Last Tuesday I took the TestDaF for the second time. This time taking the test itself was much easier because it was in São Paulo. I didn’t have to travel since my parents live near the city and I could sleep over at a friend’s house so I would already be in the city at [...]

On the 16th of November 2011, a welcome reception was held for the new students of my department at the University of Erfurt, called the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. It was a grand occasion and present were many distinguished guests. The location was the Erfurt City Hall—a very lovely setting indeed. The program [...]

Don’t forget that I’m a sociology student in a catholic university in Bavaria, so the information might vary a bit due to the differences for many other universities here (but I guess the central point of each topic is valid for the majority) 1. There are many ways to study and teach in german universities [...]

In November I’m going to take the TestDaF again. I have been preparing for it since April when I took it for the first time and even before that, but in the next weeks I plan on preparing more specifically for the test. The reason for this is that, although the TestDaF evaluates your general [...]

Moving to a higher level in the academic life requires two things: looking forward and looking back. Looking forward means preparing, planning, getting the information and doing what it takes so you can make the transition. Looking back means thinking about what you have done so far, what were your choices and where did they [...]

I believe most of you here have applied for your studies in Germany through uni-assist. I did too. Did you feel like waiting for an answer takes years to arrive? To me, it seemed like that. However, we must apply via uni-assist no matter what, as a non EU student so to speak. Some of [...]

Last August I took another important step in order to do a Master’s in Germany: a test of Spanish language skills. That might sound contradictory for someone who’s talking about studying in Germany, but actually it’s not. Most graduate programs have English skills as a requirement alongside the already expected German language skills. Since the [...]

Scientific research is not by rule a fixed 9 to 5 job. In academia the hours are flexible enough so that you can have it that way if you want, though your group leader could have audacity to demand 60 hours a week – explicitly or implicitly. The amount of work you get done above [...]

Hello dear friends. Long time you haven’t read any post from me due to my exams, but here I am back and excited to blog for the next upcoming semester too. It has been almost a year since I started studying at the Ilmenau University of Technology so I concluded to dedicate this post to [...]

The past few weeks were the last of the summer semester in my University, which also means it is time for final tests and seminars. One of the seminars in which I participated was the Sociology of Science and Technique class. This class was about computers, Cybersociality and Virtual Life Vs. Real Life. I think [...]