tomeu

I got an update today, it was the letter of award, exactly 2 weeks after I received message that I was selected and that award letter will follow soon. Award letter also stated that i have to attend 2 months long online language course. I think that writing to your local DAAD offices is redundant, it appears that all the documents are uploaded from Bonn, so local offices have no part in this part of the process.

This is my case. I received notification in portal informing me that I got the scholarship and that official letter of award will follow, but nothing else changed, not the date, not the status (still selection made).

Hello everyone! I have applied for long-term research stay for doctoral candidates and yesterday I have received message on the Portal saying that I got the scholarship! Official award letter should follow soon. My application status has not changed and is still 'selection made', so don't feel too anxious if there are no changes in your status either, apparently the selection process itself does not necessarily correlate with changes in portal. Good luck to everyone who is still waiting!

Public Health in Berlin. DAAD scholarships are extremely competitive, we just have to live with it.

10% is actually not bad! ? One of the EPOS programs I know about had 800 applicants (worldwide) for ca. 40 places, so only 5% success rate.

I know for certain they do not start processing any applications until after the final deadline. Afterwards they check each applicant's file, and if there is anything wrong with your application (e.g. missing documents) they will write to you, but not before the cut-off date.

Indeed it was.

I have applied for a one-year grant too, my status is 'Paper copies received'. Last message I got was on 15. January. I do not expect any news until April.

Not me personally, but I know several people who received different research awards from DAAD consecutively, so it is certainly possible. DAAD even has a special funding program for their alumni, so they are keen on funding people continuously, especially under different funding schemes. Not at all, especially since your previous award was for a language course. In 99_ of cases, the project quality is the main deciding factor.

As @JJ2888said, do not worry about it much. Every regional DAAD office has different requirements and deadlines. E.g. I had to submit my documents online, as well as paper copies to my regional DAAD office. My status changed to paper copies received already, meaning that my country's DAAD office forwarded the documents to the DAAD HQ in Bonn. There will be no interview for me, only documents screening. So you see, practices differ a lot. I don't know if there will be interview requirement for you, it might also depend on the allocated quota DAAD has for your country, maybe they will only conduct documents screening (such as in my case). So don't lose hope!

Also relevant for @andrew51 and @Libertarian As I understood from reading posts from the last year, per-selection made means that you made it into another round: 1) for masters & PhD programs: now it's up to schools to examine your application and decide if they offer you a place. 2) for research/exchange: submitted proposals will be evaluated by a panel and either approved or rejected. There will be final DAAD committee meeting in March, where they will decide the final results. In April we can expect to hear if we were successful or not.

They will most likely ask you a bit about your previous research, and more in-depth about the research you are proposing, or about your motivation for joining that particular research project/group, and explain how you can contribute. And they will also ask about your motivation for doing Ph.D. -> see the next part of my answer below. First of all, you should ask yourself WHY do you want to do Ph.D. in the first place. Is it really crucial for you career? Do you want to become a professor one day? What benefit a Ph.D. has for you and for your community? You can also try studying another masters degree and try to get better GPA this time, so you can choose different school for your doctorate.

Hello! I might shed some light on your problem. I know for sure that universities in Czech Republic and Russia conduct interviews in 99.9% of cases, and very often also written examination. If you pass the basic screening which basically check your eligibility, you will be invited for the entrance exam - it's an administrative task, not a pre-selection based on merit. So no real emphasis on GPA from the admins, although it differs from uni to uni and also among faculties or even programs at the same university, depending on their requirements. Denmark and Finland are, to my best knowledge, more GPA oriented than e.g. Russia. Forget about reference letters, we do not really care about them in continental Europe, so it will not help you with your application at all. You have another problem - because of your GPA, you might have troubles securing a supervisor. Unless professors look for code monkeys or lab slaves, they tend to be picky. You must either have an excellent research proposal, or convince the professor you are bringing something truly special to his/her lab, some added value. Well, you are in tough spot. In all the countries you mentioned (unless the program is taught in English), you need to provide language certificate (usually B1 and above) BEFORE you start your studies, and in most cases the language certification is part of your application. Also, please note that in many cases, if the program is conducted in English, you need to pay higher tuition fees. So to summarize - the universities in the countries you mentioned will certainly take a look at your profile as a whole, and will not necessarily disqualify you for low GPA. The rest is up to you.

New update in my application submitted in November - application status just changed to 'paper copies received' (January) and I also received letter stating that the final decision will be made in March, thus the official results will come out in April.

Well, at least you know something and have some official information, you are not kept in the dark like the rest of us ? Judging from the previous years, great majority of applicants receive the final decision in April, so it's not uncommon.