Q&A about the Max Weber Program

You must have obtained a higher edu­ca­tion entrance qualification (“Hoch­schul­reife”) in Bavaria and have a final grade of at least 1.30. Then your head teacher proposes you for the so-called “Mi­nis­terial­be­auf­trag­ten­prü­fung” (MB exam). This exam must take place in the year of your higher education entrance qualification.

If you have successfully completed this exam, you will be offered a scholarship in the Max Weber Pro­gram, provided sufficient places are available. A pre­con­di­­tion is that you have enrolled at a Bavarian university before the age of 23.

Anyone who has passed the MB exam, but is initially excluded from the program due to limited places, will participate in the follow-up procedure. News that you may follow up will not reach you before No­vem­ber of each year.

The (MB exam) is offered at all Bavarian schools. It is carried out for graduates of grammar schools, tech­ni­cal secondary schools and vocational colleges in the same year in which they obtained the higher education entrance qualification. A precondition for participation is, amongst others, a grade average of at least 1.30.

Schools answer questions on the MB exam. The respective ministry officials are responsible for communicating the examination results.

Find further information here.

Admission via the MB exam is only possible after graduation from a Bavarian school. However, students at Bavarian universities who are proposed or who apply proactively do not have to have a school degree from Bavaria.

Yes, a precondition for funding in the Max Weber Program is the beginning of your studies at a Bavarian university before the age of 23.

However, this age limit includes, for example, the care of one's own children, compulsory and voluntary services, training pe­ri­ods, access to higher education through second-chance education and study pe­ri­ods abroad. On the other hand, au pair stays, work & travel or periods of employment, for example, are not counted.

No, the prerequisite for a grant is that you start your studies at the age of 23 at a Bavarian university. In any case, you must take the examination in the year of your higher education entrance qualification.

No, if you have passed the MB exam successfully, you will only qualify for the Max Weber Program. Irrespective of this, proposals for scholarships by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation are made directly by head teachers.

No, to be eligible for the Max Weber Program, you must study at a Bavarian university, even if your de­sired study course is not offered here. Even if the only positive answer is from a university outside Ba­va­ria after applying to several universities, there is no funding.

If you begin your studies outside of Bavaria, however, you are eligible for a grant from the Max Weber Program if you later transfer to a Bavarian uni­ver­si­ty (for example for a master's degree) before the age of 23. The funding of a second degree is not planned.

Yes, if this change is made for subject-specific reasons, a change to a higher education institution outside of Bavaria is possible within the framework of the program.

Students who complete an integrated degree program can be supported in the Max Weber Program, provided the other requirements are met. Exceptions are courses of study at vocational academies or administrative colleges (for example at the Hochschule für den öffentlichen Dienst in Bavaria), which are also not eligible under the BAföG. If you are unsure whether your education is eligible, please ask the Max Weber Program contact persons.

Yes, that is possible. You can apply via any access route once:

• MB exam
• proposal via an examination office
• proposal by a university teacher
• proposal by an Elite Graduate Program
• self-nomination

The last four access routes are only open after your study has started.

The nomination period ends on November 1 of each year. From this date, the Max Weber team will record all nominations and mail the nominees by mid-De­cem­ber. If you have not received any mail before, please first ask your exa­mi­na­tion office and then ask the contact persons of the Max Weber Program.

Please submit all application documents on time for 15 January. Only complete documents can be considered.

Yes, in this case we need an­other refer­ence from you. Your uni­versi­ty teacher's pro­posal counts as a nomi­nation for the Max We­ber Pro­gram. In order to com­plete your appli­cation doc­uments, we thus re­quire an­other signed ref­er­ence (from the main sub­ject) on the sub­ject-related excel­lence from a uni­versi­ty teacher or doc­toral re­search assis­tant other than the pro­poser.

The reference should come from a university teacher or a research fellow with PhD. It is important that you know the person from your studies. The reference usually includes one to two pages and contains a professional and personal assessment as well as a recommendation.

As far as the form of the references is concerned, there are no specific requirements. Usually, the following points are dealt with in references:

• name and date of birth of the candidate
• From what context and since when is the student known to the referee?
• professional and personal assessment compared to other students
• possibly extra-university engagement (if known)
• final rating, possibly also by percentage classification / recommendation

A reference for students is usually one to two pages long and is written in German or English. The reference must be signed.

In order to main­tain the confi­denti­ality of the refer­ence, it is in­tend­ed that the refer­ee will send us the refer­ence di­rectly by e-mail (mwp-bewer­bung@studienstiftung.de). We will then add it to your appli­cation doc­uments. It is there­fore im­pera­tive that the refer­ence con­tains your name, ad­dress and pro­cess­ing num­ber.

No. The detailed curriculum vitae gives the members of the selection com­mit­tee first indications of reasons for decisions that have influenced your life. Documents containing only a tabular CV do not fulfill the formal application requirements.

If a large number of applications are received, a pre-selection will be made on the basis of the written documents. Criteria are the fulfillment of the formal re­qui­re­ments, grades and references. The personal profile of the applicant plays no role in the pre­selec­tion. Candidates who are rejected in the pre­selec­tion will receive a notification by mail.

Ap­pli­cants who meet the for­mal re­quirements will be invit­ed to an as­sess­ment semi­nar, which will take place over a week­end. Invi­ta­tions to the as­sess­ment semi­nar will be sent from the be­gin­ning of Feb­ruary.

Due to the ongo­ing Coro­na pan­dem­ic, all selec­tion semi­nars will be con­duct­ed online in spring 2023.

The selec­tion pro­cess gen­erally starts on a Sat­urday morn­ing. In the course of the selec­tion pro­cess, you will take part in a sub­ject-related and a gen­eral dis­cussion of about 30 minutes each. In addi­tion, you will par­tici­pate in online group rounds, dur­ing which you will also give a short presenta­tion and mod­erate the sub­se­quent dis­cussion. The selec­tion semi­nar ends on Sun­day after­noon.

In order to obtain a positive answer, you must convince the committee during the seminar in the following five areas:

• intellectual ability
• commitment and motivation
• communication and articulation skills
• social skills
• extracurricular interests and social involvement.

Absolutely not! The selection process of the Max Weber Program is not socially selective. Applicants from academic families and non-academic and / or immigrant families have the same chances of being accepted into the Max Weber Program. We are looking forward to a diverse field of applicants!

The invitation to an assessment seminar will be sent from the beginning of February by e-mail to the address you indicated in your application documents. Please also check your spam folder! If you have not received any feedback by mid-February, please contact the contact persons of the Max Weber Program.

You can indicate when applying if you are tied up on certain dates. The Max Weber Program tries to take that into account. Once the seminars have been scheduled, no change is possible.

Exchanging seminars after the completion of the seminar allocation is usually not possible.

If you have further questions about the procedure, please contact the Max Weber Program:

Max Weber-Programm Bayern
Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes
Ahrstraße 41
53175 Bonn

Send an e-mail to the Max Weber-Program:
mwp@studienstiftung.de