The DAAD WISE Scholarship

It's a common practice for third-year engineering students in India to carry out internships during their summer break. Some prefer working in the industry and applying to top companies in their fields, while others may prefer to research niche topics in great labs and universities. Often, Indian students are seen applying to international research internships, due to the excellent resources, new environment, and the value it adds to one’s CV!

There are several such international programs, specially targeted for Indian students pursuing their bachelor's: Can be found here: Github.

Some of the popular programs are — MITACS(Canada), NTU India Connect(Singapore), Charpak(France), IUSSTF-Viterbi (USA), and the DAAD WISE (Germany). This blog will be focussed on the DAAD-WISE Scholarship which help me carry out a fully funded research project in Germany over the Summer!

About the DAAD WISE Scholarship

All required information for the scholarship is provided on this DAAD Website. But, one thing that students need to remember is that securing the internship and the scholarship are two separate things altogether. First, we need to secure an internship from a German Supervisor.

The Internship

All students require an Invitation Letter and Approval Form signed by a German Supervisor/Professor before applying for the scholarship. For this, students usually cold-email professors requesting a position at their labs. Some tips to make this tiring process a bit easier —

1. Be Patient, and have a plan. You want a public university/research institute in Germany. There are 100s of options present but most students try for the TU9 System of universities. It's not mandatory to secure an internship here, just make sure you find a professor whose work aligns with your interest and the university hardly matters!
2. I used to search [Uni Name] [Dept Name] to look for professors. Please make a list and try to go through some of their work, projects, and even papers. Note some interesting details that you must have encountered.
3. Draft a good email (cover letter): introducing yourself, showcasing your interest, and how you would like an internship position under the professor. Try to keep the mail short and to the point explaining how you can be a good fit. [Please don't use ChatGPT😅]
4. Attach your resume/CV and transcripts with the email. In every email, mention that you will not require any external funding from them as you plan to use the DAAD WISE scholarship for this purpose. This reduces the friction and makes it easier for them to hire international students
5. Try to send your emails at 9 am Germany time (CEST), you can schedule the emails accordingly. Always CC the Post Docs, Ph.D. students, and secretary of the same lab that you intend to apply.
6. Lastly, you can follow up with a mail after 4–5 days if there is no reply. Even if this doesn't do the needful, then just move on to other options — maybe it's just a bad day😅

If you were not able to land an internship even after following the above steps, don't be disheartened! There are several other Programs and you can always apply to the top institutions in our country (IITs, IIsc, etc)

And Congratulations if you did get a positive reply. Usually, there is a short interview (Zoom call) that proceeds this and this may be a discussion of the skills, projects, and common ground. Now you are one step ahead into the game!

My Experience: I emailed 24 professors whose work aligned with my interests. I got a reply from 8 of them and a positive result just from 2. It depends a lot on luck and the time you are willing to put in! I know people with as low as 3 emails and as high as 150 emails. Be patient and all the best!

My Internhsip at the Ruhr University Bochum

Applying for the Scholarship

The tough part is over, you have secured the internship. From now on, it's just a bunch of paperwork to apply for the scholarship. Read through all the details here. I will try to summarize the important points to note

• The GPA cutoff is followed strictly and aim for anything close to ≥9.2 for better selection.
• After interacting with your German supervisor, please request an Invitation Letter and a filled Approval Form [template on the application portal]
• You also need a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from your Indian university mentioning the tentative dates which can be changed later — Signed by the Head of Department (HOD). [template on the application portal]
• A Letter of Motivation (LOM) is required from the student which is to explain why is one interested in the Scholarship, the research area, and how this internship may help one’s future. Consider this as a Statement of Purpose (SOP)
• A Letter of Reference/Recommendation (LOR) is needed from 1 professor at your home institution in India. This needs to be confidential and the professor will provide this in a sealed envelope.[template on the application portal]
• CV/Resume — Nothing overboard, a normal LaTeX resume would suffice. I recommend Overleaf
• Lastly, an 18–20 page form called the Application Summary. It is present on the application portal which requires several basic details about the student, education, past experiences, etc.

After you have uploaded all these documents on the application portal, you are just one step away! Print all the documents and along with the LOR envelope, post these physically to the DAAD office in New Delhi.

Ensure everything occurs before the deadline, it usually takes 2–3 days for the post to reach the office. After this, Congratulations on successfully applying for the Scholarship. Now comes the wait for results🥶

Mail the bigger envelope with all the other documents inside

Results

Results are declared in February usually and naturally congratulations on securing the scholarship🎊. Every year approximately ~150 students are awarded this. There is usually a bit more paperwork required but everything is smoothly guided by DAAD, including an expedited VISA process! [Time to look for accommodation now!]

Perks: You get fully funded for your travel (flight tickets) and a monthly stipend which is more than enough! As you will be on a Schengen VISA, you can visit any country in the EU — France, Switzerland, Austria, and much more.

Germany itself is a beautiful country with a great culture that you can explore. It can be helpful to get accustomed to the work ethic and educational facilities there if you are considering Germany for your higher education.

The Cologne Cathedral

I wish you all the best in applying for this scholarship! You can contact me with any doubt regarding the process or anything related to the topic. I plan on writing about my internship experience and Europe as a whole in the future!

Find me on Twitter, GitHub, and LinkedIn.

Shoutout to this blog by Anjishnu Mukherjee which helped with my process 2 years back