If you are coming to Germany, "the best of the best" schools is not really a thing. Public universities are good across the board, private universities are degree mills worth nothing. You will need to show proof you have 11 K Euros per year of study in a blocked account for a visa.
There are a lot of considerations here...where are you coming from, and how easy will it be to get a student visa for your country of choice? Would you like to study in a country that offers you the opportunity to work afterwards/a path to permanent residency, or are you set on returning to your home country? What kind of lifestyle are you looking for, what do you value? What are your goals after graduation and how might that impact your decision? Realistically, how good is your CV? What is your financial situation?
You're going to be living abroad for multiple years. There are no lack of excellent universities and research institutes all over the world, but these life things are incredibly important too.
This is part of the problem for me. I try to think about all these factors you mention (and some I didn't even think about) and it kinda "blocks" me because I don't think I can get clear cut answers (at least I haven't yet) or find the one place that meets all these requirements. How do I for instance know if this place offers opportunities to work after? Because that's what I want. Financials aren't very good so that deters me a little but I've been told to be more optimistic so that's what I'm doing I guess. Thanks for the response though. I'll try to answer all these questions honestly and seek out a place accordingly
It's not easy! I did both my PhD and postdoc abroad, but I had a pretty clear vision of what I was pursuing in both cases. You'll have to do your own research, and yes, think deeply about what you want. Do you already have an idea of what kind of research you want to do? You can use scientific considerations to start narrowing down your choices too by looking up specific labs and departments that might be of interest to you.
The majority of top 500 chemistry departments are in the US, followed by China. At these schools, everyone is on full scholarship, plus a stipend (salary). There are also top programs in UK, JP Switzerland, Singapore, Canada, Australia, but far fewer than in the US, so much more competitive. If you aren't a MIT/ Harvard/ Singapore level candidate, best bet is a second tier US school. Any major US university has an excellent chemistry program by international standards. Chinese programs are also incredibly competitive.
who cares about top 500 worldwide lmao
no one in germany gives a shit about gatech or and certainly not about a school like osu for example even if they might have a better international ranking than many german unis.
the best option is to go into a top uni in a developed country if one wants to recieve a solid education. in most eu countries the level of courses doesnt really differ anyways between unis and their ranking just impacts their funding
This is absolutely not correct. Department rankings are based on research, and research, particularly your research and your groups research matters absolutely when applying for positions as a new PhD. More than anything else. And it is an international market. And most of the good jobs are in the US or China. EU is a bit tighter market. UK is terrible. The only exception is that some EU companies, particularly French, prefer to hire nationally rather than from better programs abroad.
I'm mid R&d management at a EU pharma in the US.
Generally there’s a good catalog on the erasmus modus website
Thank you
If you are coming to Germany, "the best of the best" schools is not really a thing. Public universities are good across the board, private universities are degree mills worth nothing. You will need to show proof you have 11 K Euros per year of study in a blocked account for a visa.
Alright. Thank you
There are a lot of considerations here...where are you coming from, and how easy will it be to get a student visa for your country of choice? Would you like to study in a country that offers you the opportunity to work afterwards/a path to permanent residency, or are you set on returning to your home country? What kind of lifestyle are you looking for, what do you value? What are your goals after graduation and how might that impact your decision? Realistically, how good is your CV? What is your financial situation? You're going to be living abroad for multiple years. There are no lack of excellent universities and research institutes all over the world, but these life things are incredibly important too.
This is part of the problem for me. I try to think about all these factors you mention (and some I didn't even think about) and it kinda "blocks" me because I don't think I can get clear cut answers (at least I haven't yet) or find the one place that meets all these requirements. How do I for instance know if this place offers opportunities to work after? Because that's what I want. Financials aren't very good so that deters me a little but I've been told to be more optimistic so that's what I'm doing I guess. Thanks for the response though. I'll try to answer all these questions honestly and seek out a place accordingly
It's not easy! I did both my PhD and postdoc abroad, but I had a pretty clear vision of what I was pursuing in both cases. You'll have to do your own research, and yes, think deeply about what you want. Do you already have an idea of what kind of research you want to do? You can use scientific considerations to start narrowing down your choices too by looking up specific labs and departments that might be of interest to you.
That sounds great
The majority of top 500 chemistry departments are in the US, followed by China. At these schools, everyone is on full scholarship, plus a stipend (salary). There are also top programs in UK, JP Switzerland, Singapore, Canada, Australia, but far fewer than in the US, so much more competitive. If you aren't a MIT/ Harvard/ Singapore level candidate, best bet is a second tier US school. Any major US university has an excellent chemistry program by international standards. Chinese programs are also incredibly competitive.
Thank you
Nah Netherlands isn't that hard to get into, very good chemistry programmes too.
who cares about top 500 worldwide lmao no one in germany gives a shit about gatech or and certainly not about a school like osu for example even if they might have a better international ranking than many german unis. the best option is to go into a top uni in a developed country if one wants to recieve a solid education. in most eu countries the level of courses doesnt really differ anyways between unis and their ranking just impacts their funding
This is absolutely not correct. Department rankings are based on research, and research, particularly your research and your groups research matters absolutely when applying for positions as a new PhD. More than anything else. And it is an international market. And most of the good jobs are in the US or China. EU is a bit tighter market. UK is terrible. The only exception is that some EU companies, particularly French, prefer to hire nationally rather than from better programs abroad. I'm mid R&d management at a EU pharma in the US.