Why ApplyToGerman (AlmanyaUni) Exists: An Open Letter from the Founder

A May night, 11:40 pm. There's a Telegram channel called "My Germany University Dream" — 14,000 members. A message arrives:

"Friends, tomorrow at 9 am I'm submitting my file to uni-assist. I had my transcript translated by a notarized translator, but I didn't get a VPD. Is my application trash now? I want to start in September, my head is spinning."

Three people answer. The three say three different things. One says "submit it anyway, add the VPD later"; one says "they won't accept it"; one redirects them to yet another Telegram channel. The question is real, the panic is real, but no one has a clear answer.

This scene plays out every night. Not just this message — why your visa appointment is seven months away, whether €992/month on the Sperrkonto will be enough, what class your diploma falls into on Anabin, why you need to choose a Krankenkasse when their prices are all the same by law. These questions circulate every day across tens of thousands of Turkish students' phones. The number asking is far higher than the number finding a reliable answer. And most of them walk through their own application like walking through a dark room.

#This System Does Not Have to Be This Hard

My name is Halil Yaprakli. I came to Germany, lived the process, went home, came back, decided to stay. At every step there were dozens of moments where I thought "someone should have told me this in advance." I picked Expatrio over Coracle on Sperrkonto because the address registration was faster — I didn't know this and lost two months on my first attempt. I applied to uni-assist without a VPD; my file sat in limbo. If I had known, I would have applied in January instead of March. These examples accumulate, and every single one is the concrete cost of information inequality.

Germany's academic system can be complex, but it is not opaque. The information sits, free of charge, in official channels — DAAD, Hochschulkompass, KMK Anabin, the BERUFENET database of the Federal Employment Agency. But that information is in German, often in bureaucratic prose, and for a Turkish student the sentence "diploma equivalence is classified on Anabin as H+, H+-, H-, GO-1, GO-3" is, frankly, intimidating. What we do is unpack that sentence, translate it, and show with examples what it actually means for a Turkish applicant.

That's the idea ApplyToGerman (AlmanyaUni) was built around: official information + Turkish-language explanation + community experience. When those three sit side by side, the decision to come to Germany turns from darkness into a plan.

#Where We Are Today

There are over 600 active German universities on the platform — that count is reconciled weekly against DAAD and Hochschulkompass data, with additions and removals applied. A search engine narrows their 18,000+ programs by English-taught status, NC-frei, Bachelor/Master/PhD, field, city, budget. Applying to the wrong university is more expensive than failing to discover the right one.

The numerical tools are a different chapter. The Sperrkonto finder compares three providers (Expatrio, Coracle, Fintiba) on opening fee, address-registration speed, and support quality. The cost-of-living calculator ties city-level rent ranges to DAAD and DZHW data. The visa cost calculator does not just show the €75 consulate fee — it brings the full application cost (Sperrkonto + insurance + uni-assist + translation + APS + flight) into one table; the real number is not "€75" but somewhere between €12,000 and €13,000.

Beyond these, there are 130+ city profiles, 200+ FAQs, and new guides added every week. All free, no registration required. A Premium tier with mentor sessions arrives late 2026, but core guidance will always stay open. Access to basic information is not a luxury for a student — it is a right.

#Who Writes These Pieces

Seven editors. Anna Schmidt lives in Berlin and writes from inside the German academic system — Studienkolleg, Hochschulzulassung, the technical layers are her territory. Ayesha Khan is an international Master's student at TU Munich; she has lived the non-EU student's trial with Sperrkonto, Krankenkasse, Schufa first-hand, and that experience seeps into every line she writes. Elif G. has mapped the typical rejection patterns at uni-assist; Gamze E. knows how to explain the gap between TestDaF and DSH to a student in plain language; Hakan Kutlu has put the 6 am consulate-portal refresh strategy into actual practice; Caner Türkdoğru walked the road from a Werkstudent application to a first Junior Developer salary. These seven write. I am the seventh, as founder.

Everything the editors write is grounded in official sources (DAAD, KMK, Anabin, BERUFENET, Auswärtiges Amt) and cross-checked against a community pool — over 142,000 messages from Telegram and Forum that we have analysed. When an editor takes on a topic, they see which questions that topic actually raises in the community, and they aim to answer all of them.

#Where We Will Be in Twelve Months

Three things in the next year. Application Tracker — the eight steps of the application, from eligibility check to visa appointment, follow-able from a single dashboard; for each step you'll see what to do, which document to prepare now, by what date you should finish. Mentor network — one-on-one conversations with Turkish professionals who built careers in Germany; some free, some priced per hour. Forum opens in 2027 — anonymous Q&A, expert moderation, category archive. These are not luxury features; they are insurance against wrong answers at critical moments of the application process.

#What You Can Do

Three things. One: trust the right sources. DAAD, KMK Anabin, Hochschulkompass, BERUFENET, Auswärtiges Amt. These five sites give you authoritative, free, current answers to every fundamental question. Two: treat every ApplyToGerman (AlmanyaUni) piece you read as a starting point rather than a final reference — your own situation always carries nuance; verify against your own context. Three: share your experience. The forum opens soon; every honest anecdote you contribute there will guide someone else's decision. What we write is official; what you write is real. When the two come together, a student stops getting lost in the system.

#Final Words

You do not need to be alone on the path to Germany; that's exactly why this platform exists. Every clarified FAQ, every completed tool, every enriched university page exists to reduce the uncertainty behind your decision. Your feedback is welcome — if you find a great source, share it; if you spot a wrong piece, let us fix it.

Germany has never been this accessible for Turkish students. Together, we will make it even more so.

— Halil Yaprakli Founder, ApplyToGerman (AlmanyaUni) May 2026