Frequently Asked Questions

Our admission requirements are a bachelor's or higher degree in law, political science, international relations or another related subject plus one year of relevant professional experience. Since our students come from various countries with different grading systems, we do not formally require that you achieve a particular average grade in your previous studies (e.g., British first-class honours), but your grades will certainly constitute an important criterion in the process of evaluation of applications.
If you are still finishing your bachelor studies or have less than one year of professional experience when applying to the Program, it will not impede your application. It is only important that you complete your studies and have one year of professional experience before beginning your master's studies in October.

Though our most typical applicants are law graduates, we also welcome applications from graduates of political science, international relations and other related disciplines. If your previous field of study is not law, we may ask you to provide a short explanation of how your studies or professional experience is relevant to the specialization of this master's program.

The professional experience requirement can be fulfilled through various practical activities, including internships and traineeships. For example, German law graduates' practical training (Referendariat) satisfies this requirement. However, if a practical activity constituted a mandatory part of your bachelor's program, it cannot be counted as professional experience. In certain cases, admission can be granted to applicants with professional experience of less than one year. If you are not sure whether your studies or practical experience satisfies the Program's admission requirements, please contact us before submitting the formal application.

If English is not your native language or was not the language of instruction of your previous studies, you will need to demonstrate that your English language skills are sufficient for the purposes of pursuing higher education, including the unconstrained participation in classroom discussions and the production of clear and grammatically correct academic texts. Most commonly, this is done through sending us a copy of your results in a standardized English test, such as TOEFL or IELTS. However, other kinds of proof can also be accepted.

If you choose to demonstrate your English proficiency through one of the standardized tests, please note that you must achieve at least the minimum score required for admission to postgraduate legal studies at Göttingen. In particular, the minimum acceptable test scores for TOEFL are 100 points for the internet-based test, and minimum acceptable IELTS score is Band 7. Other test certificates can also be accepted if the score achieved corresponds at least to level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Though knowledge of German language is not a pre-requisite for admission, it is certainly very useful for managing everyday life and studies in Germany. Therefore, we encourage our international students to learn some German before the beginning of the Program and to take advantage of numerous language learning opportunities offered by the University of Göttingen while studying here.

In order to apply for admission to GOMIL LLM Program, please fill out the Program's application form. After that, please send your CV and PDF copies of your diplomas (with transcripts of grades) to GOMIL.admissions@uni-goettingen.de . If your native language is not English and you have passed TOEFL, IELTS or another English test, please also send us a PDF copy of the test certificate. In addition, you may submit any other documents that you consider beneficial to the success of your application (e.g., other certificates, references from professors or employers, copies of your written works or extracts from them).

If you are planning to send some document but you do not have it yet (e.g., if you do not have an English language certificate because you have not yet taken the test), you can first send your application together with the documents that you already have. On your application form, please indicate that you are still planning to send the document and the approximate time when you will be able to do that.

If your diplomas or other documents are not in English or German, please also provide their English translation. Your copies and translations do not have to be certified at the stage of application. However, if you are admitted, you will have to provide the originals or certified copies and translations.

After receiving your application, we may ask you to send us some additional documents or information. For example, if your previous field of study is not law, we may ask for a short explanation of how your studies or professional experience is relevant to the subject of the LL.M. Program.

Your application for admission has to be sent by 31 May if you would like to begin your studies in October of the same year. However, in order to increase your admission chances and secure other benefits, including a discount on the tuition fee, it is advisable to apply much earlier than this final deadline.

Especially students from outside the European Union are strongly encouraged to apply at least several months earlier than the formal deadline in order to have enough time for obtaining the German student visa. It is the responsibility of the students themselves to find out how long the visa application process in their country normally takes and to ensure that they have sufficient time to obtain the visa before the beginning of the studies.

The number of students accepted each year is strictly limited in order to ensure that the class size allows for efficient exchange of opinions and constructive group work. We allocate these limited places in several successive evaluation rounds, which means that earlier applications are also evaluated earlier. Therefore, if you apply closer to the final deadline, most places may have already been taken by early applicants and your chances of acceptance may become smaller. Though some places are kept available until the final application deadline, the competition for these remaining places will usually be stronger.

By contrast, if you apply earlier, you may be admitted within the next several weeks or months and so can be sure about your participation in the Program long time before it starts. Consequently, you will have more time for planning and can better prepare for your studies in Göttingen.

Besides, even if your early application is not immediately successful, it can be put on the waiting list and then considered again when later applications are evaluated. If your early application is promising but not selected for immediate admission, we might even be able to advise you on how you can improve your application before the final deadline, e.g. through completing an internship in a relevant field or writing a letter of motivation explaining your interest in the Program.

