Information for international students
Applying for the Master Program in Computer Science
The application for our Master Program in Computer Science is possible only via the Uni-Assist web page, which allows you to submit your application electronically. Please find all information about the Uni-Assist portal at https://www.uni-assist.de/. You can log in to the site at https://my.uni-assist.de/online/.
After logging in, select Application → Universities (Master) → North Rhine Westphalia → Paderborn University. From there you will receive all information you need to register for our Computer Science program. Before registering, please check whether you meet the following admission requirements:
- You need a Bachelor in Computer Science or in a comparable Bachelor program. When you submit your application, we will check whether your Bachelor fulfills this requirement. It is important that you have a solid background in the following areas: Your Bachelor should contain at least 20 credits in Software Engineering, at least 20 credits in Theoretical Computer Science, at least 15 credits in Technical Informatics and at least 15 credits in Basic Mathematics of Computer Science.
- Your Bachelor grade must be below 3.0 in the German system (where 1 is best). You can calculate your grade equivalent in the German system here: https://www.tum.de/en/studies/application/application-info-portal/grade-conversion-formula-for-grades-earned-outside-germany/
- You need to provide a GRE Revised General Test certificate. The required scores are at least 157 points in "Quantitative Reasoning" and at least 4.0 points in "Analytical Writing“. An exception is only possible, if your Bachelor grade is very good, i.e. if converted to the German system, your Bachelor grade needs to be below the threshold of 1.5.
- You need to prove sufficient knowledge of English, for example by TOEFL paper-based (PBT) with at least 550 points, TOEFL internet-based with at least 80 points (IBT), equivalent knowledge to the Cambridge Test – Certificate of Advanced English (CAE) grade B, British Council IELTS, Minimum Band 6.5 or Duolingo with at least 105 points. This is required from all students unless you completed your Bachelor degree in a country where English is the official language. Certificates such as medium of instruction are not sufficient.
- You need to submit the following additional documents:
- An officially certified copy of a secondary school leaving certificate which qualifies you to study at university level in your home country (please make sure that you provide proof of all grades you obtained).
- If you have taken a university entrance exam, its results are needed as well (e.g. for applicants from Bosnia, Korea, Kosovo, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and USA).
- Officially certified copies of all other relevant documents such as academic transcripts, references, final degree certificates.
- Resume/CV, showing a complete chronological list of your education and training up to the time of application.
You can find detailed information about the content and the structure of the Computer Science Master Program at https://cs.uni-paderborn.de/en/studies/degree-programs/computer-science/
Application deadlines:
Winter semester (starting in October) until 31st May
Summer semester (starting in April) until 30th November
Further Information and Self Assessment
You can find all details of the Master Program, including our focus areas and descriptions of all courses offered in the Module Handbook – a link is provided in the box on the right of this page. Please keep in mind that not all courses listed there are offered in every term or even every year.
To give you an idea what we expect our students to know, we have compiled a self-assessment covering some of the subjects. We strongly encourage you to take this test in an honest way, i.e. only looking at the solutions after you have tried to solve the exercises, and also be honest when evaluating your own performance. All of the exercises are taken out of written exams in our Bachelor program. In addition, we recommend you warmly to take a look at the self-assessment tests for our master lectures. In this way, you can already gain insights into the master's program and check whether your previous knowledge meets the requirements of the respective courses.
If you have difficulties in the majority of exercises or haven’t even heard of the concepts in the exercises, this is a strong indication that our Master program is probably not the right choice for you.