Как подать документы в университеты Германии: Пошаговое руководство

The application process can involve elaborate, often time-consuming steps that you may not yet be aware of. Read on to learn more about the application process at German universities, their special features and pitfalls.

When Should I Start Applying for German Universities?

While the official deadlines may only be a few months before the semester begins, you should think of the application process as something that really starts half a year, or even up to a year, in advance. This is because the deadlines are only the last step — before you even reach them, several time-consuming stages require careful planning.

Most German universities have two main intakes:

• Winter semester (starts in October): application deadlines usually fall between mid-May and mid-July.
• Summer semester (starts in April): deadlines are often between early December and mid-January.

That is why the very first step is to check the admissions calendar of your chosen institution and mark those dates carefully.

Even once you know the deadlines, waiting until a few weeks before to begin your application is a recipe for stress.

Certified translations of your school or university certificates, for example, can take weeks to obtain, especially if you need official stamps or notarised copies.

If your university requires a Preliminary Review Documentation (VPD) from uni-assist, this process alone can take a few weeks under normal conditions, and considerably longer during peak application periods when thousands of international students submit their files.

A realistic timeline means beginning your preparations roughly nine months before you plan to start your studies. This gives you enough time to research universities, understand their entry requirements, and confirm whether your existing certificates are recognised in Germany.

Starting early is not just about avoiding delays; it also increases your chances of success. Popular courses in subjects like medicine or engineering receive far more applications than available spots, and some universities even start reviewing files before the final deadline.

How to Apply to German Universities?

There are more than 400 universities in Germany that differ greatly from one another. The first step in the application process is actually not the application itself, but rather choosing the right degree programme that interests you and fits your skills and educational background.

There are three main application routes you might encounter:

• Direct application – many private universities and some public universities manage their own admissions.
• uni-assist.de – a centralised service used by around 170 German universities, specifically for international students.
• hochschulstart.de – a national portal mostly used for German applicants or highly competitive programmes such as medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry.

Individual Applications for Public and Private Universities

If you apply to a university in the traditional way, the process will probably vary at least slightly from university to university. But there are some general guidelines you can follow that apply to most universities.

The first advice we can give you is to visit the website of the universities of your choice. They will have a dedicated section on their website explaining their application process, what documents they require, what averages need to be achieved, what you need to submit, deadlines, etc.

Once you have gathered all the information and documents required by your university of choice, you will need to send in all the documents either in paper form or digitally.

Please also note that it will probably be necessary to request certified translations of your relevant documents so that the German staff at the university can properly assess your achievements and grades. You can obtain such translations, for example, through translators such as Lingoking.

In addition, it is not uncommon, especially at smaller universities, to conduct small interviews with potential students.

Applying to a German University Through uni-assist.de

If you are planning to move to Germany for your studies, you are most likely applying to several universities. This process can be overwhelming - multiple platforms, lots of documents, and other issues that may arise. However, you should know that in Germany, many universities have centralised the application process for international students using uni-assist.de.

What is uni-assist.de?

Uni-assist is an organisation that manages applications for around 170 universities throughout Germany. They evaluate your certificates so the universities can better assess their applicants. In addition, uni-assist provides the MyAssist portal, where you can manage and monitor your applications.

Many universities have centralised the application process on the website uni-assist.de. For you, this has the advantage that, in case you want to apply to multiple universities that are cooperating with uni-assist, you only have to upload all your documents once and can handle all your applications from a centralised online portal.

However, it is worth mentioning that, even though the core process through uni-assist is always the same, universities might require different documents or are only working with uni-assist for some specific courses. It is, therefore, always worth checking out the website of your dream university before jumping into the application process to make sure you provide everything correctly.

Standard Application Through uni-assist

Once you know that your university processes applications through uni-assist, you should go to their website and get familiar with how it works, the processing times and fees. In the following, you will learn how the basic process works in three simple steps. You can find more information directly on the portal’s website.

