(This letter is part of a series by The Indian Express where we bring to you the experiences of students at different foreign universities. From scholarships and loans to food and cultural experiences — students tell us how life is different in those countries and things they are learning other than academics)
Studying at a foreign university was my plan C, the first two being — working in a corporate firm and clearing Indian Air Force exams. However, since the other two did not pan out the way I wanted them to, I opted to study abroad.
I am from Dehradun and completed my education there. I graduated in foreign language studies with a degree in BA in German Studies from Doon University. Right after I completed my graduation, I was placed at an e-Commerce.
My plan A and B
However, life had its own plans. I graduated in 2020 and while I was hired in January, there was uncertainty about the joining date. Later, a nationwide lockdown was imposed. While I did get the job later, however, due to lay off I was unemployed.
I decided to move forward with my plan C, that is, studying at a foreign university. I began my research and unlike many students, who search by course, I instead searched by college as in Germany, the courses are unique and every college has different programmes to offer. It was then that I stumbled upon Technical University Darmstadt. I went through the courses offered by them and chose MA in Data and Discourse Studies for myself. This course basically teaches us how to analyse humanities data with the help of various tools such as Antcomc and Voyan.
Documents required for my course
Once, I applied to the college and got admission. I collected all my documents — graduation degree, marksheets of every semester separately, TOEFL score and posted them to Germany. I then started my Visa process and education known process. In Germany, anyone coming to study from abroad has to either have a blocked account so that you don’t go bankrupt and become dependent on the German government. If a candidate doesn’t have such an account, they can get a sponsorship letter from someone with some years of experience (5 years or so).
I also obtained a loan from the State Bank of India and since Germany doesn’t have any tuition fees, it was difficult to get the loan but the manager was helpful and found a clause in the rules which enabled me to take the loan.
Initially, my course was online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I finally came to Germany in February 2022.
Darmstadt, Hessen is a small town, next to Frankfurt. It takes half an hour to reach Darmstadt, Hessen from Frankfurt via train. In my experience, Germany is a cold place — both the temperature and the people. It is true that it has many opportunities for anyone and everyone but I still can’t wait to return to India. Everyone has different experiences, some say they like Germany, and some don’t. It also depends on the place you live in and what kind of people are there.
I like my course, as it is not very crowded and is very slowly and steadily developing in India. I don’t plan to stay abroad for long but for now, I am just going with the flow.
I am a reserved person and prefer having a small group of friends. So, I have two friends here, one of them is my batchmate. She is from Namibia and the second one is studying a design course at a different university, she is from Kenya. My batch has two more Indians.
Yashee with her friends
Staying in Germany, part-time jobs and more
I live in Groß-Zimmern, a small village near Darmstadt, Hessen, 20 minutes away from the main city. One campus of the university, where I study, is in the main city and the other campus of the university is on the outskirts. It’s a three-floor flat with a shared washroom and kitchen on each floor. I share my floor with three other Indians.
In Germany, there are three types of student accommodation setup— one is student dormitories provided by organisations such as bauverein and studentenwerk, the second is a private set-up provided by organisations such as GREEET Hotel and FIZZ and third is living in a flat. There is a residential crunch in the city.
I work two jobs apart from studying, both of which are inside the university. I work as a student assistant in the Exchange Student Housing Agency TU Darmstadt (ESHA) where I create a database of international students regarding their accommodation and communicate between international students and accommodation providers. In my second job, I work as a student assistant under Prof Julianne Nyhan, HDSM (Humanities, Data Science and Methodology) where I handle the media and communication.
In Germany, you can work 20 hours per week, I work for 60 hours per month. You can schedule your work timings to suit your studies. Since I am yet to complete my thesis, I prefer having the first three days and last days reserved to study and research for it and work between Wednesday to Friday. Though the money is not a lot, it is sufficient for me to handle my expenses.
Food in foreign land
Being a shuddh desi person, I don’t like the food in Germany and prefer proper Indian home cooked food. I cook every day and my dinner for the day generally becomes my lunch for the next day.
Though there are Indian grocery stores in Darmstadt, they are really expensive so I order my groceries from Frankfurt— they are more affordable and have more variety. Since they don’t deliver orders for less than 50 euros, I make a list and order groceries for 3-4 months together.
Advice for students
Since I am not a very outgoing person, I don’t prefer travelling a lot. Instead, I save that money and come back to India every six or seven months. I have been to India twice since I left.
As I miss my country a lot, therefore plan to pursue PhD in India only.
As a student abroad, my only advice would be, to go abroad only if you know how to be a responsible person as you will have to do everything by yourself. Know how to do things on time, keep your spirits high and balance everything.
