lot simpler. As it is, I'm lost.
Should I start out by sending a formal application to the university? The (often vague) information on how to apply usually implies I should already have a research proposal. But I don't have a proposal - I have areas of interest (surface science, polymer science and nanoscale materials), and I know that the university does research in those areas.
I've been following this approximate path, though I haven't yet got past step 4 (no one replies to my emails):
1. Look at university websites. Become very distressed by how complex, obfuscated, difficult to navigate, contradictory and confusing they are.
2. Find interesting research departments.
3. Find interesting PhD projects.
4. Apply to a supervisor.
5. Apply to the university (this may also involve applying to the international office, various graduate schools or inter-university research groups).
6. ... Funding? Yeah, somehow find funding and apply for it.
7. ???
8. Profit.
This seemed like the right thing to do when I started, but it has occurred to me that there are other methods, like this one, which didn't work for me:
1. As an undergraduate or master's candidate, do a research project.
2. Get offered a PhD in the group.
Or this one, which might at least be less complicated:
1. Look in the classified ads or similar.
2. Find an advertisement for a fully-funded studentship at X university, detailing what they need in an application (this information is shamefully hard to find when using my method).
3. Send in the application package
4. Somehow be better than all thousand or so of the other applicants who read New Scientist that week.
5. Get offered a PhD.
Or maybe:
1. Nepotism.
I graduated in 2008 with an MSci in materials science from Cambridge University and have been working in the Cambridge sci/tech industry since the start of 2009. I feel that if I were still at university, living in Germany or both, this process would be a lot simpler. As it is, I'm lost.
Should I start out by sending a formal application to the university? The (often vague) information on how to apply usually implies I should already have a research proposal. But I don't have a proposal - I have areas of interest (surface science, polymer science and nanoscale materials), and I know that the university does research in those areas.
I've been following this approximate path, though I haven't yet got past step 4 (no one replies to my emails):
1. Look at university websites. Become very distressed by how complex, obfuscated, difficult to navigate, contradictory and confusing they are.
2. Find interesting research departments.
3. Find interesting PhD projects.
4. Apply to a supervisor.
5. Apply to the university (this may also involve applying to the international office, various graduate schools or inter-university research groups).
6. ... Funding? Yeah, somehow find funding and apply for it.
7. ???
8. Profit.
This seemed like the right thing to do when I started, but it has occurred to me that there are other methods, like this one, which didn't work for me:
1. As an undergraduate or master's candidate, do a research project.
2. Get offered a PhD in the group.
Or this one, which might at least be less complicated:
1. Look in the classified ads or similar.
2. Find an advertisement for a fully-funded studentship at X university, detailing what they need in an application (this information is shamefully hard to find when using my method).
3. Send in the application package
4. Somehow be better than all thousand or so of the other applicants who read New Scientist that week.
5. Get offered a PhD.
Or maybe:
1. Nepotism.
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posted by jaduncan at 2:25 AM on May 8, 2011