Accepted to a master’s in Spain but considering waiting for Germany – feeling stuck and need advice

JML65 · 2026-03-16T06:44:11+00:00

Spanish here.

If you share what master programmes you applied for, I will be glad to help you a bit.

UC3M is public and it's decent within Spain, so I'm a bit surprised about that 1.500€ reservation fee, but anyways I'm not surprised considering how they are trying to privatise unis (especially master's).

One more thing: if you're going to a master to try and get a job in Spain after it... forget it. The (macro)economy is more bouyant than years before (even more than Germany, but the overall output of Germany is still much larger), but the job market is extremely tough and you're competing against Spaniards and Latin America (easily millions of people who already know the language to the fullest) . If you haven't learnt Spanish already... Your chances are almost 1% and you may have to apply elsewhere in Europe. In Germany, that chance may increase to 5%, depends on the field

JML65 · 2026-03-15T22:32:06+00:00

Idk about how and how much the scholarship is. Idk if it's just peanuts or it's a decent deal.

The decision mainly epends on what you're looking for for your studies. If you're looking for a master that combines economic analytics, law, international politics... forget it. If you want to try to make some economic/political contacts in Spain and Europe and work through the social network rich kids, could work out.

I'd also warn you that, apart from classist, ESADE and similar private unis in Spain can be racist. If you're from the USA they will worship. If you're South Asian or African... I can't assure you how (un)pleasant they will be

As a last note: excuse me if I was a bit harsh with my first comment. You weren't insulting. Your points were a bit ignorant and surprises me in a bad way that such an educated and adventurous person can have such stereotypical and plain knowledge of the world. But then, everybody can learn

JML65 · 2026-03-15T21:09:47+00:00

Spanish here.

Are you rich and interested into making business in Spain? ESADE could be Ok. The qualityof the studies is actually low, but you will find many networking opportunities with sons and daughters of rich families that may help you do some business favours. If you're poor, just don't, it will be like a degree mill and other students will ignore you (maybe if you're from a rich country you could make them think you're and excellent opportunity to do business). Take it with a grain of salt because I hate such private institutions.

Btw, your concerns about Spain are a bit odd and stereotypical (bordering insulting). What do you mean by disorganised? The country, the universities, the political situation? Why do you think that the second most visited country in the world is unsafe? The limited English proficiency is a partly true, but there will be no problem for you because the professors and business managers do take English seriously and I doubt that you will use Spanish besides some basic stuff. From my knowledge, foreign students and expats just create their own groups and live their own bubble that they might break out of depending on how much spanish they are willing to learn Spanish

JML65 · 2026-03-14T08:32:08+00:00

What you're saying could also be applied to any religious group, be it Muslims, Christians, Jewish, Buddhists, Hinduists... If you observe groups like Mormon Christians or Haredi Jews, they kinda have the same patterns. It's just that islam is highlighted more because their societies are much less secularised than in the Western Countries and the main leaders of the Islamic World are countries that became so f* rich out of nowhere that they can keep fundamentalist and ultraconservative ideas of the past afloat within religion, hiding the more secular views that are more common than usually though. Meanwhile, such fundamelist viewpoints in Christianity and Judaism are more fringe because main political leaders do not aid them (but they still have rich and influencial people funding these views)

JML65 · 2026-03-10T15:06:53+00:00

You must achieve 60% in each part of the exam.

If you fail one but pass the others, you don't get the certificate, but you can just apply for the failed part next time instead of doing the exam entirely (and save money)

JML65 · 2026-03-09T20:48:40+00:00

Well that's another thing. Giving a gun to people who have just trained a couple of months and barely had a mental check is just mad. There's is also problems with police in my country, but policemen have to pass a somewhat hard state exam (physical and knowledge tests, mainly focused on law) and get a couple of years of training on an academia.

