haru_ko

@CakeTea Thank you so much for the information! You seem to know a lot about Hertie I'm surprised that an Asian student managed to intern with a German government organisation. I thought national governmental organisations normally don't hire foreigners, even for internships/ traineeships. Interesting. I'm just a bit worried that Hertie may not be for me as so many of their graduates go into private sector, and their curriculum does seem to prepare students for private sector in a way.

@seaglass0025 I applied in mid November and heard back from them in mid December. I think I really like PSIA's curriculum. It's really well-rounded and you don't only study things from your "major". There are so many choices of classes (at Hertie, it's definitely much less and their courses are not as diverse). Students have to take one thematic and one regional concentration, which allows me to explore and specialise in areas that I want to continue/ don't know much about yet. I am also more attracted to Science Po since they have a really well-equiped language centre, which offers so many different languages to choose from. To me, language is an important part, and I know it will be essential when it comes to future employment in international organisations, which I aspire to work in. At Sciences Po, I can learn 2 languages max., but at Hertie, students don't even have to learn any languages. I already speak German quite fluently (C1 level). Unfortunately, courses at Hertie are only taught in English. If they had some courses in German, I'd def. try to take them. Besides, the admission officer told me that if there are enough interests, sometimes they open German classes for students, but I think these will only be beginner courses, which are not suitable for me. In addition, I have been learning French at university on the side, and would like continue. Since Hertie doesn't offer any language classes, I'd have to pay extra outside of uni to continue any language studies... The admission officer at Hertie also told me that they expect students to take the initiative to apply for jobs and stuff, not just to be "fed". This I totally understand. I am just concerned about the competitiveness of actually getting internship placements. 'Cause at my home university, any internship application through the university's career services is so much more competitive than applying on your own...

I actually think I lean more towards accepting the offer from Sciences Po, but let's see how things unfold! Yea, I grew up partially in the Japanese community so I do speak some Japanese (nowhere near fluent though!). I'm sure yours is much better, esp. when you've been living in Japan for 6 months now! Berlin doesn't have the biggest Japanese community in Germany, but I have to tell you that, when I stayed there in January, I found an amazing Ramen restaurant lol Don't know if you're into Japanese food (I guess you are, 'cause who isn't?!), but it's just amazing. You have to try it if you end up at Hertie haha @CakeTea Do/ did you study at Hertie? If so, could you tell us a bit more about career prospect of students there? Is it hard to secure decent related internships in Berlin/ elsewhere in Germany/ Europe? And I read through their graduates' profiles. It seems that many of them choose to go into the business sector upon graduation, which puzzles me a little bit...since I'd like to work in international organisations/ policy research think tanks. I wonder if Hertie would really be a good choice for this.

Hi @seaglass0025! Yep, I visited the school when I stayed in Berlin earlier this year. Before I visited it, I asked one of my German professors his opinions about Hertie. (He's the DAAD representation at my home country, and have worked in various German universities) He highly recommended the school, and told me that he'd worked with some of the researchers/ professors there and they are all very good. So I always have this impression already that this school must be a high quality one. Comparing to other universities, the school has a small 'campus'. I mean, it's really just a building with 3 or 4 floors. They have basic facilities (e.g. a small cafeteria or more like cafe, a few small libraries, classrooms, common room for students, terrace garden that's only opened in the summer and student working places), but as a student at Hertie, you could also use facilities at public universities in Berlin, i.e. FU/ HU. The location of the school is great - quite central I'd say and very easily accessible by metro/ bus. The faculty seems like a good mix of experts from different backgrounds and areas. The admission officer explained to me that the student affairs office takes care of student life, and can offer recommendations for all sorts of matters e.g. funding, german classes, housing (really, all you can think of!) She also told me that the school regularly invites prominent speakers to come and deliver workshops/ talks (which sounds really awesome). I also asked about dual degrees, career services and study abroad semesters, etc. I am confident about the school being a high quality one, and that I will learn a lot out of it. But I'm just not sure about its reputation outside of Germany. Actually, even within Germany, no one seems to have heard of it except people who are in the field... I didn't actually feel that it's so competitive, since I read that here, quite a lot of people have gotten into it. But just a few years back, there seems to be more rejections or acceptances without any tuition waiver. I also hold an offer from Sciences Po and am waiting for decision from the Graduate Institute in Geneva. haha I am quarter! Do you study in Japan then? I am currently studying in Switzerland actually

Hi guys! I'm so glad to have found this thread! I applied to the MPP and MIA programs at Hertie and got accepted to both with partial tuition waiver. However, I am still deciding whether I should go there, or accept another offer since the tuition fees are quite a lot. @pyrhuss Interesting that you know people who went on to do the dual degree with SIPA! I'm very interested in this option (and actually applied to Hertie because of their dual degree programs). Do you know how competitive is it to be admitted to the dual degree program with SIPA? I actually visited the school in Berlin, and the admission officer told me the program with SIPA was quite competitive to get in (of course). What kind of background do your friends in this program have? Did you go to Hertie yourself?

