I don't think you are the only one feeling like this. I am enganged as well and I am putting the wedding on hold until I am finished with the PhD. I will be 28 then. I don't mind that too much because a lot of people here (I am based in Germany) grduate from university with an undergraduate degree at that age, and I will have achieved so much more by then! My fiancee is a bit annoyed that we will only get married in a while instead of right now but he is going to stick with me. Sometimes it's hard, but I just think that it's a gift being able to pursue a PhD and I would be really mad at myself forever if I didn't go all the way even though I could have done it.

I haven't actually studied there myself but I know a couple people who did and they were full of praise. I know someone who is doing an economics PhD at the Humboldt Univrsity, and he is really happy there. Good research atmosphere, nice staff and very capable and friendly professors. Of course, this could be different in other departments, but the university has a good reputation in Germany.
Also, Berlin is awesome and much cheaper than other European cities of its size.

Thanks for that. Sometimes it can already help a lot to know you are not the only one going through certain things. Calculation mistakes are the worst! But better find them now than have them found during the viva!

Hello everybody,

I guess everyone goes through lots of ups and downs whilst doing a PhD, I just feel that whenever everything's going really well, something really tricky is already lurking behind the corner. I had a really good last two weeks, when writing up went smoothly, but it was too good to be true once again because today I discovered a calculation mistake that ruins all my results and causes me not only to redo all calculations (that wouldn't be so bad) but to differntiate different cases and adds even more complications to my chapter. I hate it! Sorry to be complaining like this - I know it is part of the whole process but it just annoys me so bad. Instead of working on resolving the current problem, I spent the whole morning procrastinating.

Hi Den,

I don't live in Munich, but I have heard that Schwabing is supposedly nice. Lots of students. But it also seems to be quite hard to find an affordable place there. However, I think on 2000€/month, you should be able to live quite well.

I still doubt the idea with the car is a good one. For travelling within Europe, getting a discount card for the railways system is much better. I think that being Canadian, you should be able to buy a pass that allows you to travel for a lot cheaper within Europe than what you would usually pay. I think if you had a car, it would be hardly possible to find a suitable apartment because there is no parking whatsoever.

I am a second year econ PhD in Germany. As for me, I don't plan to stay in academia. If you have a PhD in Germany, it is much easier to score the job you want and the pay is much better than without.

About the car: I have no clue whether you could lease a car in Germany being Canadian but generally I think it isn't very advisable to own a car in a city the size of Munich. Public transport is very good there. And I doubt you will have the money to even afford a car if you should get the scholarship because you will have to spend it all on rent.. (see my answer to your other post)...

Good luck with that one, too.

Hi again,

depending on which university in Munich you intend to got to, quality may differ (also depending on the subject of your studies). However, both the Ludwig-Maximilian- and the Technical University are amongst the best universities in Germany. I don't know about the scholarship procedure, even though I would imagine it to be very competitive. I am also in economics, which department are you applying for? The way it usually works is that you work as a research or teaching assistant whilst doing the PhD. Usually, you aren't required to take many courses, it is mostly teaching and writing the dissertation. Could depend on the chair you are working for, though.

Dear Den,

you must be very cost-tolerant to tolerate what you will have to pay if you get the accomodation you decribed. Munich is VERY expensive. As far as I know, there is no student accomodation for PhD students. Are you German? If not, the university might be able to help you finding a place. Usually they don't do that. For a 30m² apartment in Munich any were kind of close (less than half an hour train ride) to the university, you can very well expect to pay at least 700 €/month, including utilities. Good luck!

Hi there,

I was just wondering whether any of you have to supervise students doing writing their master's thesis? That is part of my job description and I am very fed up with this one guy who is looking for a topic just now. Every advice I give him, he doesn't listen and does totally unrelated stuff instead. A day before our meetings, he usually either cancels or send me pages and pages of irrelevant information he expects me to read before our meeting. I am so annoyed. And I have told him, but he doesn't seem to understand. All this takes time away from my own research time, so I am really fed up.

Any of you experience something similar?

Thanks to all of you for your insights.

I took the plunge yesterday and tried to speak to him about his behaviour. He didn't get it! He didn't see it as a problem at all and didn't even know what I was talking about! So I decided there is no reason to speak to him at all about this any more. If he doesn't understand that there is a problem, it is just time wasted.

I am really uncertain whether my supervisor realizes what problems we are encountering with this guy. He always manages to make himself look normal when the supervisor is there. Sometimes I think, though, that the supervisor must know. How could she not notice the tense atmosphere? But what if she really doesn't know? I cannot very well go and tell her...

I am really mad at myself for obsessing about this but he is so annoying and keeps me from doing what I should be doing...

I usually get along with most people just fine. Obviously, I don't like everyone but I have never experienced anything like this: there is this other PhD student in my department who I really start hating. He only cares about himself, doesn't coordinate important things with the other PhD students there and is all over the place. He makes us others work more so he can lay back and do nothing and the worst thing is, our supervisor doesn't seem to notice! We can't very well tell on him since we have to continue working together (he is researching somehting different than me but we have to coordinate for teaching) for at least another 2 years. I am so mad at him right now because somehow he managed to get out of a quite undesirable task this morning , and now I have to do it!

Is there by any chance someone else out there experiencing the same problems?

There isn't a lot of teaching involved for PhDs at most German universities. Most simply require that you write the dissertation and come in for a talk about it at the end. A few also require you to take some courses, but mostly, it is just your own research that you are doing. And you could do that from Russia I guess. Depends on the supervisor as well, I would say. Any way, I think you have far more choices than the university in Hagen. English mostly isn't a problem; however, you'd better check with the respective university for that.

I would advise to find out what you would like to do research on and then find an appropriate supervisor.

Hi anirudh_1984!

I know of a guy who started a PhD in computer science at a US university after obtaining his undergraduate degree. After doing the first year, he decided that the PhD wasn't for him, so he told his supervisor. It wasn't a problem at all - he did another year and graduated with a master's degree.

Maybe you shoudl follow that path as well - just try doing the PhD and if it doesn't work out, I am sure they will still let you graduate with only a masters. As far as I understand, the masters is part of any PhD in the US any way.

Hey abs08,

when I started my PhD, the only thing I knew was that I didn't want to deal with the same topic again that I had worked on in my master's thesis (I am in Economics). So basically, I started reading whatever articles interested me and that way determined that education economics was still my preferred area of research. Then I started looking for aspects that might be interesting and that hadn't been worked on. After about half a year, I decided I had taken enough of a break and started working on my master's thesis topic once again. I am still happy with it!

I also found it helps to write every little idea down somewhere. Even if it is small and not really an idea, it helps to have it on paper. And you never know, maybe when you read it a couple of weeks later it will prove to be useful.

Good luck!

I do my PhD in Germany where it is usually connected to being a research assistant to a professor at university. In my case, this means I teach a tutorial of 2 hours/week and grade exams for about 6 - 10 weeks each year full-time.

Sounds like a lot maybe but I actually enjoy it and there is nothing better to get your mind off the dissertation.