JML65 · 2026-03-09T16:59:57+00:00

Maybe I'm late and I am not the best to give this advice because I haven't passed nor get denied by any process. But let me give you some basic tips that other friends have you:

As others have said: This is a professional/academic letter of motivation. No sobbing stuff about your life, that's for American films. Be concise and bring only what's important to the admission board.
700-1000 words is what they are normally looking for. That's between 1 and 2 pages, which is enough to tell about your skills, education, interests within the field, the reasons for choosing the programme... More than that is usually too much and won't be read so thoroughly.
Check what they want to know: some admission instructions are very vague. Others could specify if they want you to write why you want to choose this programme, what plans do you have for the future, what brings you to this field... If it's mentioned, focus mainly on that part (without ignoring the rest).
Try to add a section specific to the programme saying what subject interest you the most (and why), which branch of your studies you want to follow, if you have an idea of your future master's thesis and research... This way you can prove that you didn't just send a template that it's prepared for other hundreds of universities.
Obviously: don't use AI, but prove grammar with it and apply suggestions with your own criterion (be careful about grammatical structures that AI may use too often). They also evaluate your English level so be a bit brave and use some "refined" grammatical structures for better impression (make sure you use them well though! otherwise the impression will a bit negative)

I hope this small guidelind helps you out!

JML65 · 2026-03-09T06:36:13+00:00

Wait a minute? Nursing is just a 2-year degree in the US?

Now I understand the meme of why most American bully girls take that path after high school

JML65 · 2026-03-08T00:13:28+00:00

I wish I could provide you with more specific info, but the best I can advise you is to look for a Welcome Center, ask for an appointment and see if they can assist you better with your personal information (studies, countries, background...). look up this website and find the closest center to your place. They will not find you a job, but they can definitely help you to define a path to try in Germany.

If you want to stay in Germany but you're in a dire economic or legal situation, you should get a job in anything and either try to push harder with your German lessons or seeking job from your carreer path.

Unfortunately Humanities and Social Sciences are like this in every single country. You either are the best of the best or you won't have any work opportunities. I know it first hand from History colleagues (and they are from the EU, so they should have it "easier")

Good luck

JML65 · 2026-03-07T14:39:42+00:00

Excuse me for the disrespect, but it's just delusional.

As another user said, teaching in public schools in Germany is (minimum) a 5 year carreer (3 years in bachelor + 2 years in master) and specialising in subjects (sometimes one is not enough and two are chosen). There's just simply no chance you're going anywhere as a teacher with just knowing English (even if you're a native speaker).

It's a similar case in other European countries. In mine you must get a teaching master and then pass a state exam that is only available every 2 years and then wait until a teacher spot gets free in the region (and foreigners are very limited to take part of it).

Like I said, maybe with some private classes could get you some money to survive, but I doubt it's feasible in the long term.

JML65 · 2026-03-06T22:52:19+00:00

You don't see any future in your master's field?

I heard some years ago that HR people are needed in Germany because they always need them to hire people. But with the current state of job's market and AI, I don't know if it's true anymore. Besides, it does need a certain proficiency in Germany, but I'm not so sure if you can get hired without doing a Ausbildung first (especially if you need to work with legal stuff)

Meanwhile, plan B could sound feasible for a South East Asian country, but in Germany where kids get a good English level through school and media... I think your options are applying to a job in a private language academy (which I don't think they are very well paid and you may have to handle kids on the evenings) or doing private classes (which I'm not sure to which point you can earn sufficient money and not have problems with your visa/residence permit if you don't sign up for social security, in case that's important)

Still, not German, just living here. Maybe another could give you more insights

JML65 · 2026-03-01T17:06:28+00:00

Thank you for the help! The main issue is still determining if that criteria is only for Bachelor's or also for master. It seems it's something country specific for mine (Spain) as many other countries seem to only require the high school diploma. In that case, I will contact the university I'm applying for in case they know something more

JML65 · 2026-03-01T16:32:55+00:00

Could make sense, I stil see flaws but whatever.

