How can a german student apply for the universities of the US?

[eddieding 0]

I come from China, but I 'm now studying in Germany for a diplom degree. My major is energy system technology. After my graduation from Germany I wanna continue my PHD study in the US, so are there any students here with the same intention or anybody from Germany with the same experiences? How does everything work in such kind of applying! Thanks very much for sharing your valuable experiences and opinions!

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

I come from China, but I 'm now studying in Germany for a diplom degree. My major is energy system technology. After my graduation from Germany I wanna continue my PHD study in the US, so are there any students here with the same intention or anybody from Germany with the same experiences? How does everything work in such kind of applying! Thanks very much for sharing your valuable experiences and opinions!

Since you are a Chinese immigrant, you should apply first to your degree of preference with the American University (website, mail, etc) and pretty much get accepted by completing all the steps, including tests, requirements, etc. After you get accepted, you should apply through the US embassy in your country of origin, in this case China. Show all the supporting documentation, including financial support, acceptance letter from the American university, among other supporting documents, the US embassy will advice you on this.

When I applied, I first had to come as a tourist in order to complete the tests prior to my acceptance, don't know what steps you will have follow, the university will advice you on this.

Edited April 24, 2009 by TävôLuDô

[eddieding 0]

I come from China, but I 'm now studying in Germany for a diplom degree. My major is energy system technology. After my graduation from Germany I wanna continue my PHD study in the US, so are there any students here with the same intention or anybody from Germany with the same experiences? How does everything work in such kind of applying! Thanks very much for sharing your valuable experiences and opinions!

Since you are a Chinese immigrant, you should apply first to your degree of preference with the American University (website, mail, etc) and pretty much get accepted by completing all the steps, including tests, requirements, etc. After you get accepted, you should apply through the US embassy in your country of origin, in this case China. Show all the supporting documentation, including financial support, acceptance letter from the American university, among other supporting documents, the US embassy will advice you on this.

When I applied, I first had to come as a tourist in order to complete the tests prior to my acceptance, don't know what steps you will have follow, the university will advice you on this.

Thanks for your help. As you know that there is difference between the scoring system of the german universities and the GPA system of american universities, so how can people change the test score of german universities to the GPA of american universities?

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

I come from China, but I 'm now studying in Germany for a diplom degree. My major is energy system technology. After my graduation from Germany I wanna continue my PHD study in the US, so are there any students here with the same intention or anybody from Germany with the same experiences? How does everything work in such kind of applying! Thanks very much for sharing your valuable experiences and opinions!

Since you are a Chinese immigrant, you should apply first to your degree of preference with the American University (website, mail, etc) and pretty much get accepted by completing all the steps, including tests, requirements, etc. After you get accepted, you should apply through the US embassy in your country of origin, in this case China. Show all the supporting documentation, including financial support, acceptance letter from the American university, among other supporting documents, the US embassy will advice you on this.

When I applied, I first had to come as a tourist in order to complete the tests prior to my acceptance, don't know what steps you will have follow, the university will advice you on this.

Thanks for your help. As you know that there is difference between the scoring system of the german universities and the GPA system of american universities, so how can people change the test score of german universities to the GPA of american universities?

That you will have to check with the American University, my guess is that it won't be any problem, in Mexico we have a grade system of 1-10, 10 being excellent and 5 a not passing grade whereas the US has a 1-4.0 GPA system. I didn't have any issues with my high school diploma when I applied.

Come on organizers, this thread doesn't belong to OT

Edited April 24, 2009 by TävôLuDô

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Any self-respecting university has a whole Division (or at least an office) where they provide support to international students. What I would do in your case is FIRST identify the PhD program (or programs) you are interested in; then figure out who the contact for the international Student office is; and they are usually quite helpful with both immigration and admission processes.

Also, get your Chinese AND German transcripts ready to be translated -if need be; some universities prefer to conduct the translation in-house.

Best of luck.

[Old Dominion 26]

The university you select will handle the matter of evaluating your course records, once they have official transcripts. The official transcripts must be sent by the German university directly to the one in the U.S. or otherwise carried in a sealed envelop by you.

[Philosykos 0]

I am German and got a PhD in the US. My situation was kind of special because I was in contact with the professor before I even thought of applying to the school. This experience leads me to recommend to try to establish contact with the professor with whom you would like to work in the program of your choice before you apply. If you can get him/her interested in your research, they might work wonders for getting you accepted, and getting you funding. I would not have passed the administrative level of the application process of my public university if my adviser hadn't supported me, because I needed full funding, and penniless foreign students are expensive for public schools (non-resident tuition all the way through the program). It is different with private schools - they don't care where you're from, because state residency doesn't matter. In general, there is next to no funding sources from Germany to complete an entire program in the US, so for a German student the funding has to come from the US if they have no funds of their own. (I'm not sure how any of these things work in your field (I'm in humanities).)

Regarding the transcripts, I had to translate everything into English, including the grades, which I transposed from the German to the American system (A, B, C, D, F, not GPA numbers). I got the translations certified at the international office of my German university, and submitted both translations and certified copies of the originals. I asked them to seal everything in an envelope (back then, German universities didn't issue transcripts, what I had was the individual course certificates collected over the years from individual professors; not sure if that has changed with the current switch to the BA/MA system).

Best of luck!

Edited April 27, 2009 by Philosykos