Step 1: Gather Your Documents

After the sign-up, you should check which documents your university requires from you. You can also do this via the selector of uni-assist, but it is advisable to check with your university directly so as not to overlook any important documents. Do not forget to get court-certified translations and certified copies of your documents, which must be uploaded in addition to your original documents. Please bear in mind that these translations again take time, so take care of them early.

In case you are searching for a qualified and certified translator for your documents, check out Lingoking* for high-quality translations.

Step 2: Create Your Application and Upload Documents

Do you have all the documents at hand? Then it is time to create your online application for the universities you are interested in. Once that is done, upload all the documents you need. Do not forget to upload the originals and the translated versions if they are needed. Check whether your university accepts online-only applications or not.

If online applications are accepted, your application process is almost complete. If online applications are not possible at your university, you must forward the certified copies of your educational certificates and their translations to uni-assist. This must also include the transcript. Documents related to the university application itself do not have to be sent by post. Please make sure that all documents have either been uploaded or sent to uni-assist before the deadline.

Step 3: Pay the Processing Fees

Before any of your applications are processed, you must pay the processing fees to uni-assist. Until then, none of your applications will be processed. However, it is worth asking your university again, because some universities actually cover the fees. At the moment, the fee for the first application to a university is € 75.00, and every subsequent application costs € 30.00. Once this has been done, you can send your documents to the following address:

Uni-assist e.V.11507

Берлин

GERMANY

Important! Do NOT send your original documents to uni-assist, you will probably need them later. Only send the certified copies and translations of them!

Once uni-assist has all your documents, they will review them and summarise their assessment in a short document. The document takes between four and six weeks to prepare. The results of your evaluation will then be sent to you by email or post. Please be sure to check your results for any errors. In case of mistakes, contact uni-assist directly and clarify the problems with them to receive a correct evaluation of your degrees.

As soon as you have received a positive evaluation, it will automatically be sent electronically, together with your other application documents, to the universities for which you have applied. From this point on, the application process is complete, and you must wait for the university’s response as to whether or not they will grant you a place to study.

Applications Through hochschulstart.de

When a university issues an admission letter to a student, it already reserves a study place for that student. In general, students usually apply to many different universities to increase their chances. However, in most cases, they do not inform the university that they will not accept their offer because they have another place or have not started their studies at the specified time.

For this reason, the Dialogue-Oriented Service Procedure (DoSV) was introduced for many popular degree programmes such as medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry. This procedure is coordinated by hochschulstart.de. The aim is to distribute the study places for popular degree programmes fairly among all qualified applicants and to avoid empty places in the study halls. Thus, the entire procedure generally increases the chances of all applicants being accepted in their desired degree programmes.

You can use the search function of hochschulstart.de to find out whether your desired degree programme is subject to coordination by the DoSV. If the procedure applies to you, you must process your application via both hochschulstart.de and uni-assist. At hochschulstart.de, you will receive ID numbers called BID and BAN, which you will have to enter in your uni-assist account (called My assist) throughout the application process. Apart from the additional ID numbers BID and BAN, the process via uni-assist remains the same as we described above.

Once you have finished setting up the application, paid the uni-assist fees and sent in all the documents, you should create a preference ranking among the universities to which you have applied.

Your application will be automatically sent by uni-assist to the universities you have selected as soon as the evaluation has been completed. You will then have to check again on hochschulstart.de whether you have been admitted and for which degree programmes. As soon as you receive the first admissions, you must select an offer on hochschulstart.de that you would like to accept. The other offers will be rejected by this choice. Therefore, please think carefully before accepting an offer.

Applications with Preliminary Review Documentation (Vorprüfungsdokumentation)

Some universities also request a so-called Preliminary Review Documentation (“Vorprüfungsdokumentation”), which is also created by uni-assist. The process does not greatly differ from the standard application process through uni-assist, which is described in the sections above.

When you want to apply for a university that requires such documentation, you must comply with the following steps in addition to the standard application through uni-assist. You must pay the processing fees and then send the documents required by the university (including the certified translations) to uni-assist by post.