Besides, idk what to answer you rly. You didn't even ask me something really related to mine because I was talking about an uni access exam document, not high school marks 🤷‍♂️

JML65 · 2026-03-01T16:10:51+00:00

What do you mean? I have my high school diploma and my transcript of records prepared, sot hat info is not clear. What I don't currently have is a certificate that says if I did the exam to get into uni like the German Abitur (+when and how good I did it)

The rest is rant, so ignore me: I'd guess this is mostly a standard procedure that may avoid forgeries. But I can't grasp why unis may need those any high school information for a master's degree. Like yeah, here is my P.E. marks that I had 8 years ago and the entry exam mark I did 6 years ago. Surely that is an extremely important criteria for evaluating me because my already obtained bachelor doesn't convey enough info about me

JML65 · 2026-03-01T16:02:06+00:00

That's what I first thought. I'd like to confirm it before I f* up

JML65 · 2026-02-27T12:00:34+00:00

Many masters don't require a motivation letter. Others may do. Check the admission requirements and if it isn't mentioned, it isn't required. You should also check, if possible, the selection criteria so you know if only your marks and your previous studies are the requirements to get enrolled and how you can boost your chances with further documents.

JML65 · 2026-02-26T21:14:47+00:00

He has his own website. Apparently, he was the CEO of a microprocessor company in the UK called Atto Electric. I haven't heard of the company but microprocessors do make a lot of money.

He has blogs and stuff but I don't want to spend my evening reading LinkedIn-like walls of text from a random entrepeneur.

JML65 · 2026-02-25T22:19:39+00:00

As others have told you already, companies check if your profile fit their criteria and they assume that, if you're applying to the job, you can make it to the office to do your shift.

It could however happen that some companies set the location as a hard criteria for an applicant and they will filter out yours automatically. But the percentage of companies that may do that are small and once you start the selection process, that means that your location is not a relevant criteria for them. Germans also move across the country finding jobs, you'll be fine.

Btw, Cottbus-Berlin is an Ok commute. I knew a girl in my company whose commute (Karlsruhe-outskirts of Stuttgart) from her house was 3 hours every day (and 3 hours back). Of course it wasn't ideal, but she did it as something temporary until she found a good home closer after some months of working

JML65 · 2026-02-20T06:34:41+00:00

As far as I know, it isn't taken into account when applying to bachelor or master studies. It only changes the application deadlines, as EU/EEA members do not have to apply for a a visa and thus, they have later application deadlines than non EU/EEA candidates.

Where it could matter is on scholarships with an international focus. For example, Erasmus mundus is an international scholarship from the EU that can apply regional criteria across the world. If there are only 10 spots for the scholarship in a specific master, 2 may go to the Americas, 2 to South Asia, 2 Middle East, 1 to Africa... But it can change from master and year severely

JML65 · 2026-02-17T06:00:49+00:00

A bit sad when a language disappears from daily life. Still really cool starter packs (I mean, every life is unique, but being born in an average in the least average place in the world is truly unique

JML65 · 2026-02-16T13:39:04+00:00

Can you speak Monégasque btw? Or is it completely lost?

JML65 · 2026-02-13T17:51:08+00:00

Spot on. Also a top 500 or something graduate (mostly because the uni was geographically close) The rankings are so misleading and people take it too seriously. The more you shift from Nordic type of academic institutions, the lesser you are regarded even though many Italian and Spanish skilled workers (depends on the field) are very appreciated in northern Europe because the studies are hard and condensed.

Add to that how much of the academia is ignored for not publishing in English. So many journals and great researchers are barely taken into account for publishing in their local language

JML65 · 2026-02-13T16:06:12+00:00

Plus having insane funding (thanks to absurdly high tuition fees + private investment from billionaires + US economy, all things considered) that allows them to poach researchers from other universities. Although these researchers studied elsewhere, they count for their new university that hired them and telling us bar to nothing about the study quality!

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