General Information – Please read carefully

Please submit your application for a BIGSSS Fellowship electronically via our online admissions system. For information concerning the deadline please take a look at the previous page “Overview”.

This page provides a list of what your application should include. If you have any questions regarding the admissions process, please consult our Frequently Asked Questions after carefully reading the website or send an email to the Admissions Officer (admissions-officerbigsss-bremen.de).

Our online admissions system will only accept documents in pdf-format. You can download a free version of PDFCreator undersourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

Personal Information Form

Please note that there is no official “application form“. Instead, applicants are requested to submit the documents described below and provide us with personal information, contact data and information on their professional background via our online admissions system.

Preliminary Dissertation Proposal

We do not expect you to have an ultimate version of your dissertation proposal upon application. Nonetheless, we ask for a well-developed version of your preliminary dissertation proposal. It should be written in English, encompass between 5 and 15 double-spaced pages and include the following elements:

• Summary
• State of research (highlighting theoretical and empirical debates on your topic and deficits in the literature that your project would address)
• Your research experience/competence in the field
• Objectives, methods and work plan (be very specific about the methods used and the stages of the work plan)
• Bibliography

Please note: By submitting your application, you consent to have your dissertation proposal checked for plagiarism.

One-page Proposal Abstract

Please provide a one-page abstract of your dissertation proposal.

Statement of Purpose

Your statement of purpose should provide a clear picture of your academic and professional interests, background, and career plans. It should also describe how your interests fit in with the BIGSSS Ph.D. program. You must indicate one or two potential supervisors for your proposal. If you do not name one or two potential supervisors, your application will not be considered. Please be sure to check the BIGSSS homepage and those of our faculty for their research interests. By having a close fit to the research interests of BIGSSS faculty, we can assure the best possible supervision. Please note that you should not contact the potential referees directly. Instead, it is sufficient that you indicate their names in your Statement of Purpose and enlist them in our online admissions system. We will review your choice(s) during the application process.

Should you have specific questions in regards to your choice we would advise to forward your question to our Admissions Officer who will then forward your inquiry within BIGSSS in order to ensure that you get the feedback you need.

MA/BA/Diplom/Magister Certificates

Please provide a pdf-document of each degree certificate earned, e.g. Bachelor and Master (max. 4 documents). If a certificate is not issued in English or German, provide a  German or English translation. If you are shortlisted we will ask you to bring a notarized (or officially certified) photocopy of your original certificates and of the English or German translation.

Curriculum Vitae

Your CV should include information on your educational and work history, publications, language abilities and extracurricular interests.

Two Recent Letters of Recommendation

Request these from persons qualified to evaluate your academic and professional qualifications, familiar with your academic achievement and in a position to assess your potential for success in BIGSSS. At least one of these letters must be from a professor who has instructed you. The referees should submit the letter electronically, via our online admissions system. Each applicant is asked to provide contact information for their referees in their online application to BIGSSS, and each referee will be sent an email with instructions on how to upload their letters into the system.

If you are shortlisted we may ask you to bring the letters of recommendation in hard copy. The referee should then submit the letter either in hard copy directly to BIGSSS, or in a sealed envelope to the applicant.

University Grade Transcripts

Please provide pdf-documents (max. 4 documents) of your official grade transcripts. If work is in progress, you should submit a supplementary transcript at the end of the term. If a transcript is not issued in English or German, provide a German or English translation. If you are shortlisted we will ask you to bring a notarized (or officially certified) photocopy of your original transcripts and of the English or German translation.

Statement of Skills and Experience with Methods of Empirical Social Research

Please provide information on your knowledge of research methods (including methods courses taken). Applicants from disciplines with little or no standard methods training should provide other pertinent information on relevant research skills. Statements can be from one or two sentences to a maximum of one page long.

Certification of English proficiency

Proof of C1-level English language skills or the equivalent. Please upload a Certification of English proficiency in our online admissions system. For TOEFL scores, upload a copy of your personal score report – do not use the institutional code. Equivalent IELTS and CAE scores are also accepted. All scores must be officially reported and valid. (Please note that TOEFL and IELTS scores are valid for 2 years only.)
Scores:
TOEFL: paper-based 600, computer-based 250, internet-based 100
IELTS: Band 7.5
Cambridge Certificate: pass CAE
Exempt from the English proficiency requirement are applicants who are native speakers of English or who have received either their Hochschulzugangsberechtigung (e.g. passed their A-levels) or earned a higher-educational degree at an institution where the language of instruction is English.

No previous knowledge of German is required.

Graduate Record Examination (GRE) (optional)

Applicants may include a GRE  score report in their application to support the selection process, although this is not required.

• This page just gives you additional information on electronic applications. So please refer to our Application Materials page, too.
• Only include documents in pdf-format. You can download a free version of PDFCreator under sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
• Please submit these documents electronically:
  • one pdf with your CV,
  • one pdf with your Statement of Purpose,
  • one pdf containing your Statement of Skills
  • one pdf of your Preliminary Dissertation Proposal,
  • pdfs including scans of your degree certificates, your English language skills, and (not mandatory!) your Graduate Record Examination.
• Each pdf must be below 3 MB.
• In the first application stage, we require our applicants to upload scans of the original documents supporting their application to BIGSSS, however, please bear in mind that if you are shortlisted, we will ask you to provide the originals of the following documents:
  • degree certificates (a notarized, or officially certified, photocopy of each degree certificate earned)
  • University grade transcripts (a notarized, or officially certified, photocopy of each degree transcript earned)
  • a hard copy of your letters of recommendation
• Filenames: Replace each FILENAME with your surname + reasonable abbreviation for the file content, using no more than the first 10 letters. In filenames,
  • only use the letters a-z, figures 1-0, hyphen – , dot .
  • do not use space characters
  • do not use special characters such as ä, ö, ü, ß, ~ , accents of any kind, etc.