Prospective applicant here. Does anyone know if the program is any good and how competitive the selection is?
Berlin Graduate school of Transnational studies
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I was also wondering about this - many applicants seem to come from decent universities, the WZB & Hertie have a good rep and on their website they try to sell themselves as an international and up-to-date program (although it's easy to be one compared to the average level in Germany). I am generally suspicious of German academia (lot of smart people, but underfunded, conservative, not internationally oriented, very weak methods). It's probably a good shot if you wanna do something else than standard rational choice IR, Germans do love theory and history for sure and Berlin a great place to live
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I think it's like most things in German academia: Depends entirely on who you get as an advisor. If they're good and internationally well connected everything becomes much easier and will help you navigate the university system. But in most German PhDs will be really well funded compared to most places in US or Europe.