Berlin Mathematical School Doctoral Program 2017, Germany

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED TO APPLY

• Online Application Form
• Two Letters of Recommendation (pdf)
• Statement of Financial Resources (online form)
• Personal Statement (pdf)
• Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
• University Transcripts (pdf)
• Proof of Proficiency in English (pdf)
• Research Statement - Phase II applicants only (pdf)

Native speakers of German may submit their application in German.

Online Application Form

The online application form must be fully completed, contain all the required docu- ments listed above, and submitted by the deadline in order for the application to be considered. You may submit only one application.

To access the online application form, you first have to register with the BMS via our homepage. Once you have registered and logged in, click on "PhD Application" in the left menu bar to access the online application form. Please complete all sections of the form and upload all required documents. If you do not wish to complete the application in one session or if you plan to attach the required documents later, just click the "Save" button and return to it later.

Once you submit your application you will neither be allowed to make any changes, nor upload any further documents to your online file. We therefore recommend that you to do the following before submitting your application:

• check that you have filled in the online application form correctly
• make sure that the documents you have chosen to upload are not corrupted, not password-protected and no larger than 1.5 MB each.

After you submit your application, the BMS will contact your recommenders to ask for a letter of recommendation for you.

In case of any technical problems with the online form, please contact us.

Letters of Recommendation

Two letters of recommendation are required. Your recommenders must be faculty members, professors, or university teachers who know you well and can vouch for your academic and mathematical abilities. When applying, please supply the recom- mender’s name, institution and e-mail address. Once you have submitted your online application, each recommender will receive an e-mail directly from the BMS with di- rections on how to proceed. We will also inform them that the deadline for their letters is one week after your online application deadline.

Please note that it is your responsibility to remind your recommenders of this fact, since recommendations received after that deadline may adversely impact the evalu- ation of your application and hinder your chance of admission.
We do not accept recommendations submitted by the applicants themselves!

Statement of Financial Resources

A short statement about your financial resources is required from all applicants. Please indicate how you plan to finance your studies by answering the following:

• What steps have you taken to secure funding for your studies?
• Will a scholarship be necessary to enable you to come to BMS?

Personal Statement

Your personal statement (Motivationsschreiben) should be at least one full page or at most two pages long. It should describe your academic and career plans as well as your motivation and scientific interests.
The BMS embraces diversity and due to our goal of striving to achieve a student body of 50% female students, we strongly encourage female applicants in particular to write confidently about their achievements.
Make your personal statement stand out:

• by describing your motivation and enthusiasm for mathematics,
• by showing the depth and breadth of your interest in the subject,
• by explaining what inspires you to continue studying math,
• and by demonstrating your commitment and your potential to excel.

When writing your personal statement, make sure you also provide answers to the following questions:

• What are your mathematical interests?
• How, where, and when did they develop?
• What mathematical fields are you particularly interested in and why?
• Why do you think the BMS is the right choice for you?
• Which BMS faculty member would you like to work with and why? (Phase II)

Please prepare your personal statement as a pdf file, as you will be asked to upload it to your online application.

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Your curriculum vitae (tabellarischer Lebenslauf) should be one or two pages in length and list the details of your education to date, together with your personal aca- demic history, including academic credentials, publications, contributions or other significant achievements. Please prepare your CV as a pdf file, as you will be asked to upload it to your online application.

University Transcripts

You must submit one official transcript from every university or college you have at- tended. If your transcripts are not in English or German, an official translation is also required. To prevent delays, you should arrange with your university registrar to provide transcripts as soon as possible, or else you should submit preliminary tran- scripts showing as many grades as possible. Please prepare your transcripts as pdf files, as you will be asked to upload them to your online application.

Proof of Proficiency in English

Applicants whose native language is neither English nor German, and who have not completed their formal education in a school, college or university where English was the language of instruction, must submit official proof of their English proficiency in the form of one of these tests:

1. TOEFL(TestofEnglishasaForeignLanguage)

   • Internet-Based Test (iBT) minimum score 79

   • Computer-Based Test (CBT) minimum score 213

   • Paper-Based Test (PBT) minimum score 550

*Have your score sent directly to the BMS using our TOEFL code: 2593*

1. CAE(CertificateinAdvancedEnglish)minimumLevelC

2. IELTS (International English Language Testing System) minimum score 6.5 in the Academic Test.

Test results that are more than two years old are not valid and will not be considered. Please prepare the relevant document as a pdf file as you will be asked to upload it to your online application.

If your native language is neither English nor German, but you have completed your formal education at a school, college or university where English is the language of instruction, then please submit a certificate from the institution to confirm this. The certificate will suffice as proof of your English proficiency and one of the aforemen- tioned tests will not be required.

If your native language is German, your Abitur or Matura grade in English will serve as proof of English proficiency. We require a grade of at least befriedigend or equiva- lent. If you cannot submit a copy of your Abitur or Matura, or it does not show a grade for English, then you must submit the result of one of the aforementioned tests.

Research Statement - Phase II applicants only

Phase II applicants should already be knowledgeable in their research area and have an idea with whom they would like to work at the BMS. We expect the research statement to be at least one page, but maximum two pages long. It should explain the applicant’s ideas with respect to his/her future dissertation, as well as outline the underlying research project. While applicants should be familiar with the research of potential supervisors, prior contact with BMS faculty members is not necessary, however the applicant should mention who could be a suitable supervisor. 

Please have your research statement ready as a pdf file, as you will be asked to up- load it to your online application.

For more information click "Further official information" below.