Nuya

Thanks for the update. I contacted three schools weeks ago. I only heard back from one of them. They wrote a very incomplete email telling me something along the lines of "we accept the bologna 3 year bachelor" (at least if i filled in the missing half of the half sentence long email correctly -.-)... Never heard back from the other two... That really doesnt make me trust the whole process... I have started looking into universities in the UK. So far I have found a lot more detailed and usefull information concerning (international) admission requirements on their webpages. But maybe I will try contacting one or two other schools in the US.

What German PhD Programs do you know that have a regular length of 6 years? If you study part time maybe, but generally they dont take that long, do they? One program I maybe consider at my current university takes 4 years when entering with a Bachelors degree and 3 year when entering with a masters degree. Of course, depending on the field of study, if you dont get any money at all through the programm (not even 50% salary), then one might be working fulltime elsewhere and thus devoting a lot less time to their thesis. I think a big difference between PhD in Germany and the US is that the structured PhD programs are a bit new in this country. The old principle "a student finds a mentor (professor) and writes a PhD thesis in their lab" is still very common. But since there are more and more people who get to go to university this principle is outdated and slowly replaced by structured PhD programs more similar to those common in the US. But since I dont even know what European country the person who asked the question is interested in this might not even be relevant at all^^

I didnt go through this in detail, but have you checked the options offered on this site yet? : http://www.studyabroadfunding.org/SearchResult.asp?area=86&fos=&com=&key=

I am a bit confused... I was (just our of curiosity and for the purpose of estimating living costs in the areas i intend to apply to) checking for student accomodation (UK and US) and first of all, I was surprised to notice, that more often than not the accomodation offered by the universities seems to be more expensive than the general accomodation one has to look for privately. Does that just appear so (maybe because utilities and everything is included in the university accomodation and the private accomodation would possibly cost more than the university accomodation once all utilities were included in the prize), or is university accomodation really more expensive than private accomodation? And even more important: The contracts never cover the entire year, there are 39week contracts, 40 week contracts, 48weeks contracts and so on, but almost never is there a contract for the entire year. So my question is: Where do people stay in the meantime?? Why are there so few accomodations for the entire year, if any? This is very confusing to me because I have absolutely no idea where people should go in the meantime... What kinds of contracts are those? Does one have to leave the accomodation after one year alltogether and look privately? I would find it very stressfull to always have to leave the home i hope to make in that accomodation for a few weeks every year... Does anyone know more about this?

As to the second sentence you just posted: Where did you get the idea that "entlang" is the word that needs to fill the gap? I would have filled the gap using "gaben". Plus I dont see the second "zu" in the sentence? The "aus" at the end of the sentence belongs to the "gaben" i just filled the gap with. The sentence should be: "Unterwegs aber machten sie an einer Eisdiele Halt und gaben viel zu viel Geld fürs Eis aus." The complete word is "ausgeben" = in this case: "spend money". But you basically have to cut it in half and put each part in the right place of the sentence and of course you change it to the correct tense. so you get Unterwegs aber machten sie an einer Eisdiele Halt und GABEN viel zu viel Geld fürs Eis AUS. Those two "words" are part of the same word. (A real Zeugma is usually rhetoric and ironic, but it sort of uses these linguistic elements as well) (trying to explain this to a non-native speaker, i just realized, German is a weird language^^)

I am a German native, however, I dont know much about explaining grammar. I will give it a try though. I guess you already know how to translate the sentence? "Beatrix and Jakob wanted to go into the city after school to buy their teacher a great present" (or something like that) "Beatrix und Jakob wollten nach der Schule in die Stadt fahren, um ihrem Klassenlehrer ein tolles Geschenk zu kaufen." The grammatical contruct is called "finale Satzverbindung". This means the subordinate clause describes the goal of the action described in the main clause. This is achieved through prepositions like "damit", "um zu" "zu". Another example of a sentence like that would be: "Ich lerne jeden Tag, um die Abschlussprüfung zu bestehen" but also: "Ich lerne jeden Tag, damit ich die Abschlussprüfung bestehe." You can also switch subordinate clause and main clause around so you would get something like: "Damit ich die Abschlussprüfung bestehe, lerne ich jeden Tag." or: "Um die Abschlussprüfung zu bestehen, lerne ich jeden Tag." As you can see "Finalsätze" answer to the question "warum?, wieso?, wozu?, weshalb?, weswegen?". If you dont want a "finale Satzverbindung", you can also choose the preposition Zu in combination with a "Dativ". That would change the above sentence to: "Zum Bestehen der Abschlussprüfung lerne ich jeden Tag." This would rid your sentence of the comma. Hope this helps at all...

