Frequently Asked Questions
Below you’ll find answers to the questions we get asked the most about the excellence program Bachelor with Honors.
Structure and Application
How shall/can I structure my program proposal?
The composition of your individual Bachelor with Honors study program is primarily a matter of your personal interests. Essentially, you can choose between a program that either complements your regular bachelor program in an interdisciplinary way, or one that broadens or deepens some areas of your regular bachelor program. Try to assemble courses matching your interests that are coherent topic-wise and, if possible, can be subsume under a crisp title (like “scientific computing” or “specialization in security”). As a rule of thumb, your chosen program is usually fine if you can write a convincing justification.
Eligible Courses
- Mandatory courses from official bachelor programs at universities, which complement or broaden your regular bachelor program and are relevance for science, subject to the fulfullment of the required prerequisites.
- Informatics-related courses from official master programs at universities, which deepen some areas of your regular bachelor program, science, subject to the fulfullment of the required prerequisites.
- Bachelor with Honors-specific courses from the list below and, subject to approval by the Deans of Academic Affairs, complementary or soft-skill courses (languages, scientific presentation etc.)
Constraints
Note that the term “standard Bachelor with Honors-program” refers to a 45 ECTS program, as opposed to the “extended Bachelor with Honors-program” with up to 60 ECTS.
- There is no Bachelor with Honors-specific extended bachelor thesis project. However, you can foresee one additional regular bachelor practical (6 ECTS) as part of the standard Bachelor with Honors-program.
- At most one seminar (3 ECTS) in the standard Bachelor with Honors-program.
- The inclusion of any course in your individual Bachelor with Honors study program is only possible if you can justify having all the prerequisites, e.g., bia appropriate courses in our regular bachelor program.
Dedicated Bachelor with Honors Courses
- 1 ECTS SE Orientierung Bachelor with Honors der Informatik und
Wirtschaftsinformatik (mandatory)
- Covers mentoring effort (once per mentee, upon admission to the Bachelor with Honors program)
- First steps Bachelor with Honors community building
- 6 ECTS PR Bachelor with Honors Internship-Projekte (external supervision) (optional)
- 3 ECTS VU Internationale Summer/Winter School (optional), or 2 ECTS VU Internationale Summer/Winter School (optional) — To get a certificate for this course, you need a certificate of attendance from the summer/winter School, which must provide the following information (X=75 for 3 ECTS, X=50 for 2 ECTS): “Name” has successfully participated in the Summer/WinterSchool “Title”, “Date”, “Place”, which amounted to a students workload of at least X hours.”
With support from your mentor, please check the compatibility of a considered summer/winter school w.r.t. the general topic of your individual Bachelor with Honors-program, and the compatibility with the above requirements before your apply! The certificate for the course will be issued by the Deans of Academic Affairs on request of your mentor (who has to send the above mentioned certificate of attendance and a short justification of the to be issued grade by email).
Why is there a range of 45-60 ECTS for the study program?
What is the role of the mentor?
Advice and support in the application phase, in particular, for the composition of your Bachelor with Honors study program, and primary contact point in all matters related to the program and your studies in general. Your mentor will also help you in finding internship hosts, summer/winter schools, and getting in touch with international researchers in general.
Note that the mentor need not (but can, of course) be the supervisor of your bachelor thesis or at your internships.