A step-by-step guide on how to apply for our yearlong course.
The good news: You do not need to take any admissions test to join us.
The bad news: Your application involves a lot of red tape.
Stand 02.07.2024
Decide which of our courses has the right focus for you: G (humanities), M (medicine and natural sciences), T (engineering, STEM) or W (business, economics, social sciences). The right fit depends on your secondary school qualifications from home as well as the subject you want to study later in Germany. The FSP, the final exam you take at the end of your course, grants you a subject-specific university entrance qualification. Therefore you should find out about the university’s requirement for your desired subject before you apply at the Studienkolleg.
You need to stick to our application deadlines: You can apply between July 1 and September 1 for the summer semester (classes start in January) and from January 1 until March 1 for the winter semester (classes start in August). If we receive your documents after the application deadline ends, we will not be able to consider them.
Put together your application materials. You will need:
- a certified copy of your school-leaving certificate or diploma, including an overview of your grades
- certified translations of those documents in German or English
- a certified copy of a German language certificate at level B2 or higher. The language certificate cannot be older than three years at the time we receive your application. Only the following official certificates will be accepted:
Goethe certificates B2, C1 or C2
Telc German B2, C1 or C2 certificates
DSD II
DSH-1, DSH-2 or DSH-3
TestDaF TDN 3 (in all four parts of the exam), TDN 4 or TDN 5
ÖSD certificates B2, C1 or C2
- a certified copy of your passport
- a passport photo
- for refugees: a certified copy of your residence permit
- for applicants from China, India, and Vietnam: an APS certificate
Register here: online registration
Choose the option “einjähriger Vorbereitungskurs mit Prüfung (Intern)” in the first sentence of the online form. Fill out the form completely, print it, sign it, and send it together with all your other documents to
Studienkolleg Hamburg
– Admissions Office –
Holstenglacis 6
20355 Hamburg
GERMANY
You are responsible for ensuring that your mail reaches us before the application deadline. Please send your documents in time.
If you send your application from within Germany by registered mail, please use the option “Einwurf-Einschreiben” only. During vacations and holidays we are not staffed at all times, so mail cannot always be accepted in person.
You may submit any questions about the application process to: bewerbung@studienkolleg-hamburg.de.
There is more than enough bureaucracy in this world. Please do not send any additional documents with your application. More papers are not going to increase your chances. They will only increase the amount of waste paper. We do not need CVs, letters of motivation, language certificates below B2, your exam notes …
We also believe that there is enough plastic waste. You do not need to put your documents in any transparent folders. If you insist please put all your documents in a single sleeve.
If you have a school-leaving certificate from abroad that entitels you to study in your country of origin but that is not recognized as a university entrance qualification (HZB) in Germany, you must take and pass a university entrance exam (FSP) before you can apply to a German university.
If you do hold a certificate that is recognized in Germany and grants you direct access to German universities you cannot apply to the Studienkolleg.
You can find information on the recognition of your school-leaving certificate in the DAAD admissions database as well as in the official database for the recognition of foreign educational qualifications (anabin).
In order to have a document officially notarized, you must submit the original and the copy to an “office”, i.e. a public or state authority. With a special stamp this authority (or a notary) confirms on the copy that it corresponds to the original.
If your document consists of several pages, it must be clear that each page originates from the same official certification. There are two ways of doing this:
- With an official seal:
The official seal must be visible on all pages. The pages must be staggered, stapled, and stamped with an official seal. This way, each page bears part of the official seal imprint. The declaration of certification and signature is then sufficient on just one page.
- With string and embossed seal:
If a notary certifies your documents with a string and embossed seal, the declaration of certification and signature on just one page is sufficient.
In Germany, you can obtain official certifications from:
- notaries
- public authorities that have an official seal, e.g. the district offices in Hamburg
We do not recognize notarizations from other institutions and bodies such as churches, religious institutions, banks, lawyers, auditors, associations, health insurance companies or employers.
If you wish to have your documents notarized abroad, please contact one of these bodies:
- the institutions that issued the dimploma, e.g. schools, universities and language schools,
- the Ministry of Education in your home country,
- German embassies and consulates,
- the cultural department of the embassy of the country from which the certificate originates,
- the authorities and notaries who are authorized to carry out official certifications in your home country.
Important note: Translators are not allowed to notarize documents in the original language.
You must send your officially certified copies by mail to the Studienkolleg Hamburg. A scan or upload of certified documents is not sufficient. A simple paper copy of an officially certified copy will not be accepted either.
If you receive your school-leaving certificate after our application deadline, please provide the following documents:
- certified copies of the last three half-year reports from your school or a certified copy of an official collective document with all grades from these reports,
- certified translations of these reports or this collective document,
- a certificate from the head of your school stating that you are expected to graduate by the end of December or the end of July at the latest and that you will receive your school-leaving certificate by then
- if this certificate is not in German, a certified translation of it.
If you are granted admission, you must send a scan of your school-leaving certificate and the certified translation to the Admissions Office of the Studienkolleg (bewerbung@studienkolleg-hamburg.de) by July 31 or December 31 at the latest, i.e. shortly before the start of the desired specialist course.
You must present the certified copy to the Admissions Office on the first day of classes. Otherwise your admission will be rescinded.