BrazilianPhD wrote:
Well, I know nothing about Mannheim and CAT. But the rest of your profile does not seem extraordinary for a PhD applicant.
Things like work experience, running a business, and international experience are usually irrelevant for PhD. Your grades do not seem that great. It looks like the only thing you have to show as research experience is your master thesis, but that's something virtually all applicants have too.
When applying to a PhD program, you want to show extraordinary potential to do research. I don't see that in the information you provided.
As MBAIvy said, if you had publications, then the situation would be different. Because then you would have proof that you are good enough as a researcher to get your work published, and very few applicants have that.
Another thing that can help is if you have very strong letters of recommendations from professors who are well-known in your field, specially if those professors are known by the faculty of Mannheim. By the way, applying to only one university is really strange for PhD.
Thank you for the frank assessment.
My GPAs are skewed due to how they are translated, I have a lot of marks that are capped at 4.0 when they are mid to high 70s. This means that when translated it doesn't provide a fair evaluation but it is a non-point as they will look at my transcripts and see that. I am only applying to Mannheim because I want to live in Baden-Wurttemberg, due to the way my business is run whilst I can afford to self study it would financially cripple me in the short run meaning I would have to wait until 2019 to start. Mannheim offers a stipend for the first year which will allow me to sort out my financial affairs in a non destructive manner. Is not a case of I am fixated on this particular university but more its the only university in the state that offered a stipend. I don't want to be approaching 30 with little to none experience in what I want to do with my life.
Shaun