The DAAD WISE Scholarship for India Detailed Guidance and Suggestions tinyurl.com/daad-wise From the DAAD Young Ambassadors 2012-13

Thank you for considering the DAAD WISE scholarship for summer internships in Germany. We, the Young Ambassadors, receive a lot of e-mail from applicants with queries about various stages of the application process for this scholarship. The formal information documents pertaining to these scholarships give only the basic instructions, and do not delve in detail on informal information about the application process or further suggestions and guidance. This is because it falls as part of your application process to find out for yourself the informal know-how you need to make your application. However, the Young Ambassadors are here to extend some informal supplementary help to you in an effort to make your application process smoother. In this document we shall cover the points about the application process that generate the most questions. Note that not all of the information presented here will remain unaltered in future as the rules and layout evolve, so use this document only as an informal guide.

If you are ready to go, read on below for a step-wise list of information and directions that will help you start taking the necessary steps to apply for this scholarship:

1. Visit the DAAD India website. The Scholarships for India tab on the right takes you to the page that always stays updated with the latest information on all available DAAD scholarships for Indian students. Even in future if you are looking for other scholarships, this is the page you need to visit.

2. Under the Students tab you will find the Working Internships in Science and Engineering (WISE) scholarship.

3. The first thing to do is to click on the List of Institutions to check whether your institution is among the eligible Indian institutes whose students can apply for this scholarship. If your institute is not in this list, you unfortunately cannot apply for this scholarship.

4. The scholarship name is a link to the announcement PDF, the most important document pertaining to the scholarship. Read all sections of this announcement PDF very carefully.

5. There is a minimum CGPA criterion in the announcement. This, like the other requirements of the program, is a strict criterion. If your CGPA at the time of application is below this threshold, your application wont be considered.

6. Under the Application column you will find links to other important documents that are required for the application. Read the announcement PDF and identify the uses of these documents.

7. Under the Deadline column you will find the deadline. This is the deadline by which your application should have reached the DAAD office in New Delhi.

So far, do all of the criteria check out for you? If yes, good news! You are an eligible student for applying for the scholarship. Lets now go step-wise through the information you need to go about applying.

1. Your first step will be to find a German professor at a university or research institute who will agree to host you for the summer. (Remember that the duration should not exceed 90 days.) The DAAD will not help you find, initiate contact with, or correspond with any German professor. So how do you go about getting yourself a German host?

a. Browse German university websites to find professors and research groups (research is Forschung in German) whose work interests you. The websites of more well-established universities have translated versions, whereas for others you might have to use a translation tool. In any case, those professors and groups whose research profile is described in English will definitely use this language at work, so it is safer to focus on them.

b. Once you find a professor or research group you like, take some time going through their work, past publications and current investigation topics. This background research is vital to prepare your initial contact with them.

c. Every research group has a group leader. Your next step is to e-mail them (in the case of a professor not in a group, directly e-mail them) about your wish to work with their group over summer. This correspondence is crucial, so you should keep some points in mind at this time:

i. No mass-mailing. If your e-mail reads like a generic text that is being sent to many people, you are likely to not get a positive response to the e-mail, in most cases no response at all.

ii. Sound like youve done your homework. Mention which of their work you have gone through and which parts appealed to you. Assert how your experience will thus be relevant and productive to the groups current research topic. This ups your chances of acceptance by a great margin.

iii. Pack all information in one e-mail. Dont send a brief initiation e-mail and expect to send follow-ups with more information. Professors tend to stay busy so if they have the complete picture in one e-mail thats much better. Briefly explain about the DAAD just to be safe. Attach your CV. Give them information that is enough for them to make up their mind about hosting you. In all probability you will be exchanging more e-mails if you are considered for acceptance, but for a first contact this is the way to go.

iv. Be concise. Even after packing all this in, try to be as concise and brief as possible. Assume your recipient to be a very busy person, as in all likelihood they will be.

v. Be patient. A professor might take time to reply. Dont send them further e-mail during this time. A single reminder e-mail after around two weeks should be sufficient. If you receive no reply even after that, move on to another professor. This is why you should start your search for the German host with enough time to spare.

2. If a professor agrees, congratulations! Your trickiest hurdle is over. Obtain the acceptance-cum-invitation letter from them. This must mention that your accommodation etc. will be taken care of. Also obtain the filled approval form from them. These are to be scanned and e-mailed to you.

3. About all the other necessary paperwork, please take a good look through this archive. (Click on File > Download to download it to your computer.) Inside you will find both the information documents we have referred to thus far, and also some of the documents that you need to submit for your application. These are filled-in documents for DAAD Young Ambassador Abhranil Das, who was awarded the WISE scholarship at the University of Hamburg in 2011. Those documents in the archive that are prefixed with ! are required for the application, whereas the others are required once you are awarded the scholarship. A reminder again: the format and relevance of some of the application documents may have changed with time, so use these documents only as example and for guidance, and always refer to the current announcement and instructions for up-to-date details.

We hope this will be useful and sufficient information for you to proceed with the application for the DAAD WISE scholarship. If you know someone who needs this guidance, do share this document with them. It is always available at tinyurl.com/daad-wise, and the archive at tinyurl.com/daad-wise-docs. If you have any questions about this scholarship or about funding and education programs in Germany in general, visit the Young Ambassadors section of the DAAD India website and shoot an e-mail to any of us. We shall be happy to answer your questions or direct your issue to the right person in the DAAD family.

Take that step, because Germany is possible.

Viel Glck!

DAAD Young Ambassadors 2012-13