Nope - it says "under consideration"

My application is deferred to March result notification round. Oh well, at least it's not rejected straight away! Plus, I've already got another great offer, so I don't mind waiting Congratulations to all those who got accepted!

Does anyone know if we'll get the financial aid result WITH our admission result?

Currently, I'm away from Geneva for holidays so the photos have to wait! But yea, it's not big at all. There're 6 buildings (they call them "petals" because of their shape) on campus, but IHEID only uses two of them and rented out the other 4 for other organisations. So the areas where students could enjoy are really just the cafeteria, library, theatre and classrooms. There's really nothing much.

@taeyeon Actually, I got around the normal visa application process. Referring to the list of documents on the Swiss Consulate website, it also says applicants need to submit English test scores. However, my university applied for the visa for me here in Switzerland. Afterwards, they just send me a letter and I could go pick up my visa at the consulate, with no additional documents required. So actually, I didn't go through that long and annoying process of student visa application, where I have to submit like one whole pile of documents. But I'm not sure if IHEID would do the same thing for international students. Haha I guess I could! I'm in Geneva now (I don't study here though). I was actually thinking perhaps I could post some pictures of IHEID for those of you who didn't get a chance to visit the campus

lol yes I did!

@shirley_xie I see. I'm also applying to a few UK universities, but I haven't finished the applications... Would you consider attending University of Bristol though? (which course there?) I personally do think that amongst your choices, studying at IHEID would be the most exciting experiences. So fingers crossed for you!

@Maeva I submitted 3 applications for now (got an offer from Sciences Po), and may apply to more depending on whether I got offers from other schools. @taeyeon I'm currently studying in Switzerland as an international student. But when I applied for my visa, I didn't need to submit English test scores (I didn't have to either when I applied to my Swiss university because I have an International Baccalaureate diploma). @shirley_xie Which UK unis did you apply to?

I agree. It seems like IHEID did intend to send out decisions for early applicants in early December originally (that was written on the application page initially, and if you read their Q&As, it's still written 'mid-December'). But I guess perhaps there were simply more early applicants this year, or they have something else to occupy themselves with in these months, that's why they changed it to mid-January. If there was a choice, I'd love to hear back from them in the coming two days though! Did you guys apply to other schools? Or is IHEID your first and only choice?

@Erminia_LLActually, why don't you send IHEID an email and ask about it? My rationale behind is based on the normal practice that a "waitlist" is where schools put students who are not exactly as good as other applicants in the pool, but wouldn't mind taking in if there're available places. Based on this, the only way to get off the waitlist is when places open up, or in other words, when someone declines his/ her offer. According to your theory, for someone who applies early, but is put on the waitlist, will either get accepted or rejected by March. This makes sense in the way that indeed, some early applicants may turn down the offer early and hence, places will open up before March. But March is not the end of the whole admission process. There are other applicants who apply by the regular deadline, get their offers in March, and in the end decide to go somewhere else instead. So if an early applicant receives the final decision (rejection) in March after being waitlisted, isn't it a bit unfair should there be more places opening up after March since that's the period when most students decide if they are really coming? I think we should maybe think about what is the true difference of quality between someone who's deferred and someone who's waitlisted. Like, does any early applicant even get waitlisted? 'Cause the school could have just defer their application for another review in March, instead of putting them on the waitlist.

@Erminia_LLBecause being put on the waitlist is different from being deferred. In case you applied for early decision and they "push back" your result notification, that means they are going to review your application again when they review those who apply by regular deadline. And after that, you will either be rejected, accepted or waitlisted. But if you are waitlisted when they release results for those who applied by early deadline, it means that you will be notified if there's any place for you after every admitted student has confirmed their attendance in the coming school year, which is very possible by the end of May.

@Maeva Thanks for posting the threads! They are very useful It is indeed a huge concern for pretty much all French students/ students studying in France. When I attended the info day, a French student in my group raised questions about it too. The guy who brought us around (he's actually a PhD student at IHEID, but seems to have close ties with the admission office. He probably works for them as part-time job or something) told him not to worry about the grades, since they know it is very difficult to get good grades in France, and 20/20 is just impossible. So I guess they will judge you based on the French system, and how good your results are amongst French applicants.

