Academic and professional requirements

Our admission requirements are a bachelor's or higher degree in law, computer science, engineering, media studies, or another 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.

Though our most typical applicants are law graduates, we also welcome applications from graduates from other disciplines as a way to ensure the diversity of backgrounds, skills and experiences leading to fruitful and mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and ideas.  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.

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 the beginning of the 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.

Language requirements

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 80 points for the internet-based test and 550 points for the paper-based test. The minimum acceptable IELTS score is Band 6. 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. 

Please note that these are only the minimum acceptable scores. Since the number of applications we receive every year greatly exceeds the number of places on the LLM Program, trying to improve your Englisch test score is always a good idea, which can help your application to achieve a higher ranking and consequently to be selected for admission. If you already have an English test certificate at the time of application but would like to improve your score in the next few months, you can mention this on your application form (and indicate the approximate date of the new test). 

Information and documents required

In order to apply for admission to LIPIT LLM Program, please fill out and submit the Program's application form.  After that, please send your CV and PDF copies of your diplomas (with transcripts of grades) to LIPIT.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.

Interview

If your application is not immediately rejected as not meeting the minimum admission requirements, we may contact you to schedule a Skype interview as the next stage of the selection process.  The purpose of this interview is to learn more about your background, motivation, academic interests and professional goals.

Application deadline

Your application for admission has to be sent by 30 June if you would like to begin your studies in October of the same year.  However, in order to increase your 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.

Advantages of applying early

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 months and so can be sure about your participation in the Program long 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.  Specifically, if your send your application before 1 April, your tuition fee will be reduced to 7,500 euros; and if you apply before 1 January, you will have to pay only 7,200 euros.