Although aiming for a degree in a different field than computer science: I have been wondering the same thing. I went about choosing the schools to apply to by finding schools that fit well first and then checking how the cost of living in those areas is. I checked those things mostly by visiting sites where one can find apartments for rent or checking the schools off campus housing sites. There you can get an idea of how much the basics cost (like rent). Maybe you should make a list of the main expenses that you will have and that you cannot reduce (or dont want to reduce). Check university websites for their exact financial plans (like do you have to pay for your own health care or is it included in the waiver, how much does the healthcare cost and what is included, what other fees do you need to pay [always make sure to ccheck the international students version of those fees] and so on) Write down how much guaranteed funding the school offers (including free health care if applicable), write down average estimates for your expenses (minimum and average) and then see whether or not you are left with any wriggle room at all, or whether your expenses are higher than the funding. and so on, well you probably know all that anyways, but i just wanted to emphazise not to forget any expenses and to remember checking for international students (fees and so on). Thus the recommendation to make a list^^ any specifics or details on living conditions in those areas of course i am the wrong person to ask But would be very interested in information from anyone on those questions as well

First time for me and quite nervous already. I am an international student and neither me nor the people around me (friends and professors alike) are particularly experienced with the whole process of applying to US grad schools. So I am quite scared to make stupid mistakes in the process. But this forum is a GREAT help. Although I have basically been saving money for the application process for about a year now I am still struggling to save up enough money for the application process which is why I am currently uncertain about whether or not to take the GRE subject test which isnt mandatory (although recommended). So I am not sure... do i take the subject test and therefore apply to less schools or do i apply to more schools and therefore dont take the subject test... (or of course door number three: win the lottery, of course that will be difficult since i am not playing ) I am also quite uncertain about my choice of schools... But my list is not final yet anyways so there is still some time to adjust the list. I already changed my plans quite a bit since joining this forum. At first I only planned to apply to Canadian schools (because up until then I had only found funded programs in Canada) but then someone pointed out that there are just as many if not even more funded programs in the US. So by now I mostly have US schools left on my list because there I found a lot better fitting programs. My research interests lie in the field of Microbiology, Genetics, Immunology, and although different from those i just mentioned I also have a keen interest in computational Biology and Biotechnology. So even though I know roughly where I wish to go, I am not completely certain and I am also not completely fixated on one very narrow topic. I dont know whether this will rather help or hurt my application. I am wondering if the schools prefer those applicants with a research proposal that is already completely worked out in detail or do I still have a chance to find myself a bit during the first year in grad school... But since I am currently in the process of choosing research oriented project kind of "whatever it is called" things at my current undergrad institution and will be writing a thesis in one of the labs at my university soon maybe I will have a more narrow field of specialization in mind when applying... applications are still a couple of month away, so there is still hope^^ So a lot of questions and thoughts in my head.

I have been wondering: most of the schools I want to apply to list the GRE subject test as "optional", "encouraged", "recommended". So I am unsure whether its a good idea to take it or not. My thoughts are, since I am applying with an international degree, a GRE subject test might make it easier in terms of comparability (since the admissions commitee might possibly have more difficulty judging the curriculum of a non US degree? Or maybe thats entirely wrong, but I thought if taking the subject test, I would get a score in relation to others who took the test regardless of being an international student or a domestic student. Do you think that would be helpful in order to make it easier for the admissions commitee to judge my qualifications?) Taking the subject test in addition to the TOEFL, and GRE general and paying all the application fees and possibly official translation of documents might, however, make it necessary for me to cross a school or two off of the list of schools I am planning to apply to. (Money is really tight and it was really hard for me to save up the money in order to finance the whole application process) I took the practice subject test (Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology) offered on the GRE webpage. I didnt find it all that difficult, but it is of course still possible that I get a bad result when taking the test (one can never be sure...). So IF i decide to take the test, will the scores automatically be send to schools since they need to send in the GRE general anyways? Are those two different things in terms of sending results? Can I decide to send the GRE general results but not the GRE subject test results? Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer advice.

Edit: accidentaly deleted the entire post when trying to edit out typos.. Sorry, too late to reconstruct right now, really need to go to bed. Just one quick thing: Maybe try to check for funding options at the institution where you got accepted and in the country where the institution is. (If you havent done so already.)

