My journey to NordSecMob. Some tips and G5.

“The next application round for NordSecMob programme begins 3rd November, 2008 and ends 9th January, 2009” – while reading this during my application days, I didn’t have no clue that I would be writing this post as a NordSecMob scholar

“Congratulations on your successful application. Competition for Erasmus Mundus scholarships has been more intense than ever this year, with over 22 000 applications from 166 countries around the world. Of these applicants, only 8% were selected. We hope you will decide to accept your offer of a scholarship….” – it wouldn’t take me more than 139.889 milliseconds to accept such an offer ni hoina

G5 – Grand and Garlanded Gratitude to Goodness Grace, I mean.

http://nordsecmob.tkk.fi/index.html is the link that should provide you with all the necessary information on this course. There are 5 partner universities viz. Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) in Finland, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the University of Tartu (UT) in Estonia. You have to choose two among these and your specialization will vary based on your choice of universities. I had chosen TKK and KTH. That means my first year is in Helsinki and second year is in Stockholm. Both these universities are highly esteemed and I am grateful that my chosen mobility was granted

TKK is the coordinating university with which you will communicate all along the application procedure. The process is to first fill in the online application and then courier them the printed application form along with other supporting documents. Don’t worry, all these things are mentioned in the site above. I used FedEx to courier them the documents, nevertheless, you can also use Linkage or other brokers which provide the service in low prices.

About Documents:

• BE Original Certificate or BE Provisional Certificate – Must. I had to improvise with Provisional since Original was not issued by then.  Attest it in Balkhu.
• BE Transcript – Must. Everyone already has this, I guess . Attest it in Balkhu.
• +2 or ISC Transcript – Must. I attested it in my +2 college.
• Letter of Motivation – Must. Take time and effort in crafting this. Limited to 4000 characters.
• CV – Must. Put your achievements and portfolio here.
• Letter of Recommendation – Must. Two of this is required. I took one from HOD and one from my major project supervisor.
• BE syllabus – Must. Limit it to some 20 pages. Exclude subjects like Mechanical Drawings, Applied Mechanics and other not directly related to Computer Engineering.
• Passport – Must.
• English Proficiency – Must. I took TOEFL test on 23^rd November. Better take it earlier than this.
• Work Experience – Optional. I didn’t send any experience letter from my workplace. However, you can include this, if you don’t want to take any chance.

Letter of Motivation is very important in the sense that, this is your chance to say “Why choose ME?”. So don’t do no hurry. Collect yourself and remember all your achievements and vital milestones you have achieved. Since the letter limit is 4000 characters, make it short and sweet. Simple but Sample, I mean I had the following things in order in my motivation letter.

1. Who I am.
2. My aptitude and activities on communication and security during my college.
3. Hands on experience and knowhow on scope of security and wireless communication during my professional tenure.
4. How this course can help my career.
5. My plan after this graduation.

CV or Resume is also equally important. Mine was only 6 pages and contained following sections.

1. Education
2. Work Experience
3. Other Experience
4. Technical Skills
5. Professional Projects
6. Academic Projects
7. Awards and Achievements
8. Publications
9. Personal – Marital Status is Single wala he he

Your Letter of Recommendation also needs to be good. Since this involves our teachers, who are always so so busy, make sure that you initiate this process very early. It might take you some weeks to get just 2 recommendations. I alert.

“… I have the motivation to learn, diligence to contribute and endurance to face the challenges of graduate studies. If provided with the opportunity I am confident that I will live up to the academic and research standards set by the partner universities …” I said this during my application and now I just can’t wait to experience the scope of foreign study, fun of cultural exchange and drama of my first-ever out-of-home life.

With good regards to future NordSecMob students

Some links you can use:

• http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus_mundus/results_compendia/selected_projects_action_1_master_courses_en.php
• http://www.nepalfinland.com/2008/11/european-scholarships-for-master-and.html
• http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/mundus/projects/index_en.html

Cheese and Cheers

Prajwol