Dont do it
PhD in Germany
-
Try to get into a graduate school, such as Konstanz, Mannheim, Max Planck, Berlin, Bremen... They give you more independence than working for a professor on a project, and there is a cohort you can hang out with. The stipend isn't large, but it's enough to live on. You don't pay tuition fees anyway.
The traditional model is to be hired by a professor to work part-time (usually 50 or 65 percent) on a research project to collect data or do other research. This lets you publish with faculty, and you can use the project data also for the PhD. But it also means your advisor can make or break your PhD, so choose wisely. 50-70 percent employment may sound like a lot, but consider that you are partly working towards your PhD goals by collecting those data or doing whatever it is the project requires because you'll use it for the thesis.
I'd go to the following places in this order:
1. Max Planck (if you find an IMPRS school with a topic that works for you; but not Cologne because too qualitative).
2. Konstanz
3. Mannheim (as good as Konstanz but fairly narrow focus)
4. Berlin
5. Bremen
6. Bamberg
7. Munich
8. Heidelberg
9. Hamburg
10. Frankfurt
11. Don't do it.
If you work on a project, it's more important to look at the track record of the person you'll work with than the institution.I never understood how its possible that Max Planck is regarded so highly, but Köln and Duisburg are regarded so lowly. Isnt it the exact same people? Is it just the name brand making the difference?
The Max Planck Society consists of more than 80 interdisciplinary institutes. All of them are world-leading in their specific niche or topic. The one in Cologne is doing sociology and used to do polisci, too, but has crowded out most political scientists with the retirement of Streeck (and even before that it was a qualitative place). Most institutes are in STEM fields. Social scientists occasionally get places in MPI grad schools. The Max Planck Institutes are better places than universities because they have tons of money and no teaching. They usually appoint two directors by creating a world ranking list of top scientists in the respective research topic or nice and head-hunt them starting at the top of the list. They often end up with CHYMPS professors. The directors get millions over millions of money and are free to build their own kingdom with total autonomy, outside of any university and admin structures. That's why it's so desirable to be there. But it's an extremely small pool of opportunities, these days especially for political scientists. The University of Cologne and other universities often offer the researchers at Max Planck Institutes affiliations. That way, the researchers can call themselves professor and PhD students can actually get an award while it's also good for the university as it wants some of the prestige of collaborating with the institute.
-
It’s a lovely city though, or at least I thought so.
why bremen?
They have the BIGSS graduate school between thr University of Bremen and Jacobs University. It offers funded positions without working directly for a professor. The faculty are a mixed bag, hence not very high on the list.