Applications to the Master's Degree Program in Geology
Submission of applications for winter semester 2026/27 is expected to open in December 2025.
The requirements below apply to all applicants, regardless of nationality (with a few exceptions for specific documentation as explained below) and of BSc degree-granting institution (including LMU Munich).
1. Basic Requirements for Admission
Degree
B.Sc. or equivalent degree of minimum 6 semesters of study.
The applicant must submit proof of having passed Bachelor-level (or higher) exams in at least three of the following subject groups, for at least 3 ECTS (or ECTS-equivalent; in Germany 1 ECTS = 30 hours of work per semester) per subject group:
(1) Geology, Structural Geology/Tectonics/Geodynamics,
(2) Stratigraphy/Sedimentology/Geomorphology,
(3) Petrology/Mineralogy/Microscopy/Crystallography,
(4) Geological Maps and Profiles/Geological Mapping
and also proof of having passed at least one Bachelor-level (or higher) exam in at least one of the following fields:
(5) Resource Geology/Petroleum Geology,
(3) Geophysics/Geochemistry/Geobiology,
(4) Geodesy/Remote Sensing/GIS/Photogrammetry
For example, an applicant who has passed exams in courses named "Stratigraphy", "Sedimentology", "Geomorphology", but not in any of the other subject groups, does not qualify. The syllabus of each course passed in these subject groups must be submitted with the application as well, if your degree is not in a discipline belonging to the Geosciences/Earth Sciences group (e.g., Math, Physics, Biology, Engineering, etc.).
Language Proficiency
Candidates for the Program must have a minimum CERF English level of C1. As proof, one of the following standardized tests is required, with minimum scores as indicated:
▪ TOEFL iBT with at least 97 points and with no individual section below 22 points (iBT); please use the code 4464 to select the score recipient when you register for the test. If you do not use the correct code, we will neither receive your test results nor be able to verify them online, and your application will not be processed.
▪ IELTS (Academic Version) with at least 7.0 final score, and no less than 6.5 in any sub-score. When applying for the test, please use the following information to identify our program: Master's Degree Program in Geology, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität; Address: Geologie, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Luisenstr. 37, 80333, München, Germany. Please also include a scan of your Test Report Form in your application package, making sure that the "test report form number" is readable.
▪ Cambridge C1 Advanced with at least 180 points; you must send us a copy of your certificate, and your Candidate's ID number and secret number for verification. Failure to provide any of these will prevent your application from being processed.
▪ Cambridge C2 Proficiency; you must send us a copy of your certificate, and your Candidate's ID number and secret number for verification. Failure to provide any of these will prevent your application from being processed.
TOEFL and IELTS test results older than two years at the time of application submission will not be accepted.
At the discretion of the admission committee, alternative proof may be accepted in documented cases (for example, B.Sc. degree from an institution where English is the only language of instruction, or 1.0 in English as an Abitur subject combined with a Bachelor thesis written in English). Supplying alternate proof does not mean that such proof will automatically be accepted. If the proof is rejected, the applicant will still need to register for a standardized test and supply the results at the latest before the enrollment period at LMU ends (for German students) or before July 15th (for international students). Until test results are supplied, admission will not be granted even if all the other requirements have been met.
Important: for any tests that you take, please be aware that the results may take up to 6 weeks to reach us. Therefore plan accordingly, and keep in mind that your preferred test location may not be available if you do not register well in advance of the test date. If you fail to use the code or address listed above, we will not be able to check your score, and your application will be rejected.
2. Deadlines
Applications for admission must be submitted by May 31st each year. Late and/or incomplete applications may be rejected. Enrollment in the Master’s Program in Geology is possible only for the winter semester that immediately follows the May 31st application deadline. No enrollment is possible in the spring semester, no exceptions.
International students are strongly advised to submit their applications by January 31st (non-EU applicants who need a visa), or by March 31st (EU applicants and others who do not need a visa). International applications have to go through the International Office for approval, so if you wait until May 31st, even if you get admitted, your admission letter may arrive too late for you to get a visa, or to book a flight, or to find a place to live.