@su_nayana When I said 3.2 GPA being low, I was referring to the GPA system in the States. I assume that you study in India, so your GPA probably means something else as compared to the U.S. one. Actually, I myself come from a university where we both use the U.S. GPA system and the U.K. honours system. Many students from my university go on exchange in the States every year, and according to them, it is rather easy for them to achieve top grades (As), and it is certainly do-able to achieve a 3.7 or even 4.0 GPA. (I had a friend who got straight As (hence 4.0 GPA) during her exchange semester in the States, but it is totally impossible to achieve such top GPA here at my home university. My GPA is somewhere around 3.5, which could be seen as quite low for application to top universities around the world with regards to the GPA system, as they usually ask for 3.7/4.0. But actually, at my university, this is already a very good (may be not top) GPA, which placed me within top 10% of the cohort last year. Personally, I am also a bit worried about all this GPA mess, since I can't be sure if they don't judge me based on how they judge U.S. students applying with GPA as well. But I guess we have no choice but to trust them when they say they are very experienced with this! Actually, I would also like to ask if someone could give me some comments on my situation: I am also pursuing a BA, but our curriculum is so flexible that I did a lot of courses that are not completely related to my major. For courses within my major, I did them quite well (especially the advanced ones, where I got pretty much all As in). My grades also shows an upward trend on my transcript. (from a mix of As and Bs to almost all As in the last semester) I always think that my GPA (around 3.5) is gonna hurt me, since it is not very top, and comparing to students from other countries using the GPA system (like the U.S.), it could even seem bad. But the thing is, my GPA is rather 'low' really because in one semester, it dropped drastically, and I had to spend the rest of my undergraduate career saving it. Hence, my semester GPAs are actually not bad (once, it was even up to 3.7, which is really high at my university) Besides, I took more courses than average students in each semester (and still maintain top 10% within my cohort), and will graduate a year earlier from my degree. Do you guys think they will just overlook my relatively low GPA due to the efforts I made?

3.2 GPA in the US scale is really low...I'm quite sure that they take into account the standards of marking in different countries. When I attended their on-site campus visit, they did say that when accessing international students, they do take into account what different grades (or GPA) mean in different countries. Just like all other universities, they said that their admission team is very informed about different educational systems, and hence, is also very experienced in accessing students from different systems (which I sometimes really doubt).

@unagi e-mails should be sent to your listed referees once you have paid the application fees.

@Erminia_LL I agree, but simply because I believe applicants who would research and be engaged in online discussions regarding their postgraduate studies are generally more motivated. (like us ) For whichever school, everyone I came across online has amazing profiles (both unis and internships). [well, they could be lying as well. Who knows?!] I didn't look into online profiles of students attending IHEID, as I already know a few of them in real life. And honestly, just from talking to them and getting to know their background, I don't find them to be particularly amazing people/ students. (just decent degree from decent university & good academic results) I guess it's also useful to bear in mind that some people are able to gain prestigious internship experiences due to luck, connections or simply their location (cities with tons of opportunities in the related field VS. cities without). So there's no point comparing yourself to other applicants...you may just have the charm that they want!

hmm I lean towards believing them about the mid-January notification of decisions. But reading threads from last year, it does seem like they sent out decisions much earlier than this..

@shirley_xie What and Where are you currently studying then? I assume you are Chinese?

Wow @taeyeon, thank you for the motivation letter. It's really well-written and her experiences are amazing (though, of course, there's a sad part to it). I think I went for quite a different direction though. I feel like hers is more about presenting herself as a person and why she's chosen this field. I allocated around half of my motivation letter for this too, but the second part was more about why I chose this particular programme at IHEID but not other schools. 'Cause after all, they ask us to write about "why you wish to study at the institute". I hope this is the right direction to go... And yes, I go to Geneva really often so I have spent much time at the institution. Most of the time, I go to their amazing library, but other times, I go have lunch with my friends at the cafeteria. I also took the chance to do an accompanied campus tour once. To me, the campus looks nice (after all, it's brand new!), but it's really small, especially if you come from big universities. I have the impression that the institution is particularly popular amongst US students, since I've seen many of them on campus, and also in our campus tour.

Hi guys! Great to see such a supporting waiting-it-out community here! I also applied to IHEID (MIA) for early decision, and am dying to know the results. To be honest, I never had this impression that IHEID is that competitive, since I've been there countless number of times, have a friend who studies there and met her friends studying at the institution as well. (They are all pretty normal people prior to coming here) But you guys are totally making me nervous! How did you guys formulate the motivation letter? I found mine okay when I submitted it but as I think more and more about it, I think it might not be up to standard Also, did you guys apply to other schools as well?