Hi everyone,
I'm wondering if anyone has experience applying to PhD position in European countries and could advise me on this (although I'm pretty sure I'm overthinking the whole thing). Most universities I'm interested in post their open PhD positions as jobs on their website, complete with a project description and the name of the supervisor for the project (at least for my field - I've seen positions in other fields are just listed in batches with a general description). Since there's no need to e-mail these professors to ask if they're taking students, and the project description is already given, is it worth contacting the professors before applying (or, will it hurt my chances if I don't contact them)? This seems like a fairly different process than what I'm used to in North America, and I want to make sure I'm not making things harder for myself by screwing up the first steps.