DAAD Applicants for 2016-17

[Veronica germany]

  On 3/23/2016 at 2:05 PM, zadigblue said:

So, I saw my status change to "Application Rejected" yesterday and got the official notification today as a message in the DAAD portal, rather than an email from DAAD New York like last year. This time they actually told me how many points I had achieved and that I "just marginally" missed being awarded the scholarship. So, that's too bad, but I'm actually happy to have received a more "personal" rejection letter this time.

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Menaing all decisions are now being communicated via the portal and not via a notification to the email before portal as normal

[x\/x\/x]

  On 3/23/2016 at 3:26 PM, aynrand said:

No. Am not applying from North America. I applied for a research grant for PhD program in Germany. Still no update.

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sorry, that litany of questions was too aggressive. Fingers are crossed that we all get some sort of resolution before the holiday. 

[aynrand]

  On 3/23/2016 at 4:07 PM, x\/x\/x said:

sorry, that litany of questions was too aggressive. Fingers are crossed that we all get some sort of resolution before the holiday. 

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no worries. i didn't find it aggressive  yeah i hope we all hear something concrete before Friday.

[aynrand]

  On 3/23/2016 at 2:15 PM, s3v said:

I'm still sitting at Application Submitted for the Study Scholarship. Really would like to know if they're rejecting in small batches and I'm just waiting for the ax to fall or if I lucked out and am safe. More waiting...

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same here. still "Application Submitted" although i applied for research grant for phd program in Germany.

[Horb]

  On 3/23/2016 at 4:25 PM, aynrand said:

no worries. i didn't find it aggressive  yeah i hope we all hear something concrete before Friday.

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Germans usually take Thursday through Monday off for Easter, so today could be our last results day for this week.

[x\/x\/x]

  On 3/23/2016 at 4:39 PM, Horb said:

Germans usually take Thursday through Monday off for Easter, so today could be our last results day for this week.

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Thursday isn't a federal holiday, so all government offices/public institutions are still open.

[zadigblue]

  On 3/23/2016 at 2:20 PM, Horb said:

I hope they do this! I would love to know exactly what got me rejected.

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They didn't tell me the exact reason, although they did give me some insight into their process. The letter said that they had 400+ applicants for about 70 spots and that my application received a score of X out of 10, just marginally missing the scholarship. I don't know if everyone will receive such a letter, but I was actually glad to get it, since last year's rejection felt so sudden and cold.

It's a shame to miss out on it for the second year in a row, but I actually have a job offer in Germany that I can accept now and will still be within the "less than 15 months in Germany" restriction for next year, so I actually feel okay about it.

[zadigblue]

  On 3/23/2016 at 3:59 PM, Veronica germany said:

Menaing all decisions are now being communicated via the portal and not via a notification to the email before portal as normal

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In my case, I first saw my status change from "Application submitted" to "Application rejected", and then the next day I received an email saying that there was a message for me on the DAAD Portal. When I clicked on the line for my 2016/17 application, there was a little pdf attachment from the DAAD that contained my rejection letter.

  On 3/23/2016 at 4:41 PM, x\/x\/x said:

Thursday isn't a federal holiday, so all government offices/public institutions are still open.

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Yeah, but a lot of people take extra days off either before or after the Easter weekend, so things will be moving more slowly than usual. I work at a public research institute in Germany and the office is turning into a bit of a ghost town. On the other hand, they could be making a push to get out the notifications before Easter. Either way I hope the rest of you get your news soon!

[Horb]

  On 3/23/2016 at 4:41 PM, x\/x\/x said:

Thursday isn't a federal holiday, so all government offices/public institutions are still open.

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It is in some German states  and if daad Bonn is in charge of the portal we won't hear most likely. I know my uni closed on Thursday when I was there.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Horb

[x\/x\/x]

  On 3/23/2016 at 4:59 PM, Horb said:

It is in Germany  and if daad Bonn is in charge of the portal we won't hear

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Lol, no, it is not. Only Karfreitag and Ostermontag are legal holidays in Germany.  https://www.berlin.de/tourismus/infos/1887651-1721039-feiertage-schulferien.html

But zadigblue is right, things will likely move more slowly.

[Horb]

  On 3/23/2016 at 5:02 PM, x\/x\/x said:

Lol, no, it is not. Only Karfreitag and Ostermontag are legal holidays in Germany.  https://www.berlin.de/tourismus/infos/1887651-1721039-feiertage-schulferien.html

But zadigblue is right, things will likely move more slowly.

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I edited to clarify (sorry I'm on mobile). They always update their Facebook when they close so I'll check there.

[s3v]

  On 3/23/2016 at 5:16 PM, Horb said:

I edited to clarify (sorry I'm on mobile). They always update their Facebook when they close so I'll check there.

