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Who qualifies for the IMPRS on Astrophysics?


Students from all countries in the world are welcome to apply for the IMPRS program. They are selected based on their excellence as proven by their university record and by letters of recommendation. A selection committee composed of members from all participating institutes will review the applications and advise the potential supervisors about the candidates and their qualifications. However, the final decision about the acceptance of a student rests soley with his/her potential supervisor. Generally, students are admitted for the IMPRS Graduate School once a year. The program starts each September 1st, application deadline is November 1th of the year before. The application plattform is available from the beginning of August till November 1st. 

Applicants must have a 5-year Master's degree in physics or astrophysics with at least the grade 'good'.
However, applications for the program starting in 2025 can be submitted even if the Master's degree will not be obtained before November 1, 2024, when the completion of a Master's degree is expected until Fall 2025.

Applicants with an Integrated Master's degree in physics from a total of 4 years of education, e.g. with a "First Degree Master" or with a 3-year Bachelor's degree and a one-year Master's degree ("Integrated Master") can get admission under the same conditions as for admission with an excellent Bachelor's degree (see below).

Outstanding students with an excellent Bachelor’s degree (i.e. Bachelor’s degree with “very good,” or proven placement among the top 10% in their class) can be granted admission to doctoral studies by the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU). However, before beeing fully admitted to PhD studies, one must first acquire 60 ECTS points from one of the Faculty of Physics’ Master’s programs for further qualification. This requires usually five 2h per week lectures (plus tutorials) in the winter AND summer semester. The decision on whether students with an excellent Bachelor degree can be granted direct admission is with the LMU exclusively and is not a decision taken be the IMPRS. For more information on this please contact the IMPRS office and see the LMU Website at Access to PhD at LMU (see point "access with an outstanding Bachelor's degree).

Applicants holding an average Bachelor's degree (3 years program) have to apply to the Master of Astrophysics (or Master of Physics) program at the LMU before they can be admitted to the IMPRS PhD program to obtain a Ph.D. (Dr.rer.nat.) from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University.

Candidates whose native or educational language is not English or German should provide a certificate documenting proficiency in English, for example TOEFL (recommended IbT of at least 94 points) or IELTS (recommended score of at least 7 points) or equivalent.

 

PhD Grant

Successful applicants with a 5-year Master's degree will receive a work contract of about EUR 1.770 per month, (depending on family status) for a period of three to four years.


If you have successfully applied to our IMPRS program with a degree that is not equivalent to the 5-year MSc (e.g. BSc, Bachelor with Honours, MSci), we unfortunately are not able to provide you a PhD working contract until you didn't fullfilled the additional requirements. However, at MPE and MPA, we financially support you with a so-called "Bachelor Stipend" during that time.


For more info see section Fellowships and Contract


Available PhD Topics

See Available PhD Topics for more details.