Prerequisites and Application

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 scholarship.

Applicants to the IMPRS-CS PhD program should fill in the following form:

Online Application

A successful candidate must

hold or be about to receive a Master's degree in Computer Science 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 or Master's certificate
school leaving certificate
academic transcripts
a resume
three names and email addresses of professors or similar willing to give reference for the candidate
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

* please note: TOEFL-code for Saarland University is 8399

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. "winter 2010"). 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 certified copy of your diplomas
a letter certifying that you passed the qualifying exam