Application Requirements and Procedure for the M.Sc. Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics

Explore the subject-specific admission requirements and our expectations on your appllication for the Master program in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics. The online application procedure through TUMonline is managed centrally by TUM admissions office.

The application for the Master's program is possible for a begin in both, the winter and the summer semester. However, starting in the winter semester is strongly recommended, since many courses have a one-year structure and the curriculum is optimized for a start in winter.

An important admission requirement is to have a minimum of six semesters of a qualified Bachelor's degree obtained at a German or a foreign university, or at least an equivalent degree in an engineering or natural science-oriented degree program. In regards to the qualification of the university degree, the admissions commission will decide on the acceptance based on acquired competencies - Details can be found below. Applicants from the Bachelor Degree Program in Physics at the TUM must also take part in the general application process.

Please read carefully this page and use the web-based application procedure of TUM to apply for the Master program.

Dates and deadlines in the application process

Application periods

For a start in winter semester: April 1 to May 31
For a start in summer semester: September 1 to November 30

Application deadlines

The closing dates are absolute deadlines, i. e. the online application has to be completed in TUMonline. All necessary documents have to be uploaded by then.

Selection procedure schedule

First stage: Results of the first stage of the aptitude assessment are published approximately eight weeks after the application deadline (expected in July/August for the winter semester and in January/February for the summer semester).
Second stage: Applicants who are not directly admitted in the first stage will be invited to a selection interview. The dates will be determined following the announcement of the results of the first stage. Individual dates will be arranged with the applicants.

Required documents

Admission will then be based on documents uploaded online. Certified copies must then only be submitted for enrolment after admission.
It is important that all documents relevant to admission are uploaded, otherwise the application will be considered incomplete. This also applies to TUM-internal applications!

Which documents are necessary in your case will be specified during the online process.Please consider the information given by TUM Student Admission.

The following list gives you some additional information on some of these documents:

Curriculum Vitae: The submitted CV must be current and complete without chronological gaps. The document can be uploaded when applying online.
Letter of motivation: The written grounds (in English) for selecting the desired Master's program of the TUM should not be longer than two DIN A4 pages. In this, explain why you are suitable for the program (reference to admission requirements), and which reasons led to select this study program at the TUM (interests, previous knowledge from the Bachelor, desired specialization fields). The motivation letter has to be connected to the chosen Master's program, a general statement about your interest in the subject is not sufficient. You can upload your letter of motivation during the online application process.
Academic records of Bachelor's degree ¹ (or equivalent): A proof of your qualifying university degree must be submitted.; If you are applying before completing your Bachelor's degree, please send us the certified official transcript of records together with a formal list of the courses to be completed by the time of graduation (a link to the corresponding position on the official website of your university is sufficient). Provide us with your degree certificate as soon as possible, at latest one year after starting your studies at TUM (see also the remark at admission in advance).; If your Bachelor's degree is from a non-German university, please fill out the analysis of your curriculum , and also provide official descriptions of all your completed courses - a link to the relevant website of your university may also be sufficient.
Language proficiency: Please, read the information on Language Proficiency. If you cannot provide proof of German language skills in your application documents, please refer to the section 'Additional requirement for integrative German skills' at the given information website.


Special conditions for certain countries: For individual countries, special requirements apply regarding the documents to be submitted. You do not need a GRE for this program.

(¹It is not required to add if you have completed your Bachelor's degree at TUM as the documents will be already available.)

Health Insurance: For enrollment you also need a certificate of health insurance.

Academic requirements

The academic requirements for admission to the Master in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics are:

You have submitted all the required documents on time to the TUM Enrollment Office .

You have a Bachelor's degree (or equivalent), which in form and content is comparable to our research-oriented Bachelor at TUM.
To find out whether your Bachelor's program is sufficient for admission, you need to have taken courses equivalent to the core modules at TUM of the following list.
Particularly important for the evaluation are the content and work load of all the listed modules compared to those from your Bachelor degree.

