We recommend that you prepare this document i.e. Letter of Motivation very carefully as this is a crucial criterion in the selection process! Apart from a brief, general introduction of yourself and your academic interests, you should elaborate on:

your motivation for aiming to do PhD research
your reasons for choosing (UNIVERSITY NAME) in (UNIVERSITY LOCATION) for your advanced studies
the research topic(s) in which you are interested

The language of your academic documents for Letter of Motivation:

Application documents that are neither in German nor English must be accompanied by a translation into one of these two languages (please note that the ‘Letter of Motivation’ must be written in English).

Please allow yourself enough time to submit your application and do not wait until the last moment as technical difficulties or other problems might occur. The application period is also a busy time for university – therefore they’re not always able to answer immediately.

1. A motivation for aiming to do PhD Research for Letter of Motivation

You have to be a little strange to want to do a doctorate. You’ll be giving up the chance to earn some real money in a steady job, for several years of little or no money. You’ll be losing the simplicity of regular hours and a boss who tells you want to do, for the complications of setting your own agenda and planning your own work. Why do you want to do a doctorate? No, really. Why? You need to be very clear in your mind what the reasons are. Thankfully, there are some very good reasons why a normal, sane person would choose to do a doctorate. If any of these make sense to you, then you are on the right track.

Ultimately, these some reasons that helped you to choose whether you go for PhD or not:

Good reasons to do a PhD for Letter of Motivation

Curiosity

If you want to know more, want to figure out things – and for that reason, research is about the best fit possible. If you were also curious to explore your own boundaries and abilities and to get off the beaten path and “work my way through the woods”.

Intellectual freedom

Even though you do have deadlines, you still have enough time and space to spend on developing thoughts that simply seem interesting.

Challenge

The ultimate goal of a doctoral dissertation is to present an original contribution to your study field. To fulfil this requirement, certain intellectual boundaries have to be pushed, we have to reinvent hot water every day.

Fun

There’s always an unexpected challenge (or, for the pessimists among us, a problem) which requires an original and preferable quick fix.

To achieve something significant

Those who have ambitions to make money should become entrepreneurs. But if you are ambitious in that you wish to challenge yourself, push yourself to new heights or achieve a difficult goal, then a doctorate may be for you.

To discover or learn something new

Those who never lose their childlike curiosity of the world make great researchers. If you feel a driving force pushing you to explore and learn new things, then you may love research, and find a doctorate is perfect for you.

To improve yourself and your life

Doing a PhD for the sake of a pay rise is not a good reason. But if you want to improve your abilities to understand and solve problems, increase your confidence, make yourself a better communicator and gain skills that may lead to a better job, then a doctorate may be right for you.

While pursuing the doctoral degree, you have a chance to develop transferable skills much more than your expectation. You had the opportunity to attend workshops and training for this goal, but you also have the opportunities to bring into practice what you’ve learned from these workshops – by presenting for various audiences, travelling to conferences and juggling several smaller projects at the same time.

It fits you

Some people are made for a doctorate. You might have grown up doing countless little ‘research projects’ as hobbies. You might have a natural thirst for knowledge or an insatiable appetite for reading books about a particular topic. You might have had a life-long fascination – even obsession – about something significant. If this sounds like you, and you can tailor a doctorate to suit your particular needs, then you’ll love it.

Reasons why to Study in Germany

Bad reasons to do a PhD for Letter of Motivation

Most of us have several reasons for wanting to do a doctorate, and of course, they’re not all good. Here are some common bad reasons why some people consider a PhD (and I know there was a certain amount of ‘bad reason 5’ that led to my own choice.):

Keeping your visa

If you are thinking of a doctorate because you want to keep your student visa and stay in the UK or at your current university a little longer – don’t. You must not use a PhD as a method to stay close to your friends or family, any more than you should commit a crime and have yourself locked up in jail. It is not worth it. And jail is the cheapest and easiest option by far.

Peer pressure

If you’re thinking of a doctorate because all your friends are going to try, well done on having some clever friends. But you will have to do the doctorate, not them. How will you feel if they all achieve their PhDs while you struggle on, year after year, getting further and further into debt?

Horrible job

If you are doing a job that you hate and just want to quit – then find another job. A PhD is not an escape hatch through which you fall into a better world, it is a long steep staircase that takes extreme perseverance to climb.

Fulfilling the ambitions of others

If your partner or parents think that you should do a doctorate because they wished that they had – tell them to do one themselves. It must be your own ambition that drives you, not the ambition of anyone else. Otherwise, you will resent them during the tough times of your work and blame them if it goes wrong.

Rebelling

If everyone is telling you to go and get a job and you don’t like being told what to do, then make sure you are rebelling towards something you want, and not simply away from irritating parents or a boring town.

Misplaced genius complex

If you think you are brilliant and will solve all of the world’s problems, but every one of your undergrad lecturers is telling you that your ideas are unworkable and that you are not cut out for a doctorate – it is quite likely that they are right and you are wrong.

