Study in Europe: EIT Digital Master school

Study in Europe: EIT Digital Master school

One of the relatively less explored program in Europe is the EIT Digital Master school program. This is partly because the program is new and changing/improving every year and partly because it focuses students to be Entrepreneurs rather than researchers. I think students in our country are more prone to research track! Also, this program is solely for IT/CSE/Communication/Electronics students. It is similar to Erasmus Mundus program; i.e. a student has to study in at least two different universities (two different countries) and there are 8 different programs to choose from.

Application procedure is fairly simple, one can create an account on their website, upload necessary documents, give program and university choices, rank the chosen subjects and universities and done! It’s very simple compared to USA/Canada/Australia application procedure and there’s no application fee! This is a paid program! That means it has a hefty amount of tuition fee associated with it. But for the exceptional students, there are scholarships. The scholarship amount depends on student profile but for the non EU students, the maximum scholarship is 1000 EUR/month with partial tuition fee remission and mobility cost (I received it in 2014, then it was full waived + 1000 EUR/month + mobility cost. In 2016, the maximum was 50% tuition fee waived+1000 EUR/month+ mobility. This year they didn’t announce the maximum % of tuition fee waiver). Note, this is maximum, students frequently get admission with no scholarship / less scholarship than the maximum value. But what’s the harm in applying, there’s no application fee!

Turning to the practicalities (honestly, I don’t like to write these sections, as they are available on the website, just writing for the completeness).

Deadline: Nov 17th to Jan 15th.

Programs available:

Cloud Computing and Services (CCS)

Data Science (DSC)

Digital Media Technology (DMT)

Embedded Systems (ES)

Human-Computer Interaction and Design (HCID)

Internet Technology and Architecture (ITA)

Security and Privacy (S&P)

Software and Service Architectures (SSA)

Required Docs:

1. Degree Certificate/Diploma in the original language and translated into English or in case of on-going studies a statement certifying that you are in the final year of your studies. The statement must be written by the degree administration office (or equivalent department), confirming that you are enrolled in the final year of your education and giving your expected completion date.
2. Transcript of records in the original language and translated into English. All courses taken must be included.
3. Proof of English proficiency.
4. Curriculum Vitae including details on your academic and professional career.
5. A letter of motivation in which you prove your innovative potential. For this purpose, we ask you to discuss or propose an entrepreneurial idea (one page with a summary and two additional pages for details). The letter can be addressed to the “Selection committee”. How you describe your entrepreneurial idea is up to you. Perhaps you can identify a problem in your area of interest and propose products or services to address the problem/insufficiency/lack. Feel free to include your personal and professional reasons for wanting to join the EIT Digital Master's program in the letter (perhaps in the summary), but all in all the letter should not be longer than three pages.
6. Passport or other kinds of identification in English.
7. Two letters of recommendation (from professors of the most recently attended higher institution or recent employers).
8. Optional: Document stating the GPA or the Relative Ranking.

Motivation letter:

I want to leave some tips about it. The motivation letter is not a standard SOP for USA university or any other educational motivation letter. This is a business idea. The official guideline is on the 5th point of the previous section but I’d like to share the way I did it. I proposed a business idea, performed SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat) analysis, evaluated my technical knowledge against the idea, mentioned the possible source of funding and my plan to overcome the threats. I also related the idea and its associated requirement with the goal of the program. I know this seems a bit hard but if one is going to study in a program that trains entrepreneurs, he/she must have some business acumen.

Studying in Europe is relatively hard, mostly because of the language and studying in two countries is even harder as one must adjust very quickly. But if you are not tough enough, why’d you choose to do higher studies, right? Good luck and happy hunting!

Important link(s):

http://www.masterschool.eitdigital.eu/