From Coimbatore to Budapest: How I Won Stipendium Hungaricum + Built My Tech Career

🕑 12 min read

I’m writing this on a tram heading from Buda to Pest, taking the long way home from work because Saumitra sir asked me for an honest, full-length account of how I ended up at SAP Hungary instead of TCS Coimbatore. So this isn’t a polished piece — it’s a story.

The Coimbatore Math Problem

I’m Vikram T., 25, originally from a middle-class Tamil family in Coimbatore. My father runs a small auto-parts shop in R.S. Puram and my mother is a high school maths teacher. I have one younger sister doing her B.Pharm. The family math was simple and brutal: my parents could put together about ₹15 lakh for my higher studies, total. That number wasn’t a dream budget — it was the absolute ceiling, and even that meant my father would mortgage the shop’s godown.

I finished my B.E. in Computer Science from a tier-2 private engineering college in Coimbatore in May 2023, CGPA 8.1. I got a TCS offer through campus, ₹3.6 LPA, joining July 2023 in Chennai. I joined. I lasted 7 months. The work was production support for a UK insurance client — log monitoring, ticket triage, weekend on-call. I was 22, doing what felt like a security guard’s job for software systems. By December 2023 I had decided I needed a Master’s, and I needed it in Europe, but the budget was the budget.

US MS was off the table — every cousin who went there came back with ₹50-70 lakh in loans and stories of three roommates in a basement in Texas. Germany was the obvious choice but my B.E. project (a basic e-commerce React site) wasn’t strong enough for top TUs and I had zero German. Canada was overhyped. Australia felt like a sales pitch.

That’s when I started reading about Stipendium Hungaricum.

How I Found Kadamb (and Why I Almost Didn’t)

Honestly? I almost ignored Kadamb. They’re based in Ahmedabad. I’m in Coimbatore. The distance felt absurd. I’d already spoken to two consultants in Bangalore who pushed me toward overpriced UK pathway programs and a Chennai consultant who tried to sell me a “Cyprus MBA” (whatever that is). I was tired.

I found Kadamb through a Quora answer — someone had written a long thread about Stipendium Hungaricum and mentioned that “the Ahmedabad-based Kadamb Overseas is one of the few Indian consultants who actually understand Eastern European scholarships.” I messaged the WhatsApp number on a Sunday evening. Got a reply from Saumitra sir himself within 40 minutes. He said: “Coimbatore is fine, we work fully remote with most students. Send me your transcripts and B.E. project before our first call.”

That alone made me trust them — the request for documents before the call meant they wanted to actually look at my profile, not just sell me a package.

The first call happened on January 4, 2024. It was 70 minutes. Saumitra sir’s first words after looking at my profile: “Stipendium Hungaricum deadline is January 15. We have 11 days. Are you serious?” I said yes. He said okay, here’s what we’re going to do.

What Stipendium Hungaricum Actually Is

For anyone reading this who doesn’t know — Stipendium Hungaricum is the Hungarian government’s flagship scholarship program for international students. India has a country quota of approximately 200 scholarships per year (across all study levels and programs). It’s fully funded:

• Tuition fees: 100% waived
• Monthly stipend: EUR 580 for Master’s students (HUF equivalent, currently)
• Accommodation: free dormitory OR EUR 100/month housing allowance
• Health insurance: covered
• One-time arrival contribution included

The application has TWO parts that confuse people: (1) the Tempus Public Foundation portal application (this is the scholarship application, government-side), and (2) you must also rank-list 3 universities and they review your academic eligibility separately. Both have to align. Saumitra sir spent half of that first call drilling this into me — most rejections happen because students fill one side properly and rush the other.

The 11-Day Sprint

Between January 4 and January 15, 2024, here’s what we did:

Day 1-2: University shortlist. I wanted Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) for M.Sc. Computer Science Engineering as my first choice — Budapest is the cheapest EU capital to live in, and BME has a strong CS reputation in Central Europe. Saumitra sir agreed but pushed me to add Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) and University of Szeged as my second and third options. He said: “Don’t put three top-tier choices. Put one ambitious, one realistic, one safe. The committee notices when your ranking shows judgement.”

