Requirements:

Students holding either Master's or Bachelor's degrees in physics, chemistry, materials science or related subjects can apply for admission. While students holding Master's degrees can be directly admitted to the PhD program, students with Bachelor's degrees in physics will have to first enroll in the Master's program at the University of Stuttgart and are required to submit a Master's thesis after 1.5-2 years.

Application Periods:

There are two application periods per year: The first application period starts on October 1 of the previous year and ends on February 1 of the year of enrollment (autumn term). The second application period starts on May 1 up to September 1 for the upcoming year (spring term). A final decision about admission will be done 2 months after the deadline. After our offer for a PhD position students have to begin their research within 6 months.

Guidelines for a successful application to the IMPRS-AM

• We do not accept any hardcopies by mail or fax.
• Zip-files by email or uploaded zip-files will be rejected.
• Upload all documents only as one pdf-file on our sever (if you don't have Adobe Acrobat please use one of the free pdf-makers).
• max. file size = 25 pages!
• All submitted documents must be in English or in German.

1. Online registration:

Prior to preparing the application, all applicants must register online. During the online registration you will be asked to enter your personal data and information regarding your pervious academic studies. Also you must entitle two academic teachers who are able and willing to evaluate your personality, experience and intellectual merit.

Please select up to three potential thesis supervisors from the list of research group leaders. Alternatively you can choose up to three subjects from that list.

Successful online registration is confirmed by e-mail. This e-mail contains a registration number required for the entire application process.

2. Necessary Documents:

After successful online registration your data are stored in our data base. You should prepare a single PDF-file of your certificates after receiving the registration number and the link for the storage location.

To avoid unnecessary confusion we prescribe the following order for the documents:

• curriculum vitae in short form
• transcripts / record of study / diplomas, e.g. Bachelor's or Master's degree
• TOEFL (if available)
• GRE (if available)
• Publications (only first page)
• honors, awards etc.

Certified copies of documents are not mandatory on this state of application.

3. Recommendations

The coordination office will contact your referees direct and immediately after the registration. The referees (max. 2) can upload a normal recommendation letter or they can use our referee report form (preferred). After submitting the referee reports your referees and you will get confirmations by e-mail. If it's necessary to change a referee during the application process please contact the coordination office.

4. Selection procedure

A first selection of potential candidates will be made on the basis of their CV, transcripts etc., after which selected applicants will be invited for interviews on-site. A committee of the IMPRS-AM reviews the applications (about 250 + X) against the following criteria:
registration information, curriculum vitae, academic records, recommendation letters, quality of the home university or institution, comparison of the applicant's education profile with the program's research profile, comparison with other applicants

Reviewing applications is a time consuming process and can take up to 3 weeks.

A number of promising candidates (10 -15) will be invited to Stuttgart for a series of personal interviews. The application documents of this group will hand out to all faculty members of the IMPRS-AM. Each invited candidate must give a short lecture (max. 15 min) of a subject of your choice (e.g. MS thesis). Two days are reserved for individual interviews. For the interviews we have no common rules. Normally the head of the department will talk with you about your education, your lecture and your research experience. At the end the board of the IMPRS-AM makes a final shortlist and only approx. 3 % of all applicants will get an offer for PhD studies. All accepted IMPRS-AM fellows will obtain a stipend or working contract which is sufficient to cover living expenses in the Stuttgart area.

Downloads

The following files are available as pdf-files. To open and read these files you need Adobe Acrobat Reader^® 7 or higher. If you don't have Acrobat Reader, click here to get a free copy.

• Template for the CV
   
• Poster A4

Further information regarding your application and other issues is summarized in the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section. The program receives many inquiries regarding the application package. Please have a look at this site before contacting the coordination office.