Application Guide

This is the application guide for the master‘s degree programmes in Computer Science, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, and Embedded Systems at Saarland Informatics Campus. For other programmes please check this site.

To start the application process, read the material below carefully!

1. Do you meet the basic prerequisites?

Admissions are very competitive and you should make sure you have achieved, or will achieve, at least the minimum graduate admission requirements (items a-c listed below) to apply. Satisfying these minimal standards, however, does not guarantee your admission!

An individual check of eligibility cannot be offered in advance to the application.

 

a) Eligibility for the master‘s degree programme

Please select the desired programme:

 

b) Necessary language skills

The teaching language of the Master’s degree programme is English. Proof of advanced proficiency in English (level C1 of the Common European Framework) must be provided. It is not sufficient to state that your courses at a previous university were completed in English.

Native speakers (from Australia, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA) or applicants, who have studied in a country, where English is the mother tongue are excluded from this rule. In these cases, please enter native speaker or studied in [country] in the form.

For German applicants, a basic English course up to the general qualification for university entrance (Abitur) is sufficient. In that case, please enter Abitur in the form.

Knowledge of German must not be provided.

Minimal language skills:
_ TOEFL (internet based): min. 95 out of 120
_ TOEFL (computer based): min. 240 out of 300
_ TOEFL (paper based): min. 540 out of 677
_ IELTS (academic test): min. 7.0 out of 9

 

c) Evidence of particular interest in the subject

Submission of a personal statement written by the applicant and two letters of recommendation written by referees who know the applicant academically (ideally one from the supervisor of your Bachelor thesis, letters should be from faculty members or members of research labs).

 

The criteria listed above will be used to assess the aptitude of the applicant in terms of the academic profile and requirements of the Master’s degree programme in Computer Science, DSAI, or Embedded Systems. The decision whether the programme admission requirements have been met is made by the Examination Board.

2. Fill in the online application form

Applications for our postgraduate programmes have to be submitted online in the Online Application System (OAS) of the Computer Science Department! You’ll find the link to the OAS at the end of this section.

Incomplete applications cannot be considered. You are responsible for making sure that all required documents, including references, are submitted on time and meet the university’s requirements. Complete applications that are received after the deadline will be considered automatically in the decision making round for the next semester. Do not register more than once in the OAS!

Check the documents you submit carefully, as you will not be able to upload revised versions.

As soon as your application is complete (that includes required submissions by you and your referees), you will receive a confirmation email!

 

Required Application Documents

In the second step of the application process, you need to submit four types of documents with your application in order to be considered for admission. Please note that we only accept files in the PDF file format.

 

Transcripts (Academic Records):

_ a copy of your university entrance diploma
_ copies of all previous degrees (with certified translation, if the original language is not English or French)
_ a certified list of all attended courses with the respective grades, including an explanation of the grading system

Minimal prerequisite is a cumulative undergraduate grade point average (CGPA) of 75% or 3.00 GPA on a 4 point scale and ranking in the top 10% of the graduating class. Do not apply if you do not satisfy this requirement!

 

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

including information on your areas of interest in research, as well as any projects or publications

 

Statement of Purpose (SOP)

containing your reasons for applying to the proposed program at Saarland University

 

Letters of Recommendation

A complete application must have two letters of recommendation. These will be uploaded by the referees. It is your responsibility to ensure that your referees have the information they need to provide a reference and submit it by the deadline.

You enter the following information for each of your recommenders: name, address, phone number, institution or employer, title, email address (referee’s institutional or professional email address). It is extremely important to enter valid email addresses of your referee! An email will be sent to your recommenders with information on how to proceed.

Alternatively, your referees may send us the references in sealed envelopes; under no circumstances may these confidential reports be sent to us by the applicant. If a referee has not received their notification email, please ask them to check their junk/spam folders. References should be written on institutional or professional letter-headed paper

 

Other Qualifications (OTH): GRE Test

To better assess your skills, we advise a GRE Test (general and/or computer science). However, proof of participation in this test is not mandatory.

3. Your application will be evaluated in the admission procedure

After the application deadline, the committee needs a few weeks to evaluate the applications in detail. Please refrain from checking on the status of your application.

You will be automatically notified by email when a decision has been made.

If you have applied for more than one degree programme you will receive a separate decision for each. If you have been admitted to the program, you will need the originals of your documents for enrollment in the Office of Student Affairs. These will be compared to the electronic documents from your application.

4. Re-Application

After a rejection, a re-application for the same or another master’s degree programme of the Computer Science Department at Saarland University will not be accepted.

5. Contact

Due to a large number of applicants, please make sure that you have read the given information carefully before contacting us.

Please use only the following email address for additional information concerning your application: master@cs.uni-saarland.de

E-mails to individual people in the Department of Computer Science, Saarland University or to personal email addresses, will not be answered!