Application FAQs
Application is only possible via our online application system, which is available during the application period from September 16 - November 10, 23.59 CET. The portal can be accessed after creating an account at https://cbs.cloud.opencampus.net/.
We are very sorry but we do not accept post-deadline applications. You may try it again next fall.
Students may apply before receiving their Master’s degree (or equivalent degree). In this case, they need to indicate the expected date of their degree and they must submit their most current academic transcripts. The degree must have been awarded by the time the student starts the IMPRS on Cognitive NeuroImaging program.
We only accept proof of English language proficiency that are no older than four years.
Candidates are expected to be proficient in written and spoken English. For PhD applicants a minimum score required for a TOEFL paper-based test is 550. The minimum score for the TOEFL computer-based test is 213 and for internet-based tests is 79–80. For IELTS the overall band score should be 6.5. Coursework in English is also accepted, either at your home university or from a university abroad. In this case, please submit an official letter from your University registrar stating which sort of course work you accomplished (e.g. study program is taught in English; BSc/Msc thesis written in English etc.).
As the evaluation process is tightly timed, usually late document submission is not possible. Only in very rare cases we do make exceptions to this.
In case your academic records are not in English or German, we kindly ask you to provide us with officially certified translations of these documents. Please understand that otherwise we cannot further process your application.
No, that is not possible. Only faculty members who are recruiting this term can be selected as potential primary supervisors. However, you may consider indicating faculty members who are not recruiting as advisors in your application document.
Once you have submitted your application, your referees will automatically receive a reference request asking them to fill in an evaluation form and insert a recommendation letter. Reference requests will be sent by noreply@opencampus.net. This address might be filtered as *SPAM*. Please inform your referees beforehand that they will receive an Email from this sender and make sure that they check their spam folder. The deadline for submitting the reference letters is November 17th 2024, 23.59 CET. Please be aware, in the that case your referee(s) don’t submit their recommendation on time, we will not send reminder emails. It is YOUR responsibility to make sure your referees submit the letter on time. You will receive a notification once a referee has filled in the evaluation form on your behalf. Thus, if you have not received such an email by November 15th, you should remind your referees of the deadline.
You will receive an automated email from noreply@opencampus.net once a reference was submitted for you. In case you don’t find such an email in your mailbox, please also check your SPAM filter. If you still can’t find an email confirming the submission of the two reference requests, you should contact your referees in due course before the deadline for submitting the reference letters and check with them if they submitted their reference letters.
Please send us an email, with the respective name and email address. We will then check whether the address you indicated in the form is identical to the one you send us. If so, please ask your referee to check his/her mailbox for: noreply@opencampus.net. If there was a typing error, we will change the contact data accordingly and will resend a reference request. Please note that we are not able to answer such requests that arrived after 2.00 pm CET on 17 November 2024.
You may attach this letter to your application document. However, in order to be further considered for the IMPRS CoNI application procedure we require that all referees fill in our reference request form where they answer questions and mark your performance accordingly. This allows us to better compare applicants. However, there is a “comment” box, where referees can copy and paste a LOR.
No, after submission, no more changes can be made.
The IMPRS CoNI coordinator first checks applications for completeness and general match to the programme and then ranks them accordingly. In a second step, each pre-selected application is evaluated by three IMPRS Faculty members. If your preferred supervisors do not have conflicts of interests with your application, they might also be asked to evaluate it. Finally, candidates are ranked, a shortlist is created, and the best candidates are invited for the admission interviews.
Interviews are organized module-wise. This means that you will be interviewed by faculty from the respective module. In addition, one of the equal opportunities officers will join each interview panel.
This is not a straightforward answer as it is not only you who is asked for your preference concerning supervision. During the evaluation procedure, faculty members are also asked whom they are interested in supervising. Assignment of candidates to interview panels is thus based on matching interests of candidates and faculty members. In the case that you indicated more than one module and there is also interest in supervising you from faculty across modules, we will assign you to the module that fits your background best.
The official starting date of the educational program is the 1st of October. However, depending on the availability of funding and in agreement with the respective faculty member, other starting dates for the PhD are possible.