Hi I am an international student confused by the application process myself, so I have no idea how reliable the following webpage is: graduate-school.phds.org On this page you can look up schools, their programms and the average GRE score. However, I am sure a lot of people here are going to tell you that the GRE is just one part of your application and depending on who you ask not even such an important part. I find the application process and requirements for US schools quite confusing myself, especially since most schools dont list international degree equivalents and i haven't found a single US school that translated the GPA score for other countries to compare. So i guess I will have to contact the schools before applying to find out the international requirements. Good luck to you! Edit: The scores listed on that page are in the old scoring system, so I guess you need to check roughly how the new scores correspond to the old scores. And they only list the quantitative GRE score I think. At least for the programms I checked.

I have been thinking about this some more... And I am more and more thinking I should find someone else to write the letter (even though it is a shame about the rest of the letter...). Really what does that say about me? If the Prof feels obliged to include the disability in the letter it feels to me like he feels the need to make excuses? Even though he did not say it like that in the letter, but it is unnecessary for him to include this at all i think. I need to be able to compete with the other applicants anyways. I need to be as promising as possible and that is regardless of me having a disability or not... In my opinion this really has no business being included in such a letter, right? What difference does it make really? The thing that matters in the lab and in research in general is what the results are... I really think that this will be hurtful for my application... I am really recking my brain about this. And what does that even mean that this "speaks to my motivation and resiliance", as he stated it... Is there no other way for him to evaluate my motivation? For example through the work i have done in the lab, the grades i have earned in class? (just saying... ) Does it really make a difference if i did so while having or not having a disability? In the end no... In the end the results are what matters... For the program I am applying to the circumstances don't matter... Especially since I cannot change the circumstances. I need to be competitive despite the circumstances.. So I am pretty sure I will either find someone else or at least talk to him again. But I would still appreciate any feedback because maybe i am seeing this all wrong, and if anyone shares my conclusion, i would still appreciate if you could tell me the reasoning that led you to that conclusion. Sorry for rambling... -.- I am already freaking out now... So I am really curiouse how this will develop until December and through April after that^^

Thanks a lot for your thoughts! Then I think i do in fact have some research experience puh, thats good to know I do have to write a Bachelors thesis as part of my degree, i work as a teaching assistant, have a lot of lab project type of work included in my curriculum, work in a lab as an intern, and possibly will get the chance to work in a Max-Planck- institute (this time a biology lab^^) during summer. However that is contingent upon me not having lab classes during the summer "break" (we usually have mandatory lab classes during summer break... and winter break for that matter, which makes it much more difficult to get external voluntary internships, projects or anything else during those times because usually they only take people 8 weeks or longer as interns in external institutes. But if i have a 4 week lab project during that time of course i cannot take an internship that needs to be 8 weeks or longer -.- I did, before i transferred from studying physics to studying biology, work in a physics lab at a max planck institute (6 month). About that one i am not sure. Max-Planck-Institute is a great name to have in a C.V. i think. But while it was in a lab and was scientific research and i did have my own projects and everything, it wasnt actually biological questions but physics. i am not really sure what to do about that and how to write about it for my biology application (It certainly was very usefull and I leanred a lot that is still important in the new lab environment!). I did use different microscopy techniques so that cant be all that useless (optical microscopy and electron scanning microscopy), used some computer programming and statistical analysis which is also usefull but most of the equippment i used was really nothing i have encountered in any biology lab.^^ But the general skills like organizing thoughts and data and experimental results and interpreting it to some degree.. well thats something thats of use in every science lab... i think i learned a lot in that lab which is still VERY usefull even after transferring to the other program.

Hi I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on the following: I have a LoR-writer lined up willing to give me a - in his opinion - "glowing" recommendation. The thing is that he wants to include the fact that i have a "disability". Not a "i need a wheelchair - disability" but a more "invisible disability". However i usually dont give out that information to anyone unless i have to. He only knows because for one of his classes i needed special accomodation due to the nature of the class and thus i showed him the (in my country you can get a sort of pass stating that you have a disability/chronical illness and how much and in what way this constricts you in your everyday life - i never even applied for it myself but when i was placed in foster care it was requested by the home since it brought financial benefits... So now i am still kind of stuck with it... And since i did use it to be able to take part in his class i guess its kind of my own fault... But the class was mandatory). He thought it was great that i was going to university even though it was that much harder for me... In his opinion all this speaks to my "motivation" and "resilience" but i am really not sure how an admissions committe will actually see this. They probably dont want a milestone around their necks. And i am thinking they will probably rather choose another applicant given the choice... What do you think? Should i ask him to exclude this from his LoR? Can i even do this or do i need to find someone else to write it if i dont want this information in my LoR? Or should i let him write it as he sees fit? The rest of the letter sounds great i just dont like or rather dont know what to think about the fact that he included this... But i am fairly certain that a chronicall illness will not be seen in a positive way by the admissions committee... So why did he include it in his letter? Hmpf any advice on what to do?

