Imperia statue of Konstanz, Germnay.
After a careful consideration, I have officially started as a PhD student of the University of Konstanz as part of the QUEST group under Prof. Dr. Oded Zilberberg this 1st October 2024. Due to some admission guidelines*, I will initially join as part of the Eignungsfeststellungsverfahren Ph.D. program. As part of this, I will initially be paid as a Research Assistant (HiWi) and will have to take and pass an advanced QM class. This will last for one semester, after which I would hopefully properly be hired as a Doctoral Candidate Researcher.
* After some investigate and multiple inquiries, we found that this is highly dependent to the univeristies and the officer-in-charge for admissions. As such, it is possible that the requirements would change over time. In my case, there were others from the same country and university who enrolled in the past years that did not have to face such hurdles. If you are in the same position, you have to reconsider since the pay is going to be less than half of what you’ll receive as a proper Ph.D. student (approximately 1/3 of the salary before tax). But if you choose to continue just hang on! It is unfair but this does not define our worth!
Starting April 2025, I have officially been accepted as a Doctoral Candidate Researcher. Really happy that everything turned out well and I will finally be compensated as a proper PhD student Σ(ง˵◉o◉˵)ง✨