Day 3-5: Motivation Letter — Three Drafts. My first draft talked about “leveraging cutting-edge technology to drive innovation in the digital age” — pure LinkedIn garbage, exactly like Rahul’s first SOP that Saumitra sir is famous for rejecting. He printed it (well, took a screenshot — we were on WhatsApp), wrote “DELETE” across it, and sent it back. Draft 2 was specific: I wrote about a small ML project I’d done at TCS unofficially (a script that predicted ticket escalation likelihood), and how I wanted to study distributed systems at BME because of their work on the Hungarian Academy of Sciences research projects. Draft 3 was the keeper.

Day 6-7: Recommendation letters. Two academic, one professional. My problem: I was in TCS and asking my team lead for a recommendation felt risky (I hadn’t told them I was leaving). Saumitra sir’s solution: ask my B.E. final-year project guide and the HOD instead — both were enthusiastic. For the third, my mother’s friend who is a professor at Anna University agreed to write one (I’d interned with her group for 2 weeks during summer 2022). Three letters submitted, all academic, technically allowed.

Day 8-10: Documents. Birth certificate, transcripts, B.E. degree (I had the provisional only), passport, medical certificate from a government doctor, English proficiency proof (I had IELTS 7.0 from a 2023 attempt — saved me from a last-minute test). Notarisation, scanning, uploading.

Day 11 (Jan 15): Submitted at 6:47 PM IST. Tempus portal closed at midnight Hungarian time. Saumitra sir messaged me a single line: “Now we wait.”

The Rejection That Wasn’t

March 18, 2024. I got an email from BME. Subject line: “Application Status Update — Computer Science Engineering M.Sc.”

I opened it expecting good news. The email said my BME application had been placed on a “conditional list” — they wanted me to submit additional proof of programming coursework (specifically OS, compilers, and distributed systems theory). My B.E. transcript had OS and a course called “Distributed Computing” which was actually a softer Hadoop overview, and my college had no formal compilers course at all.

I called Saumitra sir at 10:30 PM. He told me I had two options: (1) panic and assume rejection, or (2) submit a 4-page supplementary document showing the relevant topics I’d self-studied (with specific textbook chapters, MOOC certificates, and any code I’d written). He said BME’s “conditional list” is essentially a soft rejection that becomes acceptance if you respond well within 7 days.

I spent that whole weekend writing the supplementary doc. I included: my Coursera Compilers (Stanford, partial completion) certificate, three GitHub repos (one toy compiler in C++, one OS scheduler simulator from college, one distributed key-value store I’d built in 4 days for the application), and a reading list of 7 textbooks with chapter summaries. Submitted Tuesday morning Hungarian time.

April 22, 2024: BME official acceptance. Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship: AWARDED. M.Sc. Computer Science Engineering, English-medium, full funding, September 2024 intake.

I learned later that of approximately 4,000 Indian Stipendium Hungaricum applicants in 2024, around 200 were selected. CS at BME got something like 14 Indian students that year. I was one.

The Family Disagreement I Should Mention

This is the part where I have to be honest. My father did not want me to go to Hungary.

His reasoning: “Hungary? Why Hungary? Nobody in our family or our colony has gone to Hungary. America we know, UK we know. Even Germany we know because Saroja aunty’s son is in Munich. Hungary is a country I cannot place on a map.” He wanted me to take an Australia loan (we’d been quoted ₹35 lakh by an SBI banker) and do MS at a “known place.”

My mother was on my side because of the money — fully funded means fully funded, no loan, no mortgage. But she was scared too. We had three intense family meetings in May 2024. Saumitra sir actually got on a Zoom call with my parents one evening (his idea, not mine) and walked them through Hungary’s safety statistics, BME’s QS ranking (#566 globally but #2 in Central Europe for CS), the EU residency pathway, and the SAP / Morgan Stanley / IBM hiring presence in Budapest. My father went quiet for two days after that call. On the third day he said: “Okay. Go. But call us every Sunday.”

I have called every Sunday since I landed. 1.5 years now, no missed Sundays.