Insecurity

You might feel that your talents are never appreciated and you crave more respect from people around you. Perhaps you like the idea of impressing by showing a credit card with ‘Dr’ on it. This is not as daft as it sounds, for doctors do genuinely receive preferential treatment, and in some countries are treated with enormous respect. You are more likely to get a better job as well. However, if insecurity is your main driving force then you may struggle, for you will be surrounded by professors and post-docs who are more experienced than you throughout the course of your PhD. You will receive respect from them when you earn it, not because of the `Dr’ which they have themselves.

You’ve done this kind of thing before

If you have worked in a similar area, you may have already done research or activities very similar to those that you will do during a doctorate. Or perhaps you have done a research-based project for your MSc. This is the excellent experience and will help you, but a word of warning: most people think they know what they are letting themselves in for, and they are wrong. An undergraduate or MSc project does not give a proper taste of a PhD any more than a beansprout makes a Chinese meal. Working in industry is very different from academia. Even for someone with experience, the doctorate is not as easy as you might think.

Hopefully, you will find that more of the good reasons apply to you than the bad ones. Be honest with yourself. You are thinking of embarking on something that can change your life, either for better or worse, depending on you.

2. Reason for Choosing Germany for you advanced studies

Being sceptical about where to chase doctoral studies overseas, you must unquestionably consider Germany – “The land of ideas” as a unique option. In other words, there are firm whys and wherefores that make Germany a hosting country of thousands of international PhD students every year. Positioned in the centre of Europe – science, research and development are the utmost substantial emblematic elements of this nation, dominating the world in innovation. You might have probably heard about it, or you did not, but Germany is a globally distinguished country in lieu of its wide-variety research systems, world-ranked universities and research institutions, enriched by paramount practical-training opportunities, where the proficiency of specialized doctoral candidates and graduates prominently attracts local industries, considerably increasing their employment prospect.

Germany prides itself on the uniqueness of study and research quality, possessing the highest standards as regards of programs and research infrastructures. As a doctoral student in Germany, you will become an active part of scientific, research and industrial facets of the country getting the prosperous chance to explore your selected discipline inside a combined outline of theory and practice.

Nonetheless, always keeping in mind the aforementioned, before you make your decision of where to do your doctoral studies, we suggest you recognize differentiating facts below about doctoral programmes of Germany.

The international prestige

Considering the global prestige and the tradition as respects of education, science and research activity that the country has, deciding on Germany for your studies, you choose a top attracting destination for many international students. There are around 400 higher education institutions and 1,000 public and publicly funded institutions of science, research and development amongst which 140 awards doctoral degrees, with an enrollment of 240,000 students were 18,000 engage in doctoral studies and 26,000 in research work. You are about to consider that there are more than 500 research networks and groups for your practical part of the study. Additionally, the country sets a great focus on international students, figured also by the fact that around 38,000 international academics give their lessons at higher education institutions of Germany.

Differentiated from the world, you have to know that intended for doctoral studies; Germany has an outstanding scientific and education infrastructure, widely diverse study fields and programmes, diverse educational and research institutions, well-resourced research spaces, optional study alternatives and professional supervising teams. Another distinguishing fact is that you can choose to chase your doctoral studies and researches in one or more different institutions between a university, non-university institutions, companies, and state-governed institutions.

Bringing back the talk on the international reputation of German higher education institutions, we want to distinguish the fact that The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-2016 ranked 9 (nine) German universities among top 199 world’s best universities, while QS World Rankings 2015/2016 ranked 4 (four) German universities among top 100 world’s best universities.

The wide-variety of study and research disciplines

Germany has to offer a wide-sort of doctoral study and research disciplines such as Automotive and Traffic Technology, Aviation Technologies, Biotechnology, Energy Technologies, Environmental Technology, Health Research, Humanities, Information and Communication Technologies, Maritime Technologies, Materials Technology, Medical Technologies, Natural Sciences, Nanotechnology, Optical Technologies, Photonics, Plants, Production Technologies, Security Research, Services, Social Sciences, Space Technology.

Becoming a doctoral candidate at hand, bear in mind that all these wide-ranged disciplines have programmes that can support your connection with relating companies or research institutes and organizations, enabling your applicative-research development, as a practical part of your studies.

Diverse educational and research institutions

If you are looking for a sundry environment as regards of institutions supporting your doctoral education, Germany is the home. University, non-university, research institutes or state-governed institutions, as aforesaid, are your options for getting your doctoral studies in Germany did. Each of these institutions possesses different study focuses. Nonetheless, doctoral programmes in Germany embody a triple-way-bridge for your knowledge, teaching and researching.

Universities in Germany are many-respected institutions, focusing on teaching and research activities – as linked activities, while other research institutes concentrate on basic and applied research, policy-making, consulting, and knowledge-transfer. Despite the education and training, all these institutions serve also as the key consulting national authorities as regards of country scientific and industrial innovation-based development. Moreover, significantly developed, the intensive industrial research functions as a system for enabling cooperation between academia and industry, making German businesses amongst Europe’s most dynamically involved in research activity.

