3/16/2006

Things to Think About Before Applying
Before we get to the filling of the application, there are several important things to think about.

The first one is your dissertation topic.

How do you find a topic? There are several books that will give you an idea on how to do this. I recommend "The Craft of Research" by Booth, Colomb and Williams. It helped me a lot on getting into the search of my topic. However, one general way of getting a topic is thinking about what you are interested and asking the questions beginning with HOW, WHY or WHAT. Try to think in terms of causation, that is how does this causes that? or why is it that this results on that?

The topic, logically, is a very important part of the application process. Everyone you will talk to will ask about your topic. It is very important that you really think about this carefully. It doesn't need to be ground braking, it just needs to be mind-boggling.

The second thing is the so called "Dr Vater" (Dr Father).

In the University of Hamburg one needs to have a Dr Vater. That would be kind of the chair of your dissertation committee. This is the person under whom you will be writing your work. He supervises your progress and along gives you guidence and some good advice. He has to be a professor from the University.

There needs to be a common ground between his research interests and yours. I would suggest you to look in the university's website for the personal websites of the professors and try to pick a list of five or six. Then, give them a visit or contact them to talk about the possibility of you doing a doctorate under their supervision. Many will turn you down or perhaps you will disqualify them because it is just no match. Hopefully there will be one or two who are able to do it and you like, of course.

The third thing to think about is the recognition or validation of your degree.

If you have a degree, like a masters or other kind of degree from a university outside Germany, you have to think about the recognition process. Usually what you have to do is to go to the faculty in which you want to do your dissertation. For example for me was the faculty of Social Science, and more importantly, the Institute for Political Science. The University of Hamburg is organized into faculties and institutes. So one is a student of a faculty and institute.

Talk first with the people in your respective institute. Try to find out who is the person responsible for the degree recognition. At the same time try to find out what is his name and where is his or her office. This information will be useful to find them in the university's website. If you can, call the person before you go. What usually happens is that they only have certain visit hours when they attend to the public. Often they are in vacation or they simply change their hours. Usually you'll have to make two to three trips before you meet with this person.

Try to be as detailed and explicit as possible so you get to talk with the right person.

Finally, think of the level of your German.

Many foreign students have to have a proficient level of German to even start any studies in the university. Luckily, English is the second scientific language in Germany and if you speak English you have one relatively less hurdle to pass. The dissertation can be written in English, but the rest of the work, talking with professors, going to classes, doing your paperwork, application, dealing with bureaucracy, is done in German. So it is advisable to have at least a basic level of communication in German. After all, you are in Germany and the language here is German. There is no way out. :-)

Give yourself about two years to be somewhat fluent, but not perfect! :-)

 [click to read]