Due to the current developments around the spread of the novel coronavirus, there may be changes and/or postponements of dates also with regard to the different application deadlines. The hochschulstart application portal.de, for example, is not expected to open this year until 01.07.2020. This applies to both old and new high school graduates. The deadlines to be considered in the application are adjusted accordingly. Be sure to also check in advance with your university of choice about possible scheduling and formal adjustments to the application process.
Apply – Enroll – Study: What sounds quite simple often requires some research and organizational effort. How (time) consuming it is to get a place at university depends on what you want to study and where you want to study it. choice of study.de provides an overview of the various admission and application procedures.
Lena Schylo had it comparatively easy: An officially certified copy of her high school diploma, proof of health insurance, a copy of her ID card and confirmation of transfer of the semester fee, a passport photo for the student ID card and the signed printout of the application for enrollment. All this had to go into the envelope she sent to the University of Trier to enroll in the admission-free, six-semester bachelor’s teaching degree program with the subjects Philosophy/Ethics and German Studies.
She had filled out the application in the application portal of the university and received a checklist with the required documents. "About a month later, I got a confirmation of enrollment and my student ID," recalls the student, who is now in the middle of her master’s program.
Enough places for everyone
Those who, like Lena Schylo, opt for a degree program with no admission restrictions can usually still enroll until shortly before the start of the semester. Whether a course of study is admission-free or admission-restricted can be found out, for example, via the websites or the student advisory service of the respective university. "Admission-free means that there are enough study places for all applicants," explains Amelie Lehmkuhler, study advisor at Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich. In most cases, all that is then needed is online enrollment on the relevant university websites and sending the required documents by mail.
In more and more cases, however, the purely formal admission takes place via the Dialog-Oriented Service Procedure (DoSV) of hochschulstart.en. For some subjects, proof of foreign language skills or an online orientation test is also required in order to prove that you have considered your choice of study.
Apply, apply, prioritize
To apply for the bachelor’s degree program in psychology at the University of Hamburg, Luc Weilandt (20) had to participate in the Dialog-Oriented Service Procedure of the Foundation for University Admission.
Study application in three quotas
Medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, pharmacy: The study places in the subjects with nationwide admission restrictions are in high demand. But how does the application process work and what are the three quotas?? choosing a course of study.de answers the most important questions.
Step by step to a place at university
What do I want to study and where? The search for a suitable course of study is often a process of maturation and discovery that lasts for a long time. It takes a lot of time, patience and good information. choice of study.de tries to help you with this checklist.
More applicants than places
But it is not always that simple. According to the Numerus Clausus Check of the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE), a total of 40.7 percent of degree programs in Germany were subject to admission restrictions in the 2019/2020 winter semester.
Admission-restricted courses of study are those for which there are usually more applicants than places available. And here, in turn, a distinction is made between local and nationwide admission restrictions. Currently, only medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry and pharmacy are subject to nationwide admission restrictions, which means that there are more applicants than places available nationwide. In the case of locally restricted-admission courses, there are more applicants than places for the relevant course only at the university in question. Courses of study that are not subject to nationwide admissions restrictions can therefore be subject to admissions restrictions at one location, but be free of admissions restrictions at another location.
The average grade of the Abitur often has a major influence on the selection of applicants. For this reason, one often speaks colloquially of a specific N.c. (Numerus Clausus) for a course of study. This refers to the average grade of the applicant to whom the last available place was awarded in the previous semester.
Early information is advantageous
The application for a locally admission-restricted course of study is made either directly at the universities and/or centrally via the DoSV application portal of hochschulstart. This portal also allocates places for medicine, pharmacy, veterinary medicine and dentistry, i.e. the courses of study with restricted admissions nationwide. Here, too, the Abitur grade plays an important role. "There are also other criteria, for example the result from the test for medical degree programs," explains Amelie Lehmkuhler (for more information on the topic of "national admission-restricted degree programs," see the FAQs "Applying to study in three quotas").