3/08/2006

First Steps
You want to start doctoral studies in the University of Hamburg (Uni-Hamburg for short). You are confused with the German system and you ask yourself: How does it function? Where do I go? How do I start? What do I do?

The first thing to do is to get information. Remember, information is power. There are many questions to be answered first: How does the education system in Hamburg, Germany work? What do they mean by "doctoral studies"? What is the process of getting a doctoral studies in the Uni-Hamburg? What are the "rules"?

Well, for one, one has to know that there is no doctoral program, that I know of, in the Uni-Hamburg. Contrary to the US and the UK, where one has to enroll in a programme where one takes classes and writes the dissertation at the end, one has to work on the dissertation and the research project. So to be a "doktorand" (German for doctoral student), one has just to be writing his or her doctoral dissertation.

Now, it seemed to me that it was superficially easy to do a doctorate in the Uni-Hamburg. Like I said before one just needed to start writing the dissertation and be accepted in the university. But it is a bit more complicated than that.

Once you decide to write a doctoral dissertation, you (a foreign student) have to take several steps.

The first step is to begin planning when will you be applying. Theoretically there is no deadline to apply for a doctorate at the university, as one can apply any time of the year. But, one has to keep in mind nevertheless the admission deadlines in either the Winter-Spring semester or the Summer semester. These dates are as follows: You can apply for the Winter-Spring semester from 1 June to 15 July of every year, for the following semester. For the Summer semester you can apply from 1 December to 15 January, again, for the following year. Generally, I think, it is a good idea to plan about a half a year early to a year. In this society you'll gain many friends if you learn to plan early.

If you are comming from overseas, think about where will you be staying, how expensive is life in Hamburg, medical insurance, possible places for part-time work, etc. In the next year or so I will be writing about some, or all, of these topics in an attempt to provide more information for foreign students who want to do a doctorate in the University of Hamburg.

Now, you have the date when you can apply. The second step is to start planning how to get the application ready.

But, before you send the application read the other posts in this website, as they will be telling you how to go about filling the application, what other documents you need to complete your application package and how to collect them. So read on.....

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