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We already have a question that outlines the US admissions process for students with a weak background.

However, I’m beginning to wonder if we need a similar question for the UK and German systems as well. It seems we get a decent number of questions such as this one that it makes some sense to have a community wiki-type question available.

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  • 1
    How much of this will actually be different? I ask out of ignorance, knowing little of the UK and German systems.
    – jakebeal
    Jan 21, 2018 at 1:36
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    For starters, master’s degrees are part of the undergraduate curriculum, and PhD’s are formally jobs hired by individual professors instead of at the departmental level.
    – aeismail
    Jan 21, 2018 at 2:01
  • How much will it change the advice on how to selfevaluate and prepare? (Besides the obvious bits). Like research and letters and such...
    – jakebeal
    Jan 21, 2018 at 2:21
  • it's more about the requirements being different, and the process for qualifying varying significantly. At least in Germany, there are multiple types of processes a school can follow. Also, for PhD's, the process is very different—first you get the job, then you apply for graduate candidacy later (potentially several years later).
    – aeismail
    Jan 21, 2018 at 2:38

2 Answers 2

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I think a canonical question on how academic education after bachelor’s works in Germany would be a good idea, as we get many questions where basic knowledge about this is missing.

I don’t think there would be much to write about borderline cases, given that they are either decided by the hiring professor (and thus very individual) or the programme’s criteria, which in turn are either very clear or subject to grade conversions (and thus difficult to predict without knowledge about the specific grading system). That doesn’t mean that we cannot write anything about borderline cases (I just did after all) or that we shouldn’t use the canonical question as a duplicate for many such questions, but making borderline cases the focus (and title) doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.

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I think we need more the tag "poor-performer" for the type of questions (What are my chances of being accepted for masters degree in German or Dutch universities?) you mentioned.

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