Program

The candidates of the first training course made anonymous comments on the course they joined in 2006. A few comments about the program are listed below.

Would you recommend the training course of the graduate school to a fellow Student? Why and why not?

• I strongly recommend the training program. We had access to a broad range of techniques and research fields. We had the chance to work in different labs and see what they are doing.

• Yes, because the training course not only gives you insight into the topics and techniques, but also provides insight into social and working conditions of each group.

Looking back at the training phase, what is the overall assessment of the course? What are its strength and weakness, and in what ways might it be improved? Please rate your overall assessment of this course. (Scale: 1 = poor, 2 = below, 3 = good, 4 = very good, 5 = excellent)

• Overall assessment is very good. Strength: variety of techniques demonstrated during the training phase (5). The lab manual provides, in general, good help and literature review (3), staff is cooperative and helpful (5), response of coordination office to personal needs (5), weakness: some organisation aspects regarding grouping, training suite (3).

• Overall assessment would be 5.0=excellent. The strength of the training phase is that it is a good opportunity to learn a wide spectrum to techniques, which are related to the PhD.

Was the financial support by the graduate school during the training course sufficient to meet your personal requirements in Germany? Looking back, do you think that the financial aid was for you personally, a prerequisite to attend the training course and if so, please explain why?

• Yes, financial support was sufficient and necessary. Travel costs and living costs otherwise would be too very expensive and it would be difficult to live on own expenses.

• Yes, financial support was sufficient. No, it is not prerequisite but of course it made things easier and providing financial support, especially for travel expenses, increases the probability of attending such a program.

Did you attend the social activities organized by the graduate school and how did you like them?

• Yes, like the visitation of the "Roman Museum". I would suggest taking applicants to nearby major cities.

• Yes, I attended the social activities. It was a good way of getting to know other candidates, students and faculty. The local area is very beautiful and there are many historic sites to visit.

Did you take advantage of the Training-Suite? Do you think the equipment was appropriate? Was the available literature helpful or did you miss specific textbooks (please specify)? Did you use the Internet connections for literature search and/ or email?

• Nine computers were sufficient in the end. The literature was fine maybe one or two general ones like biology and physics principles have been useful. I used the internet for E-Mail and literature searches.

• Tue available books were fine. However, since candidates come from different backgrounds I think it would have been useful to have some books for non-experts.

Please give your general assessment of the organisation of the graduate school.

• Compliment to Prof. Dr. Dieter Bruns, Ms. Wolf and Ms. Wirth; Organisation was good. Initially there where some problems but later it was just perfect.

• Very good considerate and nice.

• In general, the course was very useful to me in academic and personal aspects. The course was reasonably designed to have a view of different scientific approaches.

• In general the organisation was very good. Since it was not completely clear however the evaluation would be performed, I was very insecure and did not know what was expected of us.

• The organisation of the graduate school is perfect. All lectures were arranged before starting the program. I appreciate the arrangements.

• The books and the Laboratorial Manual were perfect and helpful. Also having a training suite was good and access to the internet was organized well.