3. Steps
a) You submit the application online with all documents attached as pdf files.
b) We review the application.
c) You will either receive a letter of rejection, or you will be asked to take the subject-relevant test, consisting in written answer/s to evaluation question/s.
d) If you fail the test, you will receive a letter of rejection.
If you pass the test, you will be asked to immediately mail all paper documents (normally as certified copies, see firther information below), which must match the previously sent pdfs. If they do not match, you may be denied admission at this stage based on false representation. Important: when you mail your documents, you are advised to use a postal service that will return a delivery receipt, so that you know that your documents have arrived. We do not send confirmation receipts of any kind for mailed materials.
e) If you are a German student, we will send you a letter of admission as soon as we have received your paper documents and verified them. If you are an international student, your documents will first need to be checked by the International Office. We will send you a letter of admission only after the International Office has reviewed your documents and approved them.
4. Submitting your Application
Applications may only be submitted online, by filling out the application form and attaching relevant documents using the following link: https://www.efv.verwaltung.uni-muenchen.de/mageo
You will be asked to register to use the online form. The name and address of the person registering to use the service must be the same as that of the applicant: third parties cannot apply for you. Any documents that you scan must be certified copies of the originals. You may send scans of originals only if you plan to later mail the original itself (that may be possible for transcrips for which you can obtain multiple originals, but not for final certificates of which normally only one original is ever printed). The files that you upload at this stage must match the paper documents that you may need to mail us later.
In adition to the completed application form (in English), applicants must upload the following documents:
▪
▪ Essay (in English): This file must be editable using pdf tools, therefore do not upload a scan or any other kind of image file. You must save your text document as pdf, or print to pdf.
The documents below must all be combined into a single pdf file, not exceeding 10 MB, to be uploaded as well:
▪ Curriculum Vitae (in English).
▪ Transcript of Records (in English or German), clearly stating the reference scale used for grading, with lowest/highest grade and minimum passing grade and your grade point average (GPA) at the time that the transcripts were produced. It must be a scan of the original or of a certified copy identical to the original.
▪ B.Sc. Degree certificate (in English or German): if you have already completed your studies. If you have not completed your studies yet, you must have collected credits equivalent to at least 150 ECTS points before applying (for ECTS equivalence, see below under "remarks for international students") . Before you are allowed to enroll, the final degree certificate (either the paper diploma, or a certificate from your university that the paper diploma is in preparation, but that you have completed your studies, with full graduation date) must be available.
▪ Proof of English proficiency. See language requirements above.
▪ Course syllabus of any course passed in a relevant subject as specifed under "Degree" requirements above (if applicable to you, see "Requirements for Admission" above). Proof of having passed the course exam must also accompany the syllabus.
▪ If applicable (i.e. if any part of your name is different from the one on your birth certificate), a marriage certificate or official certification of name change, either in German or English, or accompanied by certified translation (international students only).
▪ Financial statement (international students only).
▪ University entry qualification (e.g. high school diploma or equivalent), certified copy identical to the original, with certified translation if the document is not in English or German (applies to international students). German students (or foreigners who have completed their high school in Germany) must still send proof of having an Abitur, because application processing and enrollment modality depend on that.
We will only accept documents in PDF format.
Make sure all the documents you send have your family name as the first part of the document name. Example: Your family name is Smith, then your CV should be named smith_documents.pdf.
Important remarks for international students
▪ All details must be proven by enclosing officially certified/attested certificates/supporting documents and officially certified/attested German or English translations. We will not process documents in other languages: this requirement overrides any statements to the contrary on the pages of the International Office. See here for more information about suitable certified translations and certified copies. The exception to certified translation is the "course syllabi", which you may translate into English yourself.
▪ All translations must be accompanied by their original language version.
▪ Non-EU applicants: Notification of transcript recognition (Annerkennungsbescheid) from the Bavarian Zeugnisanerkennungsstelle (State Office for the Recognition of Foreign Qualifications) is mandatory for applicants from the USA (unless they have already completed a Bachelor degree), and applicants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Georgia, and Mongolia. Applicants from the People’s Republic of China must submit the original certificate from the Akademische Prüfstelle bei der Deutschen Botschaft in Beijing.
