DAAD WISE Scholarship

DAAD - Working Internships in Science and Engineering (WISE) Scholarship

A brief informal review

Contributed by: Basuhi Ravi (DAAD WISE Scholar, 2017)

DAAD stands for Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (Translation: German Academic Exchange Service) and before you proceed further, we would like to request you to read this page thoroughly. DAAD offers several types of merit based grants for study and research in Germany to Indian students but the only one applicable to you as undergraduates would be the WISE scholarship. It is for students in their third year (if B.Techs) and third or fourth year (if DDs) who wish to work on a project at a public or state-recognised German University or Research Institute. Again, we defer from repeating the information succinctly put on their webpage. Instead, we focus on the couple of the points that are not discussed there, and we do so while adhering to the chronological order of things. 

First, finding a project. 

Before even applying for the Scholarship, you need to find a research group that will host you for the project. And since the deadline for the application is obscenely early (1 November), it is imperative that you be on the lookout before October! You will mostly have to follow the standard ‘apping’ procedure. Sometimes one can also find PT Cell applications to German groups requiring DAAD for funding (be sure to pester your IC about this well before the deadline) but as you know that the coincidence of your interest and a PT Cell intern is a rather rare event, ‘apping’ is the safer route. After all, the point of DAAD is to pursue a project of your interest without having to worry about funding.

Next step is the application. 

The application portal opens around the end of September and remains open until the deadline (again, 1 November). It is a slightly tedious process: after you register at portal, you have to fill a PDF form, and several other documents which in turn need to be signed by authorities at the home and host institutions (details will be given in the portal). To have a hassle free process, it is important to start the final process of filling the application around 15th October. 

From our end, any document (No Objection Certificate, Proof of Enrollment - both of these will be provided on the portal) needs to be signed by the Dean of Academic Programmes (AP). To do this, you first need to get it signed by the Faculty Advisor, then the Head of the Dept. and only then can you submit it at Dean AP’s office. So you know why it takes time. From the host institution’s end, you will need a letter of invitation and a DAAD approval form. 

Other than this you will need a transcript, a CV and one letter of recommendation (again, they provide a form with subjective questions you must forward to your recommending authority, and have them fill it, print it and give it back to you in a sealed envelope). You also need to write a motivation letter and a description of the project. Everything except the LoR needs to be uploaded on the portal, which lumps it into one gigantic PDF and sends it back your way. You print this nearly 30 page document and then post/courier it to the DAAD Delhi office along with the LoR before the deadline.

After this, you just wait. In 2017, the results came in December 2016, around Christmas  and usually the results come before mid-January which is not too late. Something that we could observe in the selection statistics last year was that there seemed to be a sharp CPI bias. We had a sample space of 8 applicants out of whom 5 got selected. Even though the cut-off is 8.5, only those with a CPI above 9.2 made it through. This is not to discredit the importance of the motivation letter, the resume and the many other documents but it seemed to confirm what seniors usually had to say about DAAD’s stringent CPI categorisation. 

Once the results come (just a mail from DAAD congratulating you) you have a choice of either accepting or declining the award of the scholarship. Unlike MITACS, there are no further rounds for the award. 

After you accept the Scholarship you are given health insurance documents and need to fill out a form for Schengen VISA. It is advisable to book flight tickets well in advance. Choose a suitable date for your VISA appointment at VFS Global, which is simply a biometric registration along with the submission of the said documents. A week or two later you will get a confirmation and need to pick up your VISA & Passport from the VFS office. Alternatively you can have it mailed to you. 

I think this concludes the major part of the process. Everything that continues is now after you land in Germany, wherein you need to create a German bank account for your stipend to be transferred to. Such details are not entirely pertinent to the process so I choose to leave it out. 

I hope this was an informative read. Good luck in your search for internships!