No-tuition fee doctoral studies

Another benefit of being a doctoral candidate in Germany is the fact that you will not pay any tuition fee for your studies, as higher education studies there, at any stage, are free of charge. There are only semester fees to be paid on your own, not exceeding 250 € per semester, covering administrative costs and other social and cultural events that you participate in.

Comprehensive funding opportunities

As a foreign doctoral student in Germany, you must be aware that despite the fact that there is no study tuition fee applied, there is an assurance amount of approx 8,700 € needed for taking the visa. While being in Germany it is estimated that living, travelling, food and other costs of a foreign student reaches the amount of 812 €, to be paid monthly.

Being in such a position, you might probably want to consider that there are so many funding opportunities available for supporting such costs of doctoral candidates in Germany. Different organizations and programmes, there are to support individuals and groups for the period of doctoral studies and the engagement in research activity, such as German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

The aforementioned are the biggest funding groups, while there are many other groups and organizations that support individual researchers, junior and senior researchers and research projects such as:

local companies,
the European Union,
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft,
The Helmholtz Association,
The Leibniz Association,
The Max Planck Society,
StipendiumPlus,
Academies of Sciences and Humanities,
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation,
Robert Bosch Stiftung,
the Volkswagen Foundation,
the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt,
the Klaus Tschira Stiftung,
the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the German Foundation for Peace Research,
Federal and State Governments,
German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF).

Alternative study types

Another but not last distinguishing fact on Germany’s doctoral studies is likewise the opportunity to choose amongst two-alternatives, as optional types for your enrollment – individual or structured doctorate. Whereas the individual doctorate is more independent, allowing you to choose the mentor (supervisor) on your own and arrange your study activities freely, the structured doctorate is the study type where you and your group students are tutored by a team-supervisors, always chasing the strict programme curriculum. We want you to recognize the fact that both forms offer you, besides, the privileged prospect to gain additional skills, as you will be called to attend seminars and other extracurricular activities.

Highly developed research infrastructure

Becoming the student of doctoral studies in Germany – the leading scientific nation, you provide yourself with a chance to work inside a highly advanced research infrastructure. This embraces labouring by using instruments, resources and other service research facilities of a 15 million euros investment. Established to provide a proper environment for training, and technology/knowledge transfer, such wide-ranging research infrastructures serve as a home for many doctoral students, scientists and researchers.

Study independence

Once again, doing your doctorate in Germany involves a quite significant autonomy of yours, as regards to study and research activity. Principally, if you select to study in a traditional individual doctorate from, you will be given a lot of independence ever wanted. Hereafter, you will only be required to keep in touch with your mentor (supervisor) periodically, but your study activity will be carried entirely on your own schedule. Assuredly, we all know that by independence comes also responsibility, so being timeframe-oriented and punctual is the key to success! As a doctoral candidate of this kind, you will be given the time and possibility to congruently get involved in a work activity, either research job at the university or a job at local businesses.

Good employment prospect to fund your studies

Another form to fund your costs during your doctoral studies is getting a regular job. There are great opportunities, especially for individual doctoral candidates who generally get employment in university, as research associates. In addition, there are different programmes and funding organizations, which provide fix-terms employment contracts for candidates and graduates of doctoral studies.

Another opportunity for you as a doctoral student is getting jobs outside the university, academic or research-based jobs inside Germany.

There are different job portals where you can find jobs in these sorts of jobs. Such are:

EURAXESS – intended for researchers,
academics.com,
alumniportal-deutschland.org,
Arbeitsagentur,
Bund.de – of Federal Government,
Hochschulstellen.de – Job offers at German universities,
Job portal of weekly ‘Die Zeit’,
Make it in Germany Portal,
PhD Germany – the platform for doctoral positions in Germany and many more.

Good living standard

Another attracting fact that might support your decision is also identifying some distinguishing facts about life in Germany as regards of the quality and standard of life there. Germany stands amongst most attracting countries for internationals as respects of lifestyle and high-quality products. Its economy is assessed to be amongst largest economies worldwide, and Germany as one of the utmost industrialized nations.

A good social, political and economic climate attracts many internationals who seek life and job in Germany. Especially, the labour market is highly developed, offering opportunities, especially for highly qualified workers, such as doctoral graduates to work in different relevant industries. As a non-EU graduate, there is a possibility for you to extend your residence permit for up to one year under job-seeking purpose.

Migrants are a specific feature of the country, perceived as an additional resource for the country’s economic empowerment, which has made Germany a country of cultural and social diversity.

The country’s political and economic sustainability make Germany a perfect place to live and work for anyone. There is a wide security network, the rule of law mechanisms, mechanisms for protecting human rights and obligations, especially developed health care system, a greatly developed industry and education system.

Living in Germany does not mean that your fun life will be left aside, contrary, the culture of the country is very rich, filled with fairs, festivals, operas, movie and ballet theatre, and so on.

Advice for your Letter of Motivation for PhD