Budapest — The Reality

I landed at Ferenc Liszt Airport on August 28, 2024, in 32°C summer heat. BME orientation was September 2. My dormitory was Schönherz Kollégium — old, slightly grimy, but free. I shared a room with a Pakistani student doing his MBA. We’re still flatmates today.

Cost of living in Budapest, real numbers from my last 18 months:

• Rent (after I moved out of dorm in Year 2 to a shared flat in District 11): EUR 280/month
• Groceries (Aldi + Lidl, mostly self-cooking): EUR 120/month
• BKV monthly transit pass (student): EUR 12/month
• Mobile + internet: EUR 18/month
• Eating out (1-2 times/week, langos and gyros mostly): EUR 50/month
• Misc (clothes, gym, toiletries): EUR 40/month
• Total: roughly EUR 520/month

My Stipendium Hungaricum stipend of EUR 580/month covered everything with EUR 60 to spare each month. I genuinely did not touch family money for a single euro after I landed. This is the part that still amazes my father — he tells everyone in Coimbatore that I’m “the boy who studied in Europe for free.”

The Adjustment Difficulty Nobody Warns You About

I’m going to be honest because Saumitra sir said no fake testimonials. The first 4 months in Budapest were emotionally rough. Not financially, not academically — emotionally.

The reason: language isolation. Outside BME’s English-medium program and the international student bubble, Budapest is genuinely Hungarian-speaking. Hungarian (Magyar) is a Finno-Ugric language with zero overlap with anything I’d ever heard. Buying onions at the corner shop felt like a hostage negotiation. The older generation often doesn’t speak any English. I went 11 days in October 2024 without having a single conversation in Tamil with anyone, and I cried on a video call to my mother on the 12th day for no reason I could articulate.

What helped: I started taking a free Hungarian A1 course offered through BME’s Centre for Modern Languages. By Christmas I could order coffee, ask for directions, and exchange basic pleasantries. My Hungarian is still embarrassing today, 19 months later — I’d say weak A2 — but the cultural distance closed enormously once I could attempt a few words.

Also: I joined the Indian Students Association at BME and the broader Budapest Indian community (around 1,200 Indians live in the city, mostly tech workers and students). The Diwali 2024 celebration at the Indian Embassy in Budapest was the night I felt at home for the first time.

SAP Hungary — How That Happened

BME has an unusually strong industry pipeline because the campus is in District 11, the same district where SAP Hungary, Morgan Stanley, IBM, Ericsson, and Bosch all have their Hungary offices. The university runs a “BME Career” program where students with B+ averages in their first two semesters get pre-screened access to internship interviews.

I applied for an SAP working student position (20 hours/week) in March 2025, end of my second semester. Three rounds: technical screen (Java + SQL), team interview, and a HR fit chat. I got the offer April 11, 2025. Joined April 28 as a Working Student in the SAP HANA Cloud team, EUR 12/hour, 20 hours/week. That came to roughly EUR 960/month before tax — combined with my scholarship, I was now living comfortably and saving about EUR 400/month.

In December 2025, my team lead asked if I’d consider converting to full-time after my M.Sc. defence (planned September 2026). I said yes immediately. The conversion offer is being drafted — likely a Junior Cloud Engineer role, EUR 38,000-42,000/year base plus standard SAP benefits. By Hungarian standards this is a strong salary (Hungarian median is around EUR 18,000/year). By German or Swiss standards it’s modest, but Budapest’s cost of living is roughly 40% lower than Munich.

The EU Blue Card Plan

Hungary’s EU Blue Card threshold for new graduates in shortage occupations (CS qualifies) is approximately EUR 35,000/year base salary. My SAP offer comfortably crosses that. I’ll apply for Blue Card within my first 90 days at SAP, expected approval in 6-8 weeks.

Blue Card gives me: 4-year initial validity, family reunification rights (could bring future wife), and a fast-track to EU long-term residency after 21 months at B1 Hungarian. I’m targeting EU LTR by mid-2028. Hungarian citizenship by naturalisation requires 8 years of residence, so that’s a longer arc — 2032 if I stay the course.

