Application process
Pre-requisites
Applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree in
- physics or
- a relevant engineering subject.
Below is a provisional list of the required documents :
- Curriculum vitae
- Scans of the certificates and transcripts of all academic degrees
- Scan of the high school diploma or certificate of secondary school education
- Proof of adequate English language skills. This can be obtained through English courses completed at secondary schoool or during university studies, experience with English speaking programmes, stays abroad or an international qualification such as Toefl or IELTS (Toefl code: 8265). An international certificate is not (!) mandatory. There is no specific threshold for English language skills, but in the recent years the minimum level of the applicants being admitted was generally approximately equivalent to IELTS 5.5 or Toefl IBT 90.
The final list of required documents will be specified during the application process.
Proof of German language skills is not required.
Note: MAOT cannot be commenced in summer term, but only in winter term.
Application process
Application via ‚Campo‘
- Applications are submitted via the FAU application platform www.campo.fau.de
- The application period starts 15 February 2025.
Deadline
- Applications must be submitted by 15 July 2025.
Strongly (!!!) recommended deadline for international applicants: 15 April 2025 (details see below)
Important note for international applicants (only non-EU): International applicants are strongly requested to apply as early as possible, if any possible by 15 April 2025. Later applications will be processed, and a late application will not reduce the chances of being admitted. However, a late application will make it very dificult to realise the actual start of studies for the the winter term 2025/26 in case of admission. In particular, the visa application process after admission can take several months!
Note for applicants from India: It is not mandatory to submit the APS certificate at the time of the application. It is not needed for the academic evaluation. However, in case of a positive academic evaluation it is mandatory part of the formal check and the admission letter can only be issued if the APS certificate is available.
For more details please go to
Evaluation stages
The evaluation comprises two stages:
- Academic evaluation by the MAOT office
- Formal evaluation by the master addmission office
Academic evaluation
- Applicants will be informed several weeks after submitting their application whether they will be invited for a telephone interview or not (FYI: in recent years, about 15-20% of the applicants were invited for an interview).
Applicants who do not receive an invitation cannot be considered for the programme. They will be informed about this on the Campo platform. Please do not contact us regarding the status of your application but wait until we contact you. - Interviewed candidates will be informed about the results of the academic evaluation after the interview. This can take up to several weeks after the interview. In case of a positive evaluation the second step is the formal review.
Interviews will only be scheduled in the following time periods:
- mid of March
- early April
- end of April
- early May
- late July
Applications ariving after 15 April will only be considered for the interviews in July!
Formal evaluation
- The master admission office conducts a formal review of the applicant’s documents, which has been positively evaluated academically. If the formal requirements are met, the master admission office issues the admission letter, which is a prerequisite for the visa applications. The admission letter is made available on Campo.
Please note:
- For both stages, all documents can be submitted electronically via Campo and copies do not have to be authorised. For enrolment in case of an admission (early August to end September) authorised hard copies will have to be submitted.
- Provided the candidates followed the applicaton requirements thoroughly rejection on the basis of the formal evaluation is possible but very rare.
IMPRS scholarship
The Max Planck society runs the „IMPRS Physics of Light“ programme which offer scholarships for master students:.
Scholarship holders have to study either MAOT or a master in physics at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. However, the application procedures for MAOT and IMPRS are completely independent of each other.
There are two application deadlines for the IMPRS-PL:
- 15 January – when you apply for this deadline and receive the scholarship you still have to apply for MAOT afterwards. The admission to MAOT is quite likely then but not guaranteed. On the other hand, a rejection at the IMPRS does not (!) affect your chances to get admitted to MAOT in any way.
- 31 May – applicants for this date usually already know whether they got admitted to MAOT. If they were admitted for MAOT and don’t receive the IMPRS-PL scholarship this does not affect ther MAOT admission. If they were already rejected for MAOT a possible IMPRS-PL grant will not change that. They can still apply for the master in physics at the FAU, though.
If you consider applying for the IMPRS-MPL we recommend to use the first deadline. However, an application for the second deadline is also possible.