FAQ – the mandatory template

Section 4/4 consists of three separate lists: completed numerically graded courses, completed non-numerically graded or pass/fail courses, and ongoing courses. You should fill out all the courses you have taken or plan to take during your bachelor’s degree on the designated list. You should include all courses that are listed on your transcript of records, whether they are relevant to the DTU programme you are applying to or not. Please take care to enter the course number and the course name in English.

The distribution of course content is an important part of the academic evaluation of your qualifications for admission, as it assists the academic reviewers in understanding how well your bachelor’s degree matches the prerequisites for the DTU programme you are applying to. For this reason, you must take good time to fill out the distribution of course content to the best of your ability.

One course can be filled out with a distribution of course content out of 100. For example, a course called “Mathematics 1” may be 40 in “linear algebra”, 30 in “differential equations”, and 30 in “statistics”. Please note that you cannot add a course distribution percentage that is below 30. You may also have courses that do not fulfill any of the prerequisites, in which case the course distribution should be left blank for these courses.

On some templates, you can click on the course number mentioned against the prerequisite to access the curriculum of the equivalent DTU course. This will allow you to compare your own bachelor’s courses to DTU’s bachelor’s courses.

We highly encourage you to watch the video guide above if you are in doubt of how to fill out this particular section of the template. The template also includes an example sheet that illustrates how the template should be filled out.

The grading scale in section 3/4 and the grades in section 4/4 should be filled out with the grades that are used on your transcript of records.

For example: Your bachelor’s degree uses a 0-100 grading scale where 60 is the grade at which one passes a course. In this case, 0 is the minimum grade (a fail grade), 60 is the passing grade, and 100 is the maximum grade.

It is important that you use the same grading scale in both sections 3/4 and 4/4.

If your university uses several grading systems, then you must fill out the GPA sheet with the grades exactly as they are written on your transcript of records according to the different grading scales. You should not translate any grades to fit another grading scale than the original grade was given with. In this case, you should fill out course graded on a numerical grading scale on the list for numerical grades and courses graded on a non-numerical grading scale (e.g. F-A grades, “good”, “excellent”) or a pass/fail scale on the list designated for these courses. You will find the list for non-numerically graded courses below the list for numerically graded courses.

An example of applicants with several grading scales is Chinese applicants whose home university uses both the 0-100 scale, the F-A scale, and the fail-pass-good-excellent scale.

If your university has an officially approved translation of non-numerical grades to numerical grades, then you should fill out the GPA sheet with the numerical grades. Additionally, you should upload the official grade translation to your application.

If your university does not have an officially approved translation of non-numerical grades to numerical grades, then you should fill out the GPA sheet with the non-numerical grades. You should not translate the grades into any numerical system, as they must be the same as the ones issued by your bachelor’s university. You should add the non-numerical grades on the list designated for these courses, which you will find below the list for numerically graded courses.

If your grading scale and/or credit system use decimals, you should use commas to divide the number into decimals. You should not use full stops to divide decimals. This is because the Excel sheet is based on the Danish number systems where commas are used to divide decimals.

The Grade Point Average (GPA) is calculated in various ways across the world. The GPA on the mandatory template is set to calculate the GPA based on the Danish standard where courses are weighted equally according to their number of credits. For some applicants, this will mean that the GPA calculated by the template is different from the official GPA on their bachelor’s transcript of records. The GPA sheet assists the academic reviewer in understanding your bachelor’s degree, but academic assessment is based on the official transcripts of records you have submitted. For this reason, please do not mind if the GPA on the template is different from the GPA on your transcript of records.

There are many different terms used across the globe to refer to the way a student’s performance is evaluated. At DTU, we refer to this as “grades”. You may experience that your own university uses the terms “marks” or “scores” instead. In DTU terms, grades, marks and scores are synonyms that refer to the system your bachelor’s university uses to evaluate your performance in your courses.

By GPA, we are referring to your grade point average on your local grading scale. You should not translate your grades to any other grading scale.

The credits in sections 2/4 and 4/4 should be filled out according to the credit system that was used in your bachelor’s university. You should not translate the credit system to any other system such as the ECTS system.

There are rare instances where a university does not have a credit system. If this is the case for you, please write “1” as the credit for each course in section 4/4. For the minimum required credits for graduation in section 2/4, please write the total number of courses taken during your bachelor’s degree.

If you have taken many courses during your bachelor’s degree, you may experience that you have more courses than there are course rows available on the GPA sheet. In this case, please write an email to mscadmissions@adm.dtu.dk and request a template with additional rows. Please state your name, the programme you are applying to, the exact number of rows you need to add all of your courses, and whether these courses are numerically or non-numerically graded. We will then make a template for you with additional rows.

Please do not attempt to create additional rows on the Excel sheet on your own.

If you have troubles adding your SOP to the SOP sheet, it may be because your SOP has exceeded the number of characters allowed. The maximum number of characters is stated by each question on the SOP sheet. Please be aware that the maximum is stated in characters including spaces, not in words.

To choose two DTU courses, please go to the Course Catalogue at https://kurser.dtu.dk/ and select two DTU courses that you would like to take as a student at DTU. Please be aware that you are asked to select two courses/subjects – not your MSc programme priorities.

You must fill out the SOP sheet on the mandatory template and should not upload a separate SOP. A separate SOP relating to your application will not be considered. You should only add a separate SOP if you are applying for the honours programme or for the tuition fee waiver, in which case you must upload the SOP in the field on the application portal specific to these and clearly mark them as honours/waiver SOPs.

The English language sheet should be filled out with information regarding the way you fulfill the English language requirements. If you are required to take a test, please enter either the registration number/TRF/reference number or the date you have booked the test.

Please refer to the English language requirements here.

If your bachelor’s degree consists of two degrees, you must create a second GPA sheet by copy-pasting the existing GPA sheet. You may also contact the International Admissions Office at mscadmissions@adm.dtu.dk and request a template with an additional GPA sheet.

You must then fill out a GPA sheet for each of the degrees that are considered part of your bachelor’s degree. It is important that you only mention a course once and only on the GPA sheet relevant to the degree the course was taken during.

Examples of bachelor’s degrees that consist of two degrees include, but are not limited to, French CPGE + Grande École, Higher National Diploma + Bachelor’s top-up, Nepalese 2-year bachelors + 2-year masters (equivalent to Danish bachelor’s degree), and dual bachelor’s degrees.

If in doubt, please contact us at mscadmissions@adm.dtu.dk.

If you have a dual bachelor’s degree that is taken at two different universities, you should fill out the mandatory template as though your bachelor’s degree consists of two degrees as explained above. Please fill out one GPA sheet for each university you have attended and match the grade/credit/course system with the system of the university at which the course was studied.

If you already have a master’s degree which is equivalent to Danish master’s level, you should not add your master’s degree courses on the mandatory template. Please be aware that according to Danish national legislation, only bachelor’s courses can fulfill the prerequisites to a master’s degree. For this reason, you cannot use master’s courses to cover the prerequisites to the DTU programme you are applying to.

If you have a master’s degree, but it is considered to be part of your bachelor’s degree to be equivalent to a Danish bachelor’s degree, your bachelor’s degree is considered to consist of two degrees and the template must be filled out as such.

If you have an integrated master’s degree without a clear divide between your bachelor’s and master’s courses, you should fill out all courses from your integrated master’s degree on the mandatory template.