There are a lot of universities to choose from. After many hours of scavenging through their websites I built a table with important details like their selection criteria, course start date, Application start date etc. This is an important step since universities have different application dates and it would be disappointing to miss applying due to carelessness on such trivial detail. Read ahead to see how I built an initial list and then filtered to the final list application list.

Preliminary University List

This is a list of universities which have AI, Data science and Signal processing related courses in English. This is filtered from the DAAD website. It has a comprehensive list of all universities with many convenient filters. I have tried to capture the degree name, University, tution fees, Minimum number of semesters in the course, starting semester and the apporximate ranking. The ranks are a mix of QS, THE and Shangai. I wasn’t very particular on which rank is used. They are generally close by in all three rankings

Degree Name	University	Tution Fees	Semester	Start	Ranking
AI Engg	Univ of Passau	None	4	Win/Sum	401 – 500
AI and ML	TU of Darmstad	None	4	Win/Sum	251 – 300
AI and data science	Heinrich Heine Univ	None	4	Win	251 – 300
Advanced signal processing and communication	FAU Erlangen	None	4	Win	193
Analytics and AI	ESMT Berlin	8000/sem	4	Win
Applied data science	Univ of Gottingen	None	4	Win/Sum	111
Artificial Intelligence	FAU Erlangen	None	4	Win/Sum	193
Artificial intelligence	Brandenburg Univ of tech	None	4	Win/Sum	54
Comm and IT	Ulm University	1500/sem	4	Sum	193
Data Analytics	Univ of Hildesheim	None	4	Win/Sum	2438
Data Engg and analystics	TU Munich	6000/sem	4	Win/Sum	30
Data science	LMU		4	Win	38
Data science	Philipps univ Marburg	none	4	Win/Sum	401-500
Data science	RWTH Aachen	None	4	Win/Sum	90
Data science	TU Dortmund	None	4		401-500
Data science	TU of Braunschweig	None	4		5001-600
Data science	Univ Of Munster	Not sure	4		193
Data science	Univ of Hamburg	None	4		136
Electrical Comm engg.	Univ of Kassel	None	3		151-200
Information and Comm Eng	TU of Darmstad	None	4	Win	251 – 300
Information and communication tech	FAU Erlangen	None	4	Win/Sum	193
Intelligent Adaptive systems	Univ of Hamburg	None	4		136
Machine learning	Univ of Tubingen	1500/sem	4	Win	95
Mathematics in data science	TU Munich	6000/sem	4	Win/Sum	30
NLP	Trier University	None	4	Win/Sum
Robotics systems engg	RWTH Aachen	6000/sem	4		90
Sensing, Processing, Communication (Space -ST)	Univ of Bremen	None	4		301-350
Speech and Language processing	Univ of Konstanz	1679 euro/sem	4		251-300
Electrical Engg, IT and Csc	RWTH Aachen	None

Universities with Signal Processing courses

Here I have taken all the courses which has signal processing as its major subject. Of these of special interest are the Electrical Engineering at Uni of Stuttgart and CME at FAU. These courses offer course choices which are completely focused on signal processing. Other courses have some communication subject like microwave in their mandatory subject list. Since my focus is Signal processing I was more eager to get into these courses.

I have also tried to capture the 3 rankings THE, QS and Shangai separately. I have also marked among other things the qualifying criteria.

Common documents

• Transcript
• CV
• LoR
• LoM
• Module details

College	Course Name	THE Ranking	QS Ranking	Shangai Ranking	Tution fees	Intake	App start date (MM-DD)	App end date (MM-DD)	Prob accept date (MM-DD)	Registration date	Sem start date	Available starts	TOEFL	IELTS	MoI	GRE	APS certificate	Extra enterance	Remarks	URL
TUM	Communications and Electronics Engineering	30	49	59	6000		01-01	05-31	FCFG		WS	WS	95	7	Y	N	Y	Y		Course Home
RWTH Aachen	Communications Engineering	90	147	201	0	No limits		03-01	ASAP (Within a month)	10-31	10-15	WS/SS	90	6	N	Y				Course Home
Uni of Hamburg	Information and Communication systems	136	228	201	350	No Limits	12-01	03-01			WS	WS/SS	90	6.5	N	N	Y	self test		Course Home
KIT	Information and Communication	140	141	301	1500	No limits	05-15<br>	07-15	08-15	09-01	09-01	WS/SS	90	6.5	Y	N	Y			Course link
FAU Erlangen	Adaptive Signal Processing and Communication Engg	193	340	201	0	50	02-15	03-15	ASAP (Within a month)		10-01	WS	95	7	N	O	Y	Y	Interview after selection / Course discontinued	Course Home
FAU Erlangen	Comm and Mutli Eng.				0	50	Feb 15	Mar 15								O	Y	Y	Interview after selection
FAU Erlangen	Computational engg				0	250+		Apr 15								O
Uni of Ulm	Communication and Information Technology	193	375	401	1500	No Limits	08-15	09-30			SS	SS	95	7	Y	N	Y			Cojurse Home
Uni of Stuttgart	Electrical Engg ( Communication systems )	251	355	301	1500	Unclear	12-01	01-15	ASAP (Within a month)			WS/SS	95	7	Y	N				Course Link
Uni of Stuttgart	INFOTECH (Communication Engineering and Media Technology)	251	355	301	1500	Unclear	11-15	02-15	05-01		10-01	WS/SS	95	7	Y	N	Y			Course Link
TU Darmstadt	Information and Communication Engineering (iCE)(Comm systems)	251	275	401	220	No Limits	06-01	08-31	FCFG			WS	95	6.5	Y	Opt	Y	Y	Online test	Course home
TU Ilmenau	Communications and Signal Processing	1001					01-16	05-15	FCFG	10-01	10-01	WS			N	N	Y			Course Home