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Which fb page would be looking at?
They've got one for each country and then some more. :|

[Horb]

  On 3/23/2016 at 5:55 PM, s3v said:

Which fb page would be looking at?
They've got one for each country and then some more. :|

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Your country (for me NYC) because sometimes the offices follow the German schedule and shut down and the German one. I also check twitter. I also am a bit crazy as I'm on spring break and have nothing else to do...

[aynrand]

Sometimes I wish we could all get together and talk about DAAD 

[Veronica germany]

  On 3/23/2016 at 4:55 PM, zadigblue said:

In my case, I first saw my status change from "Application submitted" to "Application rejected", and then the next day I received an email saying that there was a message for me on the DAAD Portal. When I clicked on the line for my 2016/17 application, there was a little pdf attachment from the DAAD that contained my rejection letter.

Yeah, but a lot of people take extra days off either before or after the Easter weekend, so things will be moving more slowly than usual. I work at a public research institute in Germany and the office is turning into a bit of a ghost town. On the other hand, they could be making a push to get out the notifications before Easter. Either way I hope the rest of you get your news soon!

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Still on Application rejected. No official mail from DAAD till now. I am less interested anyways. I have grieved already and nothing else will make a difference except a miracle!

[flingstylejm]

I just came across this forum last week, when I started looking for people online who were also waiting for DAAD decision about the scholarship. I applied from North America last october and just recently got a response. My application status changed yesterday from "submitted" to "rejected". Today I got an official letter via portal stating that I was rejected. Anyway, it seems like they could only award 1/2 of the scholarships compared to previous years when something like 150-170 were handed out. On top of that, I did notice how Germany was getting more press about their no tuition programs, which I'm certain that could have increased the number of applications to 450's. One more thing  could be that DAAD's budget was downsized, at least for NA because they introduced new scholarships for refugees in Germany. Seeing how that is a political priority now, I'm not surprised that the chances of getting a scholarship were slim to none.

Anyway, I'm still thinking of a way to finance my master's studies in Germany, although being rejected does make things much harder. Perhaps if someone is in a similar situation, we could talk more.

Best regards to those who are still waiting

Edited March 23, 2016 by flingstylejm

[Veronica germany]

  On 3/23/2016 at 6:48 PM, flingstylejm said:

I just came across this forum last week, when I started looking for people online who were also waiting for DAAD decision about the scholarship. I applied from North America last october and just recently got a response. My application status changed yesterday from "submitted" to "rejected". Today I got an official letter via portal stating that I was rejected. Anyway, it seems like they could only award 1/2 of the scholarships compared to previous years when something like 150-170 were handed out. On top of that, I did notice how Germany was getting more press about their no tuition programs, which I'm certain that could have increased the number of applications to 450's. One more thing  could be that DAAD's budget was downsized, at least for NA because they introduced new scholarships for refugees in Germany. Seeing how that is a political priority now, I'm not surprised that the chances of getting a scholarship were slim to none.

Anyway, I'm still thinking of a way to finance my master's studies in Germany, although being rejected does make things much harder. Perhaps if someone is in a similar situation, we could talk more.

Best regards to those who are still waiting

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That is the spirit. Great

[SNP3]

  On 3/23/2016 at 6:48 PM, flingstylejm said:

I just came across this forum last week, when I started looking for people online who were also waiting for DAAD decision about the scholarship. I applied from North America last october and just recently got a response. My application status changed yesterday from "submitted" to "rejected". Today I got an official letter via portal stating that I was rejected. Anyway, it seems like they could only award 1/2 of the scholarships compared to previous years when something like 150-170 were handed out. On top of that, I did notice how Germany was getting more press about their no tuition programs, which I'm certain that could have increased the number of applications to 450's. One more thing  could be that DAAD's budget was downsized, at least for NA because they introduced new scholarships for refugees in Germany. Seeing how that is a political priority now, I'm not surprised that the chances of getting a scholarship were slim to none.

Anyway, I'm still thinking of a way to finance my master's studies in Germany, although being rejected does make things much harder. Perhaps if someone is in a similar situation, we could talk more.

Best regards to those who are still waiting

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flingstylejm,

Sorry to hear about the rejection, but thanks for the update. Just out of curiosity, did the DAAD state they that could only award 1/2 of the scholarships as compared to last year, or is that speculation. 

 

Also, to avoid confusion, may I propose that we include the program we applied for, which DAAD office we correspond to, and the status on our portals in each of our posts? I figure it could help faster understand where other people are in the application process. It could look something like this:

 

Study Scholarship, DAAD NY, portal status: selection made. 

[Horb]

  On 3/23/2016 at 8:15 PM, SNP3 said:

flingstylejm,

Sorry to hear about the rejection, but thanks for the update. Just out of curiosity, did the DAAD state they that could only award 1/2 of the scholarships as compared to last year, or is that speculation. 

