Applicants for the PhD program must hold a Master’s degree or a Bachelor’s degree from a research-oriented institution. Successful candidates will typically have ranked at or near the top of their classes, have already engaged in research and published their results, and be highly proficient in written and spoken English. Applicants are required to deliver a 15-minute research presentation on their Master’s project, followed by a question and answer period, in front of the admission committee and other audience members. All admitted students receive financial aid in the form of a support contract.
Applicants to the IMPRS-CS PhD program should fill in the following form:
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A successful candidate must:
- hold or be about to receive a Master’s degree in Computer Science (or an equivalent degree) from a research-oriented institution of higher education
- have outstanding academic performance (rank at or near top of class)
- have excellent oral and written English language skills
- show aptitude for independent, creative work
- have performed research and published (or submitted for publication) the results
The application must be supported by:
- a Bachelor’s and Master’s certificate (if available)
- school leaving certificate
- academic transcripts from Bachelor and Master study
- a resume
- three names and email addresses of professors or similar willing to give reference for the candidate (Please note that only official, as opposed to private, e-mail addresses will be accepted)
- a personal statement explaining the candidate’s motivation and reasons for pursuing a PhD in computer science at the International Max Planck Research School for Computer Science, whereby the candidate may state his/her preferred supervisor or research group
- submission of TOEFL scores , TSE scores or the Cambridge Certificate is strongly encouraged but not compulsory
- submission of GRE general and GRE Computer Science subject test scores is strongly encouraged but not compulsory
- an abstract of your Master’s thesis (If you haven’t submitted your thesis yet, please inform us when you will submit it to your supervisors and tell us their e-mail addresses.)
There is no application fee.
Rules for Application
Please attach all your documents and certificates in a single, compressed archive file (in .ZIP or .tar.gz or .tar.bz formats) or a single .pdf document containing the above documents. Individual documents in the archive should be in PDF or PostScript formats. On each page there should be a header or footer indicating your full name, the program you wish to apply for, as well as the time and year you wish to start (e.g. “summer 2014”). In case you would like to include theses or other publications, please only send titles and abstracts in English.
Admission to the doctorate list
To get admission to the doctorate list at the university you need to pass a qualifying exam.
After this you will have to provide the following documents to the Deanery:
- your resume
- the letter from your doctorate supervisor
- the originals and one copy of your diplomas
- a letter to the dean
- a letter certifying that you passed the qualifying exam