I think the application for October is not open yet. At least thats what I hope. The "test season" is matched up with the academic year I think, not with the calendar year. Just check back in July i think it said something like application opens again in july if i remeber correctly. You should then be able to register for the September/October Tests. Edit: ok someone else was faster^^

I have downloaded some sort of free testing thingy from their website because I am still waiting on my books. I don't really get how the test is scored though. In the subject test you shouldn't guess, right? Because you loose points for wrong answers, is that correct? But how about the geneal test, do I loose points if i give a wrong answer? Or do I get a point for a correct answer and no point for both, wrong answer and blank space? The test i downloaded didn't really give out any scores, I just got something like xy right answers and qz wrong answers. It didnt say how this would translate into the scores like i see them here and on university webpages... (but i have to admit i didnt do everything the downloaded test offered yet, just downloaded it a few hours ago) Will be taking the GRE general test in the end of August. Don't have a date for the subject test yet, since the application for this year isn't open yet. Anyone who knows more about the scoring, help would be greatly appreciated (I hope i didn't simply overlook the information on the effect of wrong answers on ones scores on the ETS site... If so then i am really sorry.)

Same here. It never occured to me that this could be a problem since the lectures and everything will be finished well before September... Don't you think we might receive the degree before September 30 (official date when the semester ends at my current university)? I mean we have a good reason and if all exams are finished before then why shouldn't this be possible?. I think the degree will be issued as soon as all exam results are in. (at least at this point it will be possible for the university to issue the degree so we might have to get on their nerves a bit if they don't issue it promptly.^^)

Thanks for explaining! Yes well that was of course a joke about the nobel prize.^^ I think any undergraduate who has a nobel prize would immediately be awarded a PhD without having to do anything further Knowing what I can include helps a lot, thanks!

Being an international student in the process of "polishing" my CV in order to apply for grad-school I am now wondering what does actually count as "research experience"? Does work in a lab as a lab-assistant during undergraduate studies count as "research experience"? Do internships done during the "holidays" in research institutes such as the Max Planck research institutes count? (duration 8 weeks and upwards) I am just wondering because somehow my mind only connects the words "research experience" to groundbreaking new discoveries, publications, nobel prizes and so forth But I still want to make sure that I know what I have and know where to put it in my application. Please let me know what exactly is meant by research experience. Thanks

Thank you for your thoughts! @GermanStudent: i tried finding out about the different grading systems. I now found one university in Canada that has a grade conversion chart on their page. It is true that 1.0GPA is probably VERY rare in Germany (in my class we started with about 250 students, we now are about half of that and usually there is none to one person in the entire class that gets a 1.0 in the exam. The conversion table i found listed German grades up to 0.7 o.O Never heard of that grade. At least at my University it is not possible to get that grade. 100% gives you a 1.0 and nothing more than that. If your answers are more than they expected they still don't give credit for more than 100%. Anyways, I now have a way of calculating my GPA for at least that university to what seems to be a sufficiently reliable point. I have now compiled a list of all universities I could find that are not too small. Then I crossed off those where financial support seemed to be very limited and tuition fees very high. Since I don't have any savings to speak of I will need financial support via the university I apply to. Sources of financial support from Germany are very limited since I don't plan on coming back here. They usually only fund semesters abroad or maybe even whole degrees but one has to agree to come back after obtaining the degree. I dont want to do that^^ (If you have different knowledge about that please let me know ) @PetitJacques: yes you got that right about my GPAs. My first year wasnt great but after that consistantly high grades. Thanks for encouraging me to simply ask. Usually I think about everything from each and every perspective to excess and then I end up with nothing but a headache. Usually because I don't want to bother the people responsible. But usually it is the fastest and most effective way to just ask or explain the situation. @jenste: I realized that some schools do that (just use the last two years), but the problem is that my BSc only takes 3 years. Therefore I will apply after 2 1/2 years of study and still have some of the bad grades counted towards my GPA. However, I calculated my GPA for the one university that offeres a detailed conversion chart on their webpage and I found my GPA to be above the minimum requirements taking into account the one bad semester, the good one after that and ficticious grades estimated using my grades before getting sick and after (not very reliable...). I get something around 3.6 on that conversion chart where the minimum requirements for that particular university is 3.0 (university of Manitoba). But I can't just take the GPA conversion I got from that webpage and apply it to other universities, because the grading system is different even within Canada, so... -.- There are on the same page conversion charts for other provinces in Canada and I will check them out next, but that doesn't mean that all universities apply the same system. Something else: How "valuable" is previous experience as for example lab-tutor for younger students (especially in terms of securing funding maybe through TAs)? Because without financial support I won't be able to attend university in Canada, regardless of getting accepted. (I currently have a position as a tutor and plan on reapplying next semester) I switched from studying physics to studying biology after the first semester. But during the first semester I briefly (3 1/2 months) held a position in a lab in the Max-Planck research institute for the science of light (which of course I didn't keep after switching to biology). Will it rather help my application to mention this or would it more likely hurt my application? It was not long that I worked there and it was in a very different field of science. But since I will need to state that I studied physics for one semester before switching to biology anyways (every postsecondary education regardless of being awarded a degree or not). I wouldnt even know where to put this "work experience"... Since not all universities require a CV to be submitted with the application. Hopefully getting the degree will be easier than applying for it (just kidding^^)