An additional benefit of early applications is the discounted tuition fee for early applicants. Specifically, if you apply before 1 April, you will have to pay only €7,500; and if you apply before 1 January, you will save even more, as your tuition fee will be reduced to €7,200.

Each year Göttingen Law Faculty may award several scholarships amounting to partial or full tuition waivers to the best LLM Program applicants. Separate applications are not required, since all LLM Program applicants are automatically considered for these scholarships if they indicate their interest on the Program application form.

In addition, prospective students may apply for scholarships offered by various foundations, companies and organizations. For example, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) provides various kinds of scholarships for foreign students wishing to study in Germany and for German students going to study abroad.

As a registered student of Göttingen University, you can attend all the courses offered by the University's language center (ZESS) free of charge.

An overview of all the university dormitories can be found at www.studentenwerk-goettingen.de/studentisches-wohnen . After making yourself acquainted with the available options, you can read the detailed application instructions online here. In a nutshell, you have to fill in the online application form at https://ipack.studentenwerk-goettingen.de/wohnheimaufnahmeantrag.html . After receiving the response from the dormitory administration office, you have to confirm your application by pressing the link in the response. Only after that, your application will be officially registered and added to the waiting list.

It is advisable to apply for a dormitory room as soon as possible, since due to their low rent such rooms are very popular and waiting lists are usually rather long. You do not need to be formally admitted to the Program in order to apply for a dormitory room (though you will have to be admitted to the Program and the University before you are allowed to move in). If your application for admission to the Program is rejected, you can simply cancel your dormitory application without incurring any financial penalty.

Yes. Every person who temporarily or permanently lives in Germany is obliged to have a health insurance valid for the whole period of staying in Germany. The cost of such insurance for students varies depending on several criteria, e.g. the insurance provider, the student's age, and the kinds of expenses covered by the insurance. Though standard coverage is mandatory for all insurance packages, some packages may also cover additional expenses, for example the cost of a private hospital room instead of a shared room covered by the standard insurance. Typically, the cost of a student health insurance lies between 30 and 150 euros per month.

Students from the European Union (and other countries of the European Economic Area) can normally use their home insurance. However, they need to check with their insurance carrier whether their insurance will be provided for the whole time of their studies in Germany. If not, they will need to obtain insurance in Germany. Even if their home insurance covers the whole time of their studies in Germany, EU students might need to register with a local German provider, which in that case should be free of charge.

Other students will usually have to obtain health insurance from an insurance provider from Germany or another EU country. Students under 30 may choose between private and statutory insurance. If they opt for private insurance, they have to request an exemption from the statutory insurance provider (e.g., AOK) within 3 months from the beginning of their studies in Germany (so before 1 January). Students older than 30 do not need such an exemption.

If you are admitted to the LL.M. Program, you will receive the letter of admission (Zulassungsbescheid), which you can use to request a student visa from a German consulate in your country. Besides the letter, you will have to demonstrate that you have sufficient resources to support your studies in Germany. This can be a scholarship award certificate, a bank statement showing that you have a sufficient amount of money in your account (around €11,000), a guarantee letter from your parents, etc. In addition, you will need to provide a copy of your insurance policy, which can be either travel insurance or German health insurance, since some health insurance providers make it possible for foreign students to buy insurance in advance through the Internet. In addition, you may be required to submit some other supporting documents. You should read the detailed instructions on the required documents and on the visa application procedure on the website of the German embassy in your country. Please allow sufficient time (at least two months) for your visa application to be processed. Shortly after arriving in Germany, you will have to obtain a student residence permit from the immigration department (Ausländerbehörde) in Göttingen town hall.

Yes, with your German student visa (and with your student residence permit, which you will obtain shortly after arriving in Germany) you can travel all over the Schengen Area, which includes most countries of the European Union (except Ireland, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus) as well as Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Even though Bulgaria, Romania, and Cyprus are not yet part of the Schengen Area, you can still visit them without a visa after you have obtained your German residence permit.

Yes, holders of the student residence permit are allowed to work in their free time. Such work may not exceed 120 full days or 240 half-days per year. Even though working within these limits is allowed by the law, LL.M. students will probably not have much time to work during the semester. However, it might be possible to work during winter and summer vacations if you find a suitable job or paid internship.

Yes, graduates of German bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree programs may obtain a residence permit for employment in Germany if they find a job that corresponds to the qualification they have obtained as a result of their studies. While searching for such a suitable job, graduates will have a temporary residence permit enabling them to stay in Germany for 18 months and take up any employment to cover the cost of living here.

Our LL.M. Program has built up a network of contacts with a number of law firms, companies, organizations and authorities that might from time to time be interested in accepting our students and graduates as interns or employees. We cannot guarantee that you will be accepted as an intern or employee by any of these partners, but we can advise you on which law firm, company or organization might best suit your interests and facilitate your coming into contact with them.