How to apply for the M.Sc. ARTS?
What are the requirements for a successful application for a study place? What deadlines must be met? And where can I find further information? This page provides you with everything you need to know about applying to study M.Sc. ARTS at the University of Bonn.
General remarks
The application for a study place with us takes place exclusively online on the university's own platforms linked below. It is neither necessary nor useful to send any documents to Bonn by post as part of the application process.
Please read the instructions below completely and thoroughly. Uploading the wrong document in the application process will quickly result in an otherwise good application not being considered.
Note on financing in advance: Living in Germany is relatively expensive, and the embassies of the Federal Republic of Germany only issue visas if applicants can prove that they can finance their life in Germany.
A note on LLMs like ChatGPT:
There are ways and means to check if application documents are written by humans or not. We do obviously not accept applications (letters of motivation, research proposals, ...) written by LLMs, as we are looking for agricultural scientists rather than prompt engineers.
Short and sweet
Application for the October 2025 intake will open in December 2024
If you need a visa to study in Germany, you should apply as early as possible, as German embassies in a number of countries are very slow in processing visa applications. The later you apply, the less likely you will be able to join us for the next intake in October 2025.
If you do not need a visa to study in Germany, you can apply until July 15th 2025. However, applying earlier does no harm to you and reduces our workload in July.
- Please create an account for the application platform here: https://www.application.uni-bonn.de/qisserver/pages/cs/sys/portal/hisinoneStartPage.faces?page=Applicants
- After registration and activating your account through the link in your email, you'll be able to log in at the same page (top right corner of the homepage) and proceed to the application for the M.Sc. ARTS program by following the steps on the homepage:
- Start Application
- Pick the correct semester (Winter 25/26)
- Add request
- Pick the correct degree (M.Sc.)
- Pick the study program (Agricultural Science and Res....)
- ...and keep adding your information
If you have already been accepted in an earlier year, but did not make it to Bonn due to visa issues, you can use a shortcut within the application procedure. You will find the shortcut when clicking through the online application.
- Letter of motivation
- Why do you want to study our program?
- How can you profit from the teaching we offer?
- How are you going to contribute to society after completing the program?
- CV
- Scientific Research Proposal
- Write a brief (max. 3 pages) research proposal for your (hypothetical) master thesis:
- Why does your research matter?
- What's already known in that area?
- What do you want to do (Material & Methods)?
- What results do you expect?
- How could one build on these results?
- Please include a few references in your proposal
- Write a brief (max. 3 pages) research proposal for your (hypothetical) master thesis:
- English language certificate
- Bachelors Degree
- Academic Transcript
- also referred to as “Transcript of Records”: a list of courses you absolved in your undergraduate studies
All documents have to be submitted in English (or German)
The usage of LLMs is not recommended.
- After we have received your application, you will get a confirmation via e-Mail.
- Complete applications will be introduced into the candidate selection process and forwarded to the ARTS graduate committee.
- We will inform you immediately after the ARTS graduate committee has made a decision concerning your application via e-mail.
For those who need a visa to study in Germany, the acceptance to the program is only the first step:
- You have to provide proof about the way you want to finance your studies. This proof can be:
- a bank guaranty (blocked account)
- a scholarship award (check for scholarship donors, e.g., here)
- When checking the proof of financing, we follow the regulations for issuing a visa for the purpose of studying. These are linked here.
- For an overview of expected living costs, we also recommend the pages of the Ministry of Education
- Stay in contact with the ARTS Program Coordinator via email after receiving the acceptance letter. From now on, he will be your central contact person for organizational questions concerning your studies and will either answer your questions himself or refer you to the appropriate departments within the university.
- The coordinator will also assign to you a study buddy (a fellow student from a higher semester) to whom you can turn for general questions.
- Housing
It's not easy to find affordable accommodation in Bonn. But there is hope: there is a limited number of dorm rooms, especially for our international applicants. Please get in touch with Dr. Sarah Nischalke once you know for sure that you will be able to start your studies in the ARTS program. She will help you find a room.
Study financing
Basically, there are two types of student funding: self-pay and scholarships.
People from outside the Schengen area need a visa to study in Germany. Self-pay students must prove to the German embassy in their home country that they can afford to live in Germany. For this purpose, the embassies usually require the creation of a blocked account. Instructions on how to do this can be found here.
The second option for financing studies are scholarships. There are numerous scholarship search engines, we link here to one of the best for studying in Germany, the DAAD scholarship database. Scholarships have specific requirements regarding the applicant's profile, and also specific deadlines. On the part of the ARTS program, we cannot provide any assistance in selecting the appropriate scholarship, that is up to you.