 

Also, to avoid confusion, may I propose that we include the program we applied for, which DAAD office we correspond to, and the status on our portals in each of our posts? I figure it could help faster understand where other people are in the application process. It could look something like this:

 

Study Scholarship, DAAD NY, portal status: selection made. 

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I love this idea! We can also use our status option if people don't want to keep re-writing it.

 

Intensive Language Grant, DAAD NY, portal status: selection made

[abreak]

  On 3/23/2016 at 8:32 PM, Horb said:

I love this idea! We can also use our status option if people don't want to keep re-writing it.

 

Intensive Language Grant, DAAD NY, portal status: selection made

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Yeah, that's a good idea.

(Testing to see if I did the status right).

[flingstylejm]

Study Scholarship, DAAD NY, portal status: application rejected.

Also, about the amount of scholarships being awarded, well they have a list of winners from previous years categorized by graduate/undergraduate. I looked it up and from 2012-2015 they had roughly 150-170 winners if I'm not mistaken. This year, however, they stated in the letter that only (if I recall correctly) 72  could be awarded, so roughly 1/2. Just my input, not official. But the numbers do add up.

[sat0ri]

I was considering applying to the DAAD short term (~6 months) research grant award. I have a great professor at LMU (Munich) lined up as well as a project I am extremely enthusiastic about (synthetic chemistry; next generation chemotherapy). I'm wondering if anyone knows how competitive the research award is--sorry, I know that is a broad question. I'm especially worried because I would be a post-bacc student, and they website says they prefer PhD's and post-docs. I've scrolled through the pages and it seems like things are getting very competitive for DAAD, to make matters worse. Does anyone know what makes an applicant competitive (GPA, publications, etc)?

[eigthy]

Hello everyone!

I am one of the stalkers and now I decided to join in. I share the anxiety with you and can't stop checking the online portal.

And all of you who got rejected, I'm so sorry. But I believe if there's a will, there's a way  

My status changed to selection made last Monday and I thought that means they have made the decision and I just have to wait for funding or rejection. As I'm getting more and more impatient every day, then I decided to ask some information about that selection made status through portal. Summarized answer was that the decisions are not made yet and I have to wait for the official letter via DAAD-portal after the decision is made. I am very confused right now as the status is selection made and actually the selection is not made. I just wanted to share that piece of information with you.

Study Scholarship, DAAD LV, status: Selection Made

[Veronica germany]

  On 3/24/2016 at 7:26 AM, eigthy said:

Hello everyone!

I am one of the stalkers and now I decided to join in. I share the anxiety with you and can't stop checking the online portal.

And all of you who got rejected, I'm so sorry. But I believe if there's a will, there's a way  

My status changed to selection made last Monday and I thought that means they have made the decision and I just have to wait for funding or rejection. As I'm getting more and more impatient every day, then I decided to ask some information about that selection made status through portal. Summarized answer was that the decisions are not made yet and I have to wait for the official letter via DAAD-portal after the decision is made. I am very confused right now as the status is selection made and actually the selection is not made. I just wanted to share that piece of information with you.

Study Scholarship, DAAD LV, status: Selection Made

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Thanks for the update. with your findings, the process seems to be fairly understood as being in this steps:  1. All stages of Screening-  2. either Rejection / Selection Made - 3. Decision Made  ( Funding or Rejection).  Meaning rejection is two levels; portal rejection and confirmation email.

 

Can someone else please engage this view point?

 

PhD Research- DAAD, Status: Ist level Rejection as seen on portal 

Edited March 24, 2016 by Veronica germany

[abreak]

  On 3/24/2016 at 3:16 AM, sat0ri said:

I was considering applying to the DAAD short term (~6 months) research grant award. I have a great professor at LMU (Munich) lined up as well as a project I am extremely enthusiastic about (synthetic chemistry; next generation chemotherapy). I'm wondering if anyone knows how competitive the research award is--sorry, I know that is a broad question. I'm especially worried because I would be a post-bacc student, and they website says they prefer PhD's and post-docs. I've scrolled through the pages and it seems like things are getting very competitive for DAAD, to make matters worse. Does anyone know what makes an applicant competitive (GPA, publications, etc)?

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I can't speak to exact statistics, but I think it's fair to assume that all DAAD scholarships are pretty competitive. On the website it says that the two most important criteria for selection are:

1. a convincing and well-planned research project or course of continuing education

2. academic achievements

It sounds like you already have a well-planed project. As for achievements, I'd say they'd be looking for other scholarships or awards, publications/conference presentations, GPA, perhaps things that your referees say about you (e.g. "graduated in the top of their class," or something like that).

Edited March 24, 2016 by abreak