Living on €715 a month as a student - Munich

Hi all,
I'm willing to apply for the DAAD's scholarship to get a master degree at TUM, in Comuter Science and Engineering (CSE).
the value of the scholarship is as follow: "715 Euros/month, all fees for the preparatory language course, tuition and fees (not with private universities), study & research subsidy, travel expenses to and from Germany, accident & health insurance."
is it eough???
or should i look for another university at another place in Germany??
from my research i found that TUM is the best at Computer Science, thats why i choose it.
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Another question; after i get my master degree, will i find a good job with a good salary at Munich? How much is a good salary for a master degree holder in computer science??

Salam, Eid

You should be able to survive if you live at a student dorm, probably somewhere near Garching to keep your transport costs low, if you don't go out often and if you in general have a rather quite lifestyle.

It is also possible that you get a job as an assistant at university, that way you can get some extra cash. However that may interfere with your performance at university which is an important factor in keeping the scholarship. CSE is quite a demanding programme.

TUM is good in the general ranking. CSE in some aspects may not be as good as expected, but all in all it is very complete and you definitely learn a lot about numerical mathematics, computer modeling and parallel computing. As far as I know it has improved in the last couple of years.

CSE is not a pure computer science degree, it is a bit more academic. That means getting a job doing exactly what you learn at CSE may be little bit more complicated than getting a job if you, for example, studied IT or something with more business applications. However, the possibilities of getting a good job or a PhD position afterwards are good. What you take as your application areas plays an important role on what you can do later.

If it's a DAAD scholarship, is it likely to be any higher elsewhere? The living costs may be lower elsewhere in Germany, but that's not a guarantee. But yes, you should get by on it. You won't be rich though.

Sounds fine to me. Students have lived off less. Just make sure you find somewhere cheap to live. But if you are coming from abroad you could probably apply to live in the dorms (a Studentenwohnheim). When I do not have a job (usually I do), I live off less than €715. And it's not too bad. Granted, my rent is relatively low (hence the "try to find a cheap place to live").

About transportation costs, what my brother does (also studies at TUM and has his classes in Garching) is get a ticket for rings 1-4 and then get a "Grüne Jugendkarte" for the Außenraum (rings 5-16). Not exactly how it is supposed to be done (might possibly be against the MVV ToS) but it works. He just gives the city address for TUM at the MVV. It's a lot cheaper than buying a ticket for all of the rings you need between your apartment and school. (You may not understand what the hell I'm talking about yet, but if you decide to come here and do not end up living in Garching, it's good advice to save some money. This was in reply to what Panama suggested.)

Think cheap live cheap, its totally possible to live on that amount per month. Try to form a habit of shopping at ALDI its cheap food but limited. Mariposa has a good point, if your not savoy about transportation it can end up being pretty expensive to get around.

Viel Glück

I'm in a similar boat. I'm coming over around the end of June and I'm going to submit my application to TU for their Informatics bachelor program and if I get in I'll be taking out a loan and living on about 750 Euros a month which I think will be sufficient, given that I lead a simple lifestyle. I'll also be having to take those intensive language courses. I've had some German here in the US but I definitely need some more before studying at TU. Anybody know what exact process I should go through when applying? i.e. should I get the health insurance, then apply, then get my loan from my bank in the US, then get the language training, then apply for a visa? <-- as you can see there are a lot of steps and I'm still not sure exactly how to follow them because there's a relatively short time period (about 3 months from the application deadline) to get all of this done.

I work with a shedload of former TUM computer science students and all were pretty much financing their studies themselves.
Summer jobs are way better paid as a computer science student working in industry than other disicplines.
And then you can take off a semester here and there to build up a cash stash.

If only jobs were as plentiful and well paid back in the days in Ireland for student Mechanical Engineers!!!

I would consider trying to get a DAAD scholarship or something like that - instead of taking out a loan. Just a question, do you really want to get a loan in dollars and then have to convert that to euros?!?!?! Would highly recommend scholarships - there are quite a few for Americans if you have never lived in Germany, or if you've only been here a short time.
I am not sure about DAAD schloraships, but some do not "allow" you to earn additional money - just an FYI. I would check into DAAD's regulations. DAAD is not going to give you money if you study anywhere else, however, you will find that almost every city in Germany is cheaper than Munich. So you could stretch your stipend a bit more. Some scholarships will add a bit more if you live in an expensive city.

Also, as a master's student, I am not sure how long you can live in the student dorms. I believe it is limited to one or two semesters. I would try a WG - especially if you want to improve your German.
www.vierwaen.de or www.studenten-wg.de - sorry only in German

You can get health insurance without an problems, and really cheap, if you are a student. Not sure about TU, but LMU requires you to have German health insurance before you are allowed to register as a student. I only paid about 60 Euros a month - very cheap! I would wait to get the health insurance until you are accepted - the health insurance requires proof that you have been accepted. Apply for the visa after you've been accepted - because they will also require proof that you've been accepted. You can get the visa after you are in Munich.

If you are looking into taking intensive German courses, they are going to cost you. The unis offer German courses, but I found them to be disappointing - probably because I had foreigners teaching some of my courses! But to start, it might not be such a bad thing :-)

If you want more info on housing, uni system, or scholarships, etc. you can pm me. I studied in Munich and am now at another uni in Germany. Have had plenty of experience with German unis. Best of luck!

I'm paying 230 euro a month to rent a student room. Originally I was earning a 800 euro a month minus health care and taxes was not a lot but yeah. As long as you can afford rent and food what else do you need . 715 you could live fine, but it would always be good to work hard and save up some money too.

Yeah, I use to think the same way when I was a college student. But now that I'm earning an income there is so much more I think I need.

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