4 ms·

Ask HN: German Universities for Masters in Computer Science

6 points by haidrali 12y ago

I am BS computer science with two years of development experience in Java, Python and Ruby with multiple frameworks and platforms. I am planing to study Master's but i can't afford much so Pakistan and Germany are my options. Problem with Pakistani universities is that they really didn't focus on research also option of specialization in Information Retrial or Natural Language Processing is not there so don't want to be there. Would you recommend me to study Masters from German university keeping in mind i want to have specialization in Natural Language Processing or Information Retrial. Suggestion by universities name if any will be highly appreciated. If there is any other university/institute where NLP and IR specialization are offered in Masters please do comment. Thank you so much for reading my post.

wonderer007 12y ago
Germany might not be the best country for NLP/IR but following universities are my recommendation Technische Universität Darmstadt, RWTH Aachen University Hope it help
Harrisburg 12y ago
RWTH Aachen may be a good choice. I had a colleague that studied there. http://www-i6.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/ http://www-i6.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
qwerta 12y ago
Do you speak German? Otherwise I would recommend small post-soviet countries: Estonia, Slovakia...
- haidrali 12y ago
  At the moment no i don't but i have heard that medium of instruction is English at master level in Germany Is it right ?
  - krylon 12y ago
    A friend of mine studies computer science at the University of Paderborn (he, too, has a B.S. and is studying for his master degree). I know that at least some of his courses are in English. From what I know, Paderborn is a good university for CS, but I don't know if they have any researchers working in your preferred areas. EDIT: http://www.uni-paderborn.de/en/ http://www.uni-paderborn.de/en/
  - qwerta 12y ago
    Not sure. Never studied in Germany. Just make sure to speak some real foreigner students. If you dont have local local languages, I would avoid large countries such as France, Italy, Germany or even Poland. Smaller post-soviet countries have sort 'self-esteem issue' and they will be probably friendlier to English-only speaker.
  - detaro 12y ago
    Unless you go for programmes that explicitly are in English only, no, it's not certain. I'm a CS masters student right now and it's a wild mix: fully German, German but with English slides, fully English, ... If a student requests it many will switch to English (if no-one objects), but you can't rely on it. You probably could complete it without speaking much German, but don't expect to be able to take all classes. Might be problematic if you need more points in a category than there are english lectures for it.
  - j29h 12y ago
    No it is not. But there are indeed few Masters programmes which are instructed in English. The University of Göttingen is a good example. http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/40954.html http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/40954.html
Tomte 12y ago
The TU9 could be a starting point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TU9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TU9 In computer science, Karlsruhe, Aachen and the TU Munich (TU -- there are three universities in Munich) are the most prestigious, although I've always percepted alumni from those three as being somewhat snobbish. When it comes to computational linguistics, Saarbrücken is probably the very best, but Stuttgart (my alma mater) is also really good.
- haidrali 12y ago
  Can you please tell me about tuition fee and avg living cost for a person in Germany. I came to know that most of the universities didn't have tuition fee Thanks
  - j29h 12y ago
    As long you want to study at a public university there are just tuition fees which have to be paid once per semester. How much you have to pay depends on the university, I'm currently studying in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony and here we pay around 280€. But the fees include a ticket for the local public transport and you get to eat a lot cheaper at the university restaurant. Regarding living costs I would say I need around 500-600€ each month including rent. If you wanna study in one of the bigger cities you probably have to add another 200€ onto this.
    - haidrali 12y ago
      @j29h Thank you for your reply it really give me an idea. Can you please tell me about accommodation and part time work also. 1- which type of accommodation is best university hostels or Portion ( in term of cost and living standard ) 2- How much can we earn with part time keeping in mind 2 year of experience as Software Development Engineer Thank you so much
      - j29h 12y ago
        It's pretty hard to answer your specific questions. 1. I guess the living standard in dorms really depends on the city. And even where I live the standard is very diverse between the different dorms. Also the rent mainly depends on the city. I would suggest to get in touch with the university of your choice and ask those specific questions regarding the living situation there. 2. How much you can earn is also really specific. I guess you can expect a pretty good hourly fee as long as you can find a employer who speaks english. I have no idea how the market for english speaking programmers is. Your best shot is probably to work as a freelancer over the web.
mtmail 12y ago
In case of Munich look for the 'computer linguistics' department http://www.cis.uni-muenchen.de/ueber_uns/index.html http://www.cis.uni-muenchen.de/ueber_uns/index.html The http://www.en.uni-muenchen.de/about_lmu/contact/int_office/index.html http://www.en.uni-muenchen.de/about_lmu/contact/int_office/i... department coordinates helping foreign students. The 'Fachschaft" is the student body if you want direct access to well connected students that currently study there https://fachschaft.cis.uni-muenchen.de/ https://fachschaft.cis.uni-muenchen.de/
zeynalov 12y ago
A good information portal about this is PIGAS ( http://www.pigas.org http://www.pigas.org ) p.s. shameless plug Email me if you need help about this, I studied in RWTH Aachen and Heidelberg Universities.
mushfiq 12y ago
For NLP and Information Retrieval, University Stuttgart and University of Saarland. And for part time software engineering jobs are also available with better hourly rate than any other HiWi (Student job). By the way, learning German (at least basics) will take you a long way.