▪ In the financial statement you should explain how you plan to meet the expenses of your stay in Munich, e.g. scholarship, savings, job, parental support, sponsor, etc. Only a personal statement is being asked for. It is not necessary to submit additional documents, such as bank statements, at this stage.
▪ The following applies only to applicants who have not graduated from a Bachelor program at the time of application: If your institution does not use ECTS points, you can still verify whether you have collected enough credits to apply. First determine how many credits at your institution define a full course load for one semester, then compare that number with the full course load at LMU, which is defined as 30 ECTS per semester. For example, if a full course load at your institution is 15 credits, that means one of those credits is equivalent to 2 ECTS points. In this example, if you have passed exams for 80 credits, then you have the equivalent of enough ECTS to apply.
5. Re-application
Applicants who are not admitted can reapply only once, no earlier than the next enrollment period (i.e. the following year), by resubmitting all documents. Applicants who send fraudolent applications (forged documents, plagiarized essays, or any other plagiarism in the required documents) waive their right to reapply. In addition, cases of forgery may be further investigated, and the forgery reported to other organizations (e.g. English testing organizations, other Universities or Governments whose documents were forged).
6. Enrollment
If you have a high school degree (Abitur) from a german institution (Bildungsinländer), once you receive the admission letter from us, you can go directly to this LMU webpage for instructions about enrollment, including any additional documents that you may need to bring along. If you are not admitted to the program, you are not allowed to enroll.
If you are a foreign student and/or your high school degree is from an institution outside of Germany (Bildungsausländer), you will only receive an admission letter from us once your application has been checked for by the International Office. This letter will contain further instructions concerning enrollment.
All letters, both to Germany and abroad, will be sent in electronic form. You will need the originals for enrollment, which you can pick up from our office as soon as you arrive in Munich. International students who are asked to supply an original for visa purposes should inform us immediatly upon admission, so that an original can be mailed. We make however no guarantees concerning timely delivery of originals sent by mail.
Enrollment itself requires your physical presence and it normally happens in September each year. International students will be informed on precisely which date/s they must show up for enrollment.
Please read ALL of the instructions above carefully before asking questions. If you have questions, please be specific in your email about what it is that you have not understood. The email should be sent to msc-geology@geo.uni-muenchen.de
Your email will not be answered, if the answer to the question asked is contained in this page, or in any of the other pages for this Master program. If you do not receive an answer, sending further emails will not help: please go back and read all the information posted on all pages again. If your English level is insufficient for understanding these pages, it is insufficient for applying to the program too.
Registration
If you are classified as a German applicant (see top of this page), and are admitted to our program, you must go to this LMU webpage for instructions about registration. The original of the letter of admission to the Program (Zulassungsbescheid) must be presented at registration. We do not forward this document to the registration office. As a reminder, dual citizens (Germany-any other country) are always treated as Germans, regardless of whether they can speak German or not, and are expected to navigate the LMU bureaucracy on their own.
International applicants instead are required to pass the pre-registration stage (which can be only performed by the International Office), in which all documents must be formally approved. If the paper documents are approved, the International Office will send you the official letter of admission, which will contain further information about registration.
In all cases, before you are allowed to register, proof of graduation from your previous program must be available. You will be asked for the original of this proof at registration. Graduation must happen before the start date of the Winter Semester for which you have applied. Make sure you do have the original in your possession, and never send it by mail anywhere. If by registration time you do not have a final degree certificate (i.e. the classic "piece of paper" that you would hang on a wall) yet because your university takes several months or years to print such a document even after your have graduated, you must at least be in possession of an official, original certificate from your university that states that you have graduated (and when, and from which program, you have graduated), and that you have already requested the printing of the final (paper) diploma. If you cannot satisfactorily prove that you have graduated, registration will be denied even if you have received an admission letter. This will be the case regardless of nationality or of previous degree-granting institution attended (i.e. there is no exception for students who have graduated from a LMU Bachelor program). Registration is a separate step, and acceptance by the Program, or even admission by the International Office, does not guarantee registration.
Registration itself requires your physical presence and it normally happens in September/October each year. Please be aware that a specific date (or dates) will be given to you for registration, so be prepared to show up at any time during this period on short notice.
Last updated: 27.05.2025