Cost Breakdown (My Actual Numbers in INR)

Item	Cost (INR)
Kadamb Overseas Stipendium Hungaricum application package	~₹38,000
IELTS exam (already had, 2023 attempt)	₹15,500
Document notarisation + medical certificate + apostille	₹8,400
Birth certificate + transcript copies	₹2,200
Hungary student visa (D-visa) at VFS Chennai	₹6,800
Health insurance bridge (60 days)	₹4,500
One-way flight Chennai → Budapest (Qatar Airways, August 2024)	₹39,000
First-month setup (sim, transport pass, kitchen basics, deposit at dorm)	~₹22,000 / EUR 245
Total out-of-pocket (entire process to landing in Hungary)	~₹1,36,400

Scholarship value over 2-year M.Sc. program:

• Tuition waived: EUR 6,000/year × 2 = EUR 12,000 (₹10.8 lakh saved)
• Stipend received: EUR 580/month × 24 = EUR 13,920 (₹12.5 lakh)
• Free dorm accommodation Year 1: EUR 200/month × 12 = EUR 2,400 (₹2.16 lakh)
• Health insurance covered: EUR 70/month × 24 = EUR 1,680 (₹1.5 lakh)
• Total scholarship value: approximately ₹27 lakh over 2 years

Loan taken: ZERO. My father’s auto-parts shop godown is still un-mortgaged. This is the single fact I’m most proud of from this entire journey.

Kadamb Services I Used (Full List)

1. Initial profile evaluation (call + document review)
2. Stipendium Hungaricum strategy briefing (specific to BME/ELTE/Szeged ranking)
3. Motivation letter — 3 rounds of drafting
4. Document checklist + notarisation guidance for Tempus portal
5. BME conditional-list response support (the 4-page supplementary doc)
6. Hungarian D-visa documentation + VFS Chennai briefing
7. Family-call session (Saumitra sir + my parents on Zoom)
8. Pre-departure briefing (Budapest orientation, BKV transit, dorm tips, Indian community contacts)
9. Post-arrival check-in (one call, month 2)

Honest Advice if You’re Considering Stipendium Hungaricum

• Hungary is not a “backup” country. Don’t apply just because Germany rejected you. The committee can smell genuine versus tactical interest in a motivation letter. If Hungary isn’t your real first choice, write better.
• The January 15 deadline is non-negotiable. Tempus does not extend. Start your application by mid-November the previous year, not in early January like I did.
• Rank-list strategy matters. One ambitious + one realistic + one safe is the formula. Three top-tier choices is a sign of arrogance. Three safe choices is a sign of low ambition. The committee reads both signals.
• Budapest is the cheapest EU capital. If your family budget is tight (under ₹15-20 lakh), Hungary on Stipendium is the single highest-leverage move in European education. Don’t underestimate it because you’ve never heard of it.
• Hungarian is hard. Learn it anyway. Even broken A2-level Hungarian transforms your daily quality of life. The Hungarians appreciate the effort enormously.

Where I Am Today, April 2026

Final semester at BME, working 20 hours a week at SAP HANA Cloud team, defending my M.Sc. thesis (topic: efficient incremental view maintenance in distributed databases) in September. SAP full-time conversion offer being drafted. Application for Hungarian residence card extension submitted. Indian community of 200+ at BME, regular cricket matches in Margaret Island park, Tamil group dinner once a month at Saravana Bhavan Budapest (yes, it exists).

My sister is now in her 4th year B.Pharm and asking me about Stipendium Hungaricum for pharmacy at the University of Pécs. I’ve already introduced her to Saumitra sir. Different field, same process.

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Planning Your Stipendium Hungaricum Application?

If you’re sitting in Coimbatore or Cuttack or anywhere in India reading this, with a tight family budget and good grades but no idea where to start — talk to Kadamb. Same office, same Saumitra sir, same realistic process that got me here.

WhatsApp: +91 99133 33239
Phone: +91 99133 33239
Office: Ahmedabad, Gujarat (works fully remote with students across India)

— Vikram T.
Working Student, SAP Hungary | M.Sc. Computer Science Engineering, BME Budapest (2024-2026)

Related reading:

• Study in Europe — Complete Guide for Indian Students
• Europe Scholarship Guide for Indian Students
• Free profile evaluation with Kadamb Overseas