Uni-assist will then specifically check your documents again, transfer the grades into the German system and give you an overall evaluation. This documentation will then be sent back to you and can be used throughout the next year for your application processes.

Important info:

• Please keep in mind that the creation of this documentation takes between 4 and 6 weeks.
• It is important to always adhere to the deadline communicated by your university and uni-assist.
• One of the biggest differences to the “normal” process via uni-assist is that you must send in your application documents, including the Preliminary Review Documentation, to your university by yourself. Do not miss out on that detail!

Required Documents to Apply to a German University

Even though different universities have different demands towards their applicants, there are still some documents that you will have to provide in most cases, and it is wise to have them prepared early.

Letter of Motivation ("Motivationsschreiben" in German)

In this letter, you briefly express why you would like to study in Germany and why you have chosen this particular university as your desired destination. Be brief, but also try to be somewhat specific about the university you are applying to.

No one wants to read a general text that could be sent to any university. Try to keep the whole letter to one page, with a normal font and font size (usually between 10 and 12) and write it in either German or English.

How to Write a Letter of Motivation

A captivating letter of motivation can help you distinguish yourself from other applicants by strengthening your application and demonstrating your dedication to and excitement for the program. With this course, you will learn how to write a compelling letter of motivation that will significantly increase your admission chances to competitive programs.

Curriculum Vitae (CV) ("Lebenslauf" in German)

Not always necessary, but some universities want to see your development over the years and want to know what you have done before. In a CV, you usually state your academic and professional history.

Note that the German CV format is different from how it is like in other countries and that the overall structure and readability is more important than the design unless you are applying for a design degree. In that case, you can also use the CV to demonstrate your skills – just don’t overdo it.

School Leaving Certificate or Previous Study Certificates

Depending on the type of study you want to take up, you will have to present different documents. If you want to start an undergraduate degree programme in Germany, you must present a school leaving certificate that meets the German requirements for an undergraduate degree programme.

If your school leaving certificate is not sufficient, you may have to attend a preparatory course in Germany before you start studying. You can, furthermore, check which type of certificate is sufficient or which additional requirements must be fulfilled through this website.

It is the same case if you want to start or continue your master's or other higher studies in Germany. In this case, you need to provide the previous study certificates that you have earned through your academic career. You can check whether your already earned degrees are sufficient for your preferred course of studies on this website.

Translations and Copies of Documents

If you have a school-leaving certificate or a university degree from your home country, it is likely issued in the main language of your home country. For your university application, however, you will most likely need a German or English version of your documents. Therefore, it is necessary to get official translations of your documents that you can hand into the university or other parties.

Furthermore, you should also get some officially approved copies of your relevant documents and translations of the same. Applying for German universities sometimes also requires you to hand in physical copies of your documents, as you don’t want to hand in your originals.

Bear in mind that translations and the release of copies are done by third parties, for whom you never know exactly how long they will need for their services. Therefore, always allow enough buffer time for the procurement of these documents.

Preliminary Review Documentation or Other Evaluations

Some universities might require you to provide preliminary review documentation or other evaluations of your transcripts. These documents are an evaluation of your grades and often include the conversion of your grades into the German grading system in addition to a general evaluation. Obtaining these documents can take up to six weeks, so request them early in the application process.

Tips for a Successful Application

Below is a short checklist of things to consider in any application process.

• Always pay attention to deadlines! Nothing is more discouraging than a rejected application due to a missed deadline.
• Check which portals you need to register with for your applications.
• Find out well in advance about the documents you need and possible translations.
• Always plan for buffer time, especially if external translations or evaluations need to be done
• Before submitting your application, check that you have all the documents you need.
• After your application is ready, be patient. German bureaucracy is not known for being fast. This also applies to universities.
• Diversify! Apply to several universities and courses of study.
• Make sure that the information in your documents is easy to read and that any scans are of good quality.
• Try to make a good impression by having neat documents, free of typos or unfortunate formatting.