Masters in Europe (?)

Hey there,

If you are looking for applying to Masters course in Europe (EU) then this page could be one of the first guides you can follow. Masters in EU comes perhaps in many more flavors than anywhere else in the world. As you may have read on the Home page about me, I have done masters in France in Computer Vision and I am a strong advocate of EU as a Masters/Research destination for several reasons. I'd also like to start a small forum wherein you can get some guidance about applying to EU for Masters, so if you already have done masters in EU or doing it and willing to help new students, please let me know, so that I can add you to the mailing lists. If you require any help from our team, please find the complete list of collaborators here.

"Why are you studying/doing research in Europe?" is perhaps one of the most frequently asked question to me from my peers, friends and colleagues. To answer it in brief, if you are looking for a challenging masters curriculum and you like to follow a different path than most others, then masters in Europe could be your thing. I always liked to follow a different path than most others, combining that with the awesome experience I had in Bremen doing my bachelors' thesis. I knew that I am coming back to Europe without any hesitation before I headed back to India. There are however few issues when you choose Europe as your destination, all the universities here are at par with any other university in the world but do not rank higher in global rankings, one of the reason being, they don't score high in peer ratings which are more often deciding factors in ranking and the reason for that is obviously, most of the universities in Europe don't give a damn to ranking systems. They are usually happy in just getting a good research done and publishing it in good places. Europe has few of the very prestigious institutes in the world but surprisingly they are not the only ones to do good research. You will often come across very good research projects from not very well known universities in Europe.

After a brief discussion not so relevant to the title at the top of this page, I will actually get down to writing more about the application process. For more help about the application process follow this link. If you are already aware of the Application procedure, or even before actually applying, you can proceed to take a look at the few positives of doing Masters in Europe.

1. Most importantly in Europe, as compared to anywhere else, Education is almost entirely free in most of the universities as they are State universities and curriculum is funded either by Federal, State or European government. You can expect to pay not more than €500 per semester in most of the European universities irrespective of the ranking of the University.
2. European universities usually put more emphasis on your profile rather than your score in Language tests, as long as you have scored above average in Language/Quantitative tests you don't have to worry about going through that barrier. More often than you think, you may get accepted in European University for something seemingly insignificant but radical work you may have done in the past. (I am making this claim from the knowledge I gained after talking to several professors who are often involved in selection process for universities, this is however not an official policy)
3. Applying to Universities is simple and mostly inexpensive, in most cases, being a public university they won't charge you anything for applying, although some Universities may charge a nominal administrative processing fee. To find a suitable masters course/university for your interests may be you would like to take a look at the page here.
4. Most universities in Europe, once you are selected, will support you throughout the process of obtaining visa all the way to getting settled in University apartment. They usually have strong local student networks, such as Studentenwerk in Germany or CROUS in France etc.
5. Foreign language is a small issue while staying in Europe, if you are staying in a country such as France, or smaller towns in Germany or Netherlands, you are advised to have a basic communication proficiency in local language. This comes in handy when you are going around your daily life in the town outside University, most of the Universities will have a support staff and senior students who will however help you get settled.

P.S. DAAD India is actively promoting the Master's courses in Germany, for more information please visit this Link