Program description

The Free University Berlin will prospectively offer exchange spots at the following North American universities:

Exchange spots:

Please note that living expenses may exceed the grants awarded.

• Princeton University
• Stanford University
• University of Michigan

Application

Application deadline

For the academic year 2025/26: 19^th November 2024

Duration

The program is a research stay for a semester or a full academic year. The academic year in North America will usually start in late August or early September and end in May or June of the following year.

Prerequisites

1. Application is open to fully enrolled PhD students of Free University Berlin.
2. Applicants should have a very good level of English proficiency – please read below for further information.
3. The exchange is primarily intended for research purposes. Attending courses as an auditor might be possible if an agreement with the teaching professor is made; transcripts cannot be issued.

Please note: In case of acceptance you will have to provide proof of your financial means for a visa, the amount to be proven varies depending on the university.

Application documents

Please send  your application documents as early as possible to clarify potential questions or issues in time. Feel free to visit us during our office hours for a personal consultation.

The following documents should arrive at the office for student mobility on the application deadline at the very latest:

Online application form

You will find the link for the application form here and it will be online about 4 weeks before the application deadline.

Certificate of enrollment

With details of your study program and  which semester you are currently in. You can download your current certificate of enrollment from the student’s administration website.

Admission to doctoral studies

Official certificate as issued by the FUB.

A copy of your graduate degree certificate

Including the transcript of records with all courses completed in your graduate studies. The copy does not have to be certified.

For non-german undergraduate certificates: please also submit the grade conversion document from your uniassist procedure.

Study proposal

A detailed description of your research plan at the partner university in English (no longer than 3-4 pages).

Two letters of recommendation

Two letters of recommendation by lecturers of a university in English; one of them should be from your dissertation advisor.

Please give your lecturer this form. The letter of recommendation should be sent as a PDF-document to the Büro für Internationale Studierendenmobilität directly by your lecturer. After the application process, the letter of recommendation will be archived; we do not hand the letters of recommendation to students or transmit them to others.

Assurance of supervision

Written approval of a faculty member from the partner university.

Proof of language proficiency

It is necessary for applicants to have very good knowledge of the English language. The partner universities require the TOEFL or IELTS test as proof of English proficiency. Note, Stanford University accepts only the TOEFL test. Language certificates may not be older than 2 years, the relevant date concerning this is the application deadline of the program. Please find the specific language requirements on the partner institutions description.

TOEFL (official score report)
We only accept the official score report. When booking an appointment to the TOEFL-test, please make sure to provide the institution code of Free University Berlin-Student Exchange Office (C507) in order for the test result  be sent to our office. You will receive an examinee score report and can view your test scores online about 8-10 days after the examination.

Should you have passed one of the language proficiency test within the past 2 years, please hand in a copy of your test result with your application. The test result should be submitted by the deadline. Please note that without a test result, you won't be invited for an interview.

IELTS (test report form)
We only accept the official score report which has been sent to our office directly. You can check the minimum of scores on the sites of the respective partner universities..

 

Please name each document as follows: YourLastName_DocumentTitle (e.g. Schmid_StudyProposal). All documents (except for the letter of recommendation) should  be sent as separate PDF-documents within one zip folder, which should also have your last name.

You will receive a confirmation of receipt within a week of submitting your application. In case you don't hear from us after a full week has passed, please contact us as soon as possible. However, please refrain from sending several emails after having handed in your application, as this slows down our working process.

Financing

The partner universities offer nominated FU students a full tuition waiver and a scholarship to cover living costs; please find more detailed information under the links of each partner university.

It is possible to apply for additional funding with the DAAD or PROMOS.

Further information

Tuition waiver

 A nomination by the Free University for one of our partner universities always includes a full tuition waiver; further information can be found on the pages for each partner university. 

Enrollment as non-degree student

Our exchange agreements always include an enrollment as a non-degree student for the duration of your stay. It is not possible to graduate from the partner universities (exception: University of Michigan).

Up-to-dateness of the published capacities

Please note that because the exchange is based on reciprocity, the final number of spots available at each partner university can only be published shortly before the application deadlines.