P2P No. 44 — Differences between the Anglo-Saxon and the CEE education systems
What does excellence mean?
If you are applying to a degree program in a different education system than what you are used to and are not aware of the differences, it can hurt your application. Below, I distill what I learned when going from Central Eastern Europe to an international program in Germany.
The Anglo-Saxon system
The Anglo-Saxon system (US, UK) is highly influenced by your statement of purpose—it considers academic achievement (the SAT, for example), but your story is interesting, it would not be unheard of to beat candidates who are better academically.
Arguably, this system is more subjective; it enables capturing what GPAs cannot.
These boundary conditions made a place for guides such as theoretical CS professor Cal Newport's How to Win at College. I read this book well into my Ph.D., and it was eye-opening to see the difference compared to Central Eastern Europe.
The Central Eastern European system
In Central Eastern Europe (mostly influenced by the Prussian school of thought), only one your academic achievements matter—in Hungary, these are your grades, your high-school graduation scores, foreign language certificates, maybe some national or international competitions. Given that input, the output is deterministic.
That is, in the hypothetical scenario of a high school student who spent years interning at a research institute, gaining invaluable experience for her field of study but having average grades and test results, has less chance than someone who has no experience but excels at the above criteria.
Of course, if you can excel in high school, then you will probably excel in your degree program, but if you have experience, you can shine too.
Takeaway
The differences does not mean that excellence is not acknowledged in both systems, though it differs what is meant by excellence.
These deviations are more pronounced up to postgraduate studies and somewhat diminish when applying for a PhD—e.g., in Hungary, PhD students are hired based on both a personal interview and academic performance.
Thus, when either switching to the Anglo-Saxon system or when applying for a PhD, you need to be aware that academic excellence is only one component.
Involving the human factor via our stories is more akin to the real world: companies are not only looking for professional competence but also for how the candidate would fit into the team.
Resources and a bitter-sweet story
It might be worth revisiting my thoughts on writing a statement of purpose and providing context.
My supervisor, Ferenc Huszár, nailed the cultural differences in how reference letters should be written, emphasizing the big gap between what is meant by excellence in the US and in Central Eastern Europe. It is worth reading for all referrers (or, in a strictly hypothetical scenario, for the poor student tasked with writing the letter for himself).
Shameless marketing
If you are passionate about neural networks, robotics, or intelligent systems and looking for a Ph.D. in Europe, I cannot help but recommend both graduate programs I am partaking in: the International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems (IMPRS-IS) and the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS).
Most of the insights I write about are related to my experience as an IMPRS-IS and ELLIS scholar. In the following weeks, more is coming.
Important dates and resources
IMPRS-IS application deadline: November 15, 2023, 23:59 CET. Find out more on the IMPRS-IS website.
ELLIS application deadline: November 15, 2023, 23:59 CET (yes, they are—not coincidentally—the same). Find out more on the ELLIS website.