Realized I forgot something: I said that Microbiology and Immunology at Western was my favourite programm so far, but I feel that I need to explain that a little further. The programm sounds good, but there are good programms at other universities as well. I read that cost of living is lower in London Ontario than it is in the rest of Canada. So I think that would be nice not having so much trouble with money. However, if there is any chance of getting into a higher ranking university with my grades that would be great too. I am just always so unsure about my own grades. But thinking about it, they arent bad compared to others. I even got offered a job as a lab-tutor for the second semester students (which I really enjoy doing) without asking for it.

Hi, I am currently studying at a German university (BSc in biology). At some point I would love to leave Germany behind and move to Canada. Now there are two possibilities: - I could either give it a try and apply as a Masters student to start next year around september - or I could wait and apply directly as a PhD student after my MSc in three years (sorry for bothering you with plans that far in the future). Whatever my decision I have some trouble really understanding the admission requirements. For instance I am wondering what grades do I actually need for admission to which university? Usually the minimum requirements are about the same, but I guess that there are universities where the actual requirements are a LOT higher than the minimum requirements and then there probably are universities where the actual requirements are a bit closer to the minimum requirements? Checking the international degree equivalences I have difficulties as well, since it seems that some universities still use the old german degrees which are not offered anymore... Or they expect a 4 year bachelor which is not offered by one single university in germany (we only have 3 year bachelor degrees). Than there is the issue with the grades we have numeric grades that translate into words ("gut", which means good for example translates to 1.7 to 2.3). On some pages I found as a minimum requirement "gut (2.0)" so that is confusing. I would really love to get a reliable translation of my grades into the Canadian grading system in advance. Now to the question of when to apply: During the first year of my Bachelors degree I had some difficulties (health issues and everything that goes with it, missed classes due to hospitalization, difficulty concentrating, feeling like crap half the time...). This resulted in passed but not great grades. My first year I have a GPA of 3.0 (on the german grading scale which goes from 1 best to 5 worst). But then the second year I have a GPA of about 1.3 (on the same grading scale). However calculating my GPA over the entire time (including next year) will probably not give me the greatest GPA. Since my grades have improved significantly I am now wondering is it a better idea to give it a try and apply for next year entry (wich means handing in my grades before they are complete resulting in the bad grades having more effect) or would it be smarter to get my MSc first very probably with better grades and apply directly for a PhD progamm? Are there any statistics as to which universities accepted with which grades over the last years? Because I really don't have any idea as to where I can apply with my grades. Estimating an overall german GPA of 1.7 to 1.9 for my Bachelors degree there are probably not many universities that would accept me, especially being an international student and thus making everything more complicated, right? Like I said, I think my GPA in my masters degree will probably be higher (about 1.3 to 1.5 I guess taking into account my grades before [ok granted, that would be high school, so not the most reliable source but still^^] and after having been sick)... So what do you think? When should I apply (of course I know that for admission to grad school they take more into account than just ones grades, however I think they still are the most important factor.) I would as well love to know at which universities I have a chance of being accepted, I have absolutely no idea where I stand a chance with my grades and where I don't. And I can't waste a bunch of money on application fees to universities where I never had the slightest chance of being accepted... Any help would be greatly appreciated. Please just tell me what you think about timing of application and about schools where I have a chance. (my favourite programm so far would be Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Western Ontario: any chance?) Maybe there is even someone here who went to grad school in Canada with a german degree and has some first hand experience? Thanks in advance!