Subject Group	Points
Experimental Physics (mechanics, electrodynamics, thermodynamics, oscillation, waves, and optics) Equivalent to the following compulsory modules from TUM Bachelor in Chemistry PH9002: Experimental Physics 1 and PH9003: Experimental Physics 2	10
Advanced Experimental Physics (introduction to nuclear, particle and astrophysics, and condensed matter physics). Equivalent to the following compulsory modules from TUM Bachelor in Physics PH0016: Introduction to Nuclear, Particle, and Astrophysics and PH0019: Introduction to Condensed Matter Physics	10
Theoretical Physics (analytical mechanics, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, statistical physics). Equivalent to the following compulsory modules from TUM Bachelor in Physics PH0005: Theoretical Physics 1 (Mechanics) and PH0006: Theoretical Physics 2 (Electrodynamics) and PH0007: Theoretical Physics 3 (Quantum Mechanics) and PH0008: Theoretical Physics 4A (Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics)	10
Fundamentals in Mathematics (linear algebra, analysis). Equivalent to the following compulsory modules from TUM Bachelor in Electrical and Computer Engineering MA9409: Linear Algebra (EI) and MA9411: Analysis 1 (EI) and MA9412: Analysis 2 (EI) and MA9413: Analysis 3 (EI)	10
Fundamentals in Chemistry and in Biology (fundamentals in general, inorganic and organic chemistry, core concepts of biochemistry as well as general biology and physiology concepts). Equivalent to the following compulsory modules from TUM Bachelor in Physics and TUM Bachelor in Bioinformatics CH1104:Chemistry for Physicists IN5113: Biology und IN5167: Fundamentals of Biochemistry	10
Completed lab courses and practical training	10

If it has been established that there are no significant differences in the skills acquired, a maximum of 60 points (maximum 10 points per subject group) will be awarded. In the absence of part of the equivalent competences, points will be deducted. Only whole points are awarded. The resulting points are included later in the aptitude assessment as a base score.
Anyone who has achieved less than 30 points will not be admitted to the aptitude test.
If you have achieved more than 30 points with your qualifying Bachelor's degree and have submitted the necessary documents on time, you will be admitted to the aptitude assessment.

Aptitude Assessment

The procedure is divided in two stages:

In the first stage, the admission board rates the submitted documents on a scale from 0 to 90 points, where 100 points is the best possible result and the following scheme is applied:
- The qualifications' score comes from the review of above-mentioned competences. The maximum possible awarded points are 60.
- Final grade on the degree: for every one-tenth of the grade above 3.0 (German grading system), one point is added (max. 20 points). Negative points are not awarded. If at time of application a grade report with more than 130 CP is available, the best possible grades with a total of 130 CP are used. For international degrees, the grades will be converted.
- The letter of motivation is graded on a scale from 0 to 10 (maximum value) by two members of the board. The average of these two values is added in full points.
The total points will be the sum of the three components.
Applicants reaching at least 55 points have passed the selection procedure.
Applicants reaching less than 45 points will not be accepted
If the total awarded points is between 45 and 54, the applicants come to the second stage, in which they will be invited to an interview (duration of 20 to 30 minutes). Based on this, our admission board decides if the applicant would be able to successfully complete our Master's degree program. The interview will help also to discuss the applicant's motivation, ground technical knowledge and its own personal assessment. The dates for the interview will be announced with the invitations to it. In winter term the interviews will take place from end of July to mid of August.

Provisional admission without Bachelor's degree

In the case that you do not have finished your Bachelor's program or you do not have received your final documents yet, you can get admission when you have reached at least 130 CP in your Bachelor's program. According to the study regulations (§36 (5)), early admission is possible on reasonable request for students who are enrolled in a Bachelor's degree course which fulfills the admission requirements (see above). You must then prove this Bachelor's degree at the latest two semesters after the start of the Master's program. A request can only be justified if the successful completion of the Bachelor degree is at least theoretically possible during the first semester of the Master studies.

Possible problems

The provisional admission does not guarantee that studying a Bachelor's and a Master's program in parallel is possible. It is your own decision to accept the place of study. Therefore, you take the responsibility to manage possible conflicts.

Starting the Master's program in advance makes sense when you have already finished the Bachelor's degree, but you did not receive the final documents yet. If you still have to take exams for your Bachelor's degree, it is not recommended to start the Master's program, especially if you have to take the exams at another university.

For admission TUMonline shows at first that the final documents of the Bachelor are required. The deadline for submission by the end of the 2nd semester is only set "to be handed in until ..." when the application for enrollment is submitted. All other requested documents are required.

An admission can be transferred to a future application for the same program, given that the criteria for admission (as set forth in the Academic and Examination Regulations) have not changed substantially.