6 points by haidrali 12y ago

wonderer007 12y ago

Germany might not be the best country for NLP/IR but following universities are my recommendation Technische Universität Darmstadt, RWTH Aachen University Hope it help

Harrisburg 12y ago

RWTH Aachen may be a good choice. I had a colleague that studied there. http://www-i6.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/ http://www-i6.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

qwerta 12y ago

Do you speak German? Otherwise I would recommend small post-soviet countries: Estonia, Slovakia...

haidrali 12y ago
At the moment no i don't but i have heard that medium of instruction is English at master level in Germany Is it right ?
- krylon 12y ago
  A friend of mine studies computer science at the University of Paderborn (he, too, has a B.S. and is studying for his master degree). I know that at least some of his courses are in English. From what I know, Paderborn is a good university for CS, but I don't know if they have any researchers working in your preferred areas. EDIT: http://www.uni-paderborn.de/en/ http://www.uni-paderborn.de/en/
- qwerta 12y ago
  Not sure. Never studied in Germany. Just make sure to speak some real foreigner students. If you dont have local local languages, I would avoid large countries such as France, Italy, Germany or even Poland. Smaller post-soviet countries have sort 'self-esteem issue' and they will be probably friendlier to English-only speaker.
- detaro 12y ago
  Unless you go for programmes that explicitly are in English only, no, it's not certain. I'm a CS masters student right now and it's a wild mix: fully German, German but with English slides, fully English, ... If a student requests it many will switch to English (if no-one objects), but you can't rely on it. You probably could complete it without speaking much German, but don't expect to be able to take all classes. Might be problematic if you need more points in a category than there are english lectures for it.
- j29h 12y ago
  No it is not. But there are indeed few Masters programmes which are instructed in English. The University of Göttingen is a good example. http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/40954.html http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/40954.html

Tomte 12y ago

The TU9 could be a starting point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TU9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TU9 In computer science, Karlsruhe, Aachen and the TU Munich (TU -- there are three universities in Munich) are the most prestigious, although I've always percepted alumni from those three as being somewhat snobbish. When it comes to computational linguistics, Saarbrücken is probably the very best, but Stuttgart (my alma mater) is also really good.

haidrali 12y ago
Can you please tell me about tuition fee and avg living cost for a person in Germany. I came to know that most of the universities didn't have tuition fee Thanks
- j29h 12y ago
  As long you want to study at a public university there are just tuition fees which have to be paid once per semester. How much you have to pay depends on the university, I'm currently studying in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony and here we pay around 280€. But the fees include a ticket for the local public transport and you get to eat a lot cheaper at the university restaurant. Regarding living costs I would say I need around 500-600€ each month including rent. If you wanna study in one of the bigger cities you probably have to add another 200€ onto this.
  - haidrali 12y ago
    @j29h Thank you for your reply it really give me an idea. Can you please tell me about accommodation and part time work also. 1- which type of accommodation is best university hostels or Portion ( in term of cost and living standard ) 2- How much can we earn with part time keeping in mind 2 year of experience as Software Development Engineer Thank you so much
    - j29h 12y ago
      It's pretty hard to answer your specific questions. 1. I guess the living standard in dorms really depends on the city. And even where I live the standard is very diverse between the different dorms. Also the rent mainly depends on the city. I would suggest to get in touch with the university of your choice and ask those specific questions regarding the living situation there. 2. How much you can earn is also really specific. I guess you can expect a pretty good hourly fee as long as you can find a employer who speaks english. I have no idea how the market for english speaking programmers is. Your best shot is probably to work as a freelancer over the web.

mtmail 12y ago

In case of Munich look for the 'computer linguistics' department http://www.cis.uni-muenchen.de/ueber_uns/index.html http://www.cis.uni-muenchen.de/ueber_uns/index.html The http://www.en.uni-muenchen.de/about_lmu/contact/int_office/index.html http://www.en.uni-muenchen.de/about_lmu/contact/int_office/i... department coordinates helping foreign students. The 'Fachschaft" is the student body if you want direct access to well connected students that currently study there https://fachschaft.cis.uni-muenchen.de/ https://fachschaft.cis.uni-muenchen.de/

zeynalov 12y ago

A good information portal about this is PIGAS ( http://www.pigas.org http://www.pigas.org ) p.s. shameless plug Email me if you need help about this, I studied in RWTH Aachen and Heidelberg Universities.

mushfiq 12y ago

For NLP and Information Retrieval, University Stuttgart and University of Saarland. And for part time software engineering jobs are also available with better hourly rate than any other HiWi (Student job). By the way, learning German (at least basics) will take you a long way.