Final Shortlist

I finally removed some more universities from the short list. Firstly, I removed TUM since it has 6000 Eur Tuition fees. I wouldn’t want to pay that as I would get similar quality of education from other universities for a much lower price. I also removed RWTH Aachen as it is the only university requiring GRE. I didn’t want to prepare for this test for just one university. I kept Ilmenau, Kassal and Chemnitz as backup. These don’t offer much flexibility in terms of electives.

College	Start Date	End Date	Reference
Univ of Hamburg	2024 Dec 1	2025 Mar 1	Info & Comm Systems
KIT	2025 May 15	2025 Jul 15	EE & Info Tech
FAU Erlangen	2025 Feb 15	2025 Mar 15	CME
FAU Erlangen	2025 Feb 15	2025 Jul 15	ICE
Univ of Stuttgart	2024 Dec 1	2025 Jan 15	EE Stuttgart
Uni of Stuttgart (Infotec)	2024 Nov 15	2025 Feb 15
TU Darmstadt	2025 Mar 1	2025 Aug 31	ICE Darmstadt
TU Ilmenau	2025 Jan 16	2025 May 15	Comm & Signal Processing
Uni of Kassel	2025 Mar 1	2025 Jul 15	ECE Kassel
TU Chemnitz	2025 May 1	2025 Jul 15	ICE Chemnitz

Is 37 too old to study? Is it going to be useful for my career? What am I even thinking? These are some questions that I answer in this blog. Partly it is my attempt to justify my own decisions.

My desire to pursue formal post graduation degree has been lingering ever since I graduated in 2010. I am currently looking forward to beginning this journey. It has been interesting so far. I would like to share it with the world so others can read it. I am hoping that this and the upcoming blogs about this journey will help someone else who is planning to study.

Currently, I have an admit from FAU Erlangen. My Visa and Flight tickets are ready. I plan to write about how I reached this point and the key arguments behind my decisions. So lets start!

Why study after so many years?

If you have not read my intro page then I should tell you that I am 36 years old and I completed my bachelors in 2010. That’s 15 years since I last studies in a classroom or wrote an exam. Also I have stable job so I need a strong reason beyond just “I always had a desire to study”.

I feel the only thing that I am marginally good at is studying. Still I am not good enough to even read a technical paper conveniently. Every time I try to read one I get caught up with so many fundamental doubts that I struggle to finish reading it. I would like to be at a level where I can understand the basics so well that I can read technical literature without any trouble. Also, I wish to continue in a technical career so having an arsenal of tools in the form of a strong foundation would help me in the career. So the desire to improve on the only possible skill I have drives me to study now.

I am always torn between the need of getting a formal post graduation degree or utilizing my time (which I don’t do) to study the subjects on my own. Now, you should know that all the above things were written by the Good part of me. The mature me is patient and focused. But the other part of me never allowed me to focus in the last 16 years. So as a way to force myself into studying I have decided to take a break and enroll into a full time course. I also see that having a formal degree might also open some research roles for me. Still, a lot of this depends on me being able to tame myself to force myself to be disciplined. I should be studying to gather knowledge and not just for passing exams.

Why Germany?

Now that decision comes more easily. I don’t have to answer GATE! Now that’s a reason that springs to my head sometimes. I sometimes doubt whether I am good enough to get into a good IIT or IISc. Maybe I can.. Maybe I can’t… I can’t find that out anyways. I am not sure if I am happy or sad about it.

But I convince myself with a different narrative. Germany is the cheapest place outside India where I can afford a quality education. The education here is FREE. Yes.. You read it right.. It is free in most public universities. Some universities have some fees. And very few universities have a lot of fees. So, I left out the last category. I kept the ‘some fees’ category as an option and I tried real hard to get into the free ones.

Now that the main motivation for German university is out of the way, I can list a couple of other considerations that I considered. First, it gives me an international exposure. I get to see why German engineers are respected first hand. Second, I hope that having a degree from a developed country would open up some opportunities outside. So, this increases my job market. Finally, it gives me an opportunity to experience something different.

With all these reasons I made up my mind to study. This turned out to be the easiest step of all. There were more challenges starting from choosing an institute. I will write about it in my next post…