Admissions requirements
You must have completed an undergraduate degree (bachelor's or equivalent) in order to be admitted. If you do not yet have your undergraduate degree at the time of application, please indicate when you will receive it on the online application form. You must complete all of your undergraduate academic course work and exams before 1 September 2026 in order to start your studies at the Hertie School.
Programme
Create an online account in our applications portal and follow the step-by-step instructions. Fill in the online application for the respective programme carefully and completely. Incomplete applications cannot be accepted.
Please upload the following required supporting documents to the online application portal:
- Your current CV indicating your academic background, work experience and voluntary activities. Please do not include a photo on your CV.
- A letter of motivation explaining your specific interest in the study programme and how it relates to your professional aspirations. Your letter should be 500-900 words.
- Copies of official academic transcripts of all attended universities. Every transcript must include a transcript key (an explanation of the grading system). If not in English, we require a certified translation into English. Hard copies are not required until after acceptance into the programme.
- A copy of an English proficiency certificate (for non-native speakers). For more detailed information about which tests and minimum scores are accepted, please consult our Frequently Asked Questions section. Please note that English test results can be provided after you submit your application to the Hertie School. You must send the certificate to the admissions team per e-mail at grad-admissions[at]hertie-school[dot]org. The deadline to submit English test results is 1 July.
All documents must be submitted in .pdf format.
Applicants are required to provide the contact information of one referee, either academic or professional, in their application form. While referees are not obligated to submit letters directly to the Hertie School, the admissions committee may reach out to them if necessary.
Applicants who wish to include letters of reference in their application to further demonstrate their academic achivements can do so by uploading them with their other application documents in the application portal. Please note that including letters of reference is not mandatory.
Only institutional email addresses of the referees will be accepted.
For more information about references, please see the application portal or our FAQs.
An application can be saved and revisited until it is "submitted". Once submitted, the application will no longer be accessible to the candidate. Please keep in mind that only complete applications will be evaluated. It is the responsibility of applicants to make sure they submit all required documents and that the submitted documents are valid.
All documents must be submitted in English. Please note we are not able to return any application materials.
Students who submit their application by 1 December are eligible for our early bird offer.
The priority deadline is 15 January for all non-EU/EEA applicants and 15 February for all EU/EEA applicants. If you don't require a visa to study in Germany, you may apply for the EU/EEA priority deadline.
The final deadline for applications is 1 May.
Funding
Admission decisions are made on a rolling basis. The earlier you submit your complete application, the earlier we can provide feedback. The school seeks to admit students with strong applications as soon as possible.
As part of the admissions process, selected applicants may be invited to an interview to further assess their application. The interview provides the admissions committee with additional perspective to inform the final decision.
After receiving an offer of admission to the Hertie School, you will be invited to our scholarships portal. There, you will have the option to apply for funding from the Hertie School:
- Full scholarships (competitive awards, applicants with a specific profile or interest, 100% of tuition fees)
- Partial scholarships (applicants with financial need, or a specific profile or interest, 10-50% of tuition fees)
Full scholarships often require extra application steps, such as an additional application essay, so please read the requirements on each scholarship page carefully. You may only apply for one full scholarship per application cycle.
You will have three days after your offer of admission to complete your scholarship application.
To increase your chances of receiving a full or partial scholarship, you should apply by our priority deadlines 15 January (non-EU/EEA applicants) or 15 February (EU/EEA applicants).
Applications are accepted until 1 May.
Selection criteria
All applications are assessed on the basis of the following criteria:
- Personal suitability (40%)
CV, professional experience, entrepreneurship, international experience, civic engagement.
- Academic excellence (40%)
Strength of academic background, academic performance - grades/transcripts, general academic qualification, linguistic qualification.
- Motivation (20%)
Convincing motivation to study public policy, motivation to study at the Hertie School, overall coherence.
