Allocation of Places in Bachelor’s Programs

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Getting a Place to Study at RWTH

In order to get one of these study places, you must apply by the deadline. The university enters all applications received for courses of study and majors with restricted admission into a selection process. As soon as the Registrar's Office has received your application and all the necessary documents and after checking that all formal prerequisites are fulfilled, your application will enter the allocation process. Please ensure that no documents are missing before the end of the late document application deadline.

The legal basis for the allocation of study placements is the Allocation of Study Placements in North Rhine-Westphalia Act in combination with the By-law for the Selection Process in Local Restricted Admission Courses of Study.

 

The allocation process takes place after the application deadline. After first considering the priority quotas, allocation takes place in three groups according to the so-called selection quotas. Each quota is allocated using different rules so that different types of applicants have a chance.

 

Overview of Priority Quotas

Percentage	Type	Description
100 percent	Top Athletes	Applicants who are part of a national A, B, C, or D/C squad of a national association of the German Olympic Sports Confederation
100 percent	Preferential Placement	Applicants who have already been admitted to a place in a degree program during the last allocation procedure but were unable to accept it because they had to complete a period of service are again entitled to this place at the end of their service period.
7 percent	Non-Europeans	This quote applies to applicants with nationalities outside the EU/EEA countries.
3 percent	Second Degree Programs	You are considered a second degree applicant if you have already received a certificate of successful completion of your studies by the end of the application period (summer semester: January 15, winter semester: July 15) and have completed your studies at a German university or university of applied sciences.
2 percent	Minors	Applicants who will still be minors at the time lectures begin and whose primary residence is with their parents in the districts or cities assigned to RWTH.
2 percent	Exceptional Circumstances (Petition for a “Härtefall”)	If an applicant’s circumstances are recognized as a “hardship case,” they will be admitted to the course of study immediately. The exceptional circumstances must be special social or family reasons that make it absolutely necessary for the applicant to commence their studies straight away.

 

Overview of the Main Selection Quotas

The main selection quotas include the Best Abitur Quota, the Vocationally Qualified Quota, and the University Selection Procedure, or AdH for short.

 

The Best Abitur Quota: 20 Percent of Study Places

The Abitur grade is most important here. Within this quota, the study places are awarded to the applicants with the best Abitur grades. For this purpose, RWTH ranks the applications according to average grade: the best on top, the worst on the bottom.

After that, the corresponding number of places is allocated to these applications, strictly according to the ranking list. The average grade of the last application that received a study placement is commonly referred to as the numerus clausus or NC.

Sometimes you will see a waiting time value behind this grade in the NC tables. Furthermore, a note is sometimes made about whether service, such as military service, has been completed or not. This means that the applicants who occupied the same rank on the list had to be further ranked according to service time and semesters they have waited.

The Vocationally Qualified Quota: 2.48 Percent of Study Places

It is also possible to enter a Bachelor’s program without a school-based higher education entrance qualification, i.e., Abitur, Fachhochschulreife, or Fachgebundene Hochschulreife, if you have completed at least two years of vocational training regulated by federal or state law, have at least three years of professional experience, and have passed an aptitude test. The desired course of study must be a good fit with your education and professional experience. Please also refer to the Admission Requirements for the Vocationally Qualified.

 

The AdH Quota: 77.52 percent of Study Places

In the selection process of universities, AdH, for short, RWTH Aachen University, can use further criteria beyond the Abitur grade, which are stated in the “Vergabeverordnung,” or allocation regulation. The allocation of places through the university selection procedure is based on the quality of the applicant’s university entrance qualification (grade and points) in corelation to the chosen study program as well as on any waiting periods of a maximum of seven semesters in total, whereby periods of study at a German state or state-supported university are not counted.

In the event of a tie in rank, a candidate’s completion of service will be the deciding factor. Considered service: Voluntary military service, Federal Volunteer Service, Voluntary Ecological or Social Year, European Voluntary Service, International Youth Voluntary Service, the services "Weltweit" (Worldwide) and "Kulturwärts" (Culturally Away), as well as the care of a child or a relative in need of care. If there is still a tie in the rankings, then the place in the ranking according to Abitur grade will be decided by lottery.

 

Main Process and Secondary Process

In some situations, admission is granted in various steps of the process. First, all of the available places are allocated during the main process. If any of the admitted candidates decide not to accept their places, these will then be allocated to the candidates with the next lower ranking in the Secondary Admissions Process: The secondary process takes place until either all places have been allocated or there are no more applicants.

Please note: The information regarding the secondary admissions process does not apply to the the DoSV, as there is no secondary admissions process in the DoSV.

 

Notification of Admission

Admission letters will be made available in the SelfService section of RWTHonline after the late application deadline has expired. Admission letters from the main allocation process shall be made available in SelfService at the end of July for the winter semester and at the beginning of February for the summer semester. The binding enrollment deadlines can be found in the admission letters.