Selection Procedure for the Mono-Bachelor Program "Psychology" - General Information
The most important thing once again in advance:
The result of the test affects only the so-called "quota of the selection process of the university".
The monobachelor's degree program in psychology is very popular. The number of applications regularly exceeds the number of available study places by far.
For the selection of applicants for the winter semester 2023/24 for the 1st semester, the result of the subject-specific aptitude test "Study Aptitude Test Bachelor Psychology of the DGPs" (BaPsy-DGPs) will be taken into account in the "quota of the selection procedure of the university" within the admission procedure.
Further information can be found here:
Study Aptitude Test Psychology and here.
In order for you to be able to understand the significance of the study ability test in the allocation of study places, we would like to give you some general information on the selection process. This is a simplified overview.
Only applications that are still valid in the legal sense at the time of the decision, i.e., in particular, that have not been withdrawn and have not been eliminated by a priority admission elsewhere, will participate in the actual selection procedure.
A whole range of different quotas must be taken into account in the selection procedure. Of the total number of available study places, study places are first and foremost allocated in the selection procedure to persons who have already been admitted once in an earlier application round and who have deferred this admission due to the performance or completion of a so-called "service".
Subsequently, the so-called "advance quotas" are taken into account, which are also deducted from the total number of available study places. Such advance quotas account for up to 30% of the study places. A distinction can be made between two types of advance quotas: On the one hand, there are such advance quotas, where the participation in the selection process of an applicant is exclusively limited to exactly this quota. On the other hand, there are advance quotas that are used as auxiliary quotas when a selection in the main quotas (see below) is not possible.
The following are considered exclusive preliminary quotas (cf. § 22 ZSP-HU)
- the "§11 quota",
- the "second study quota",
- and the "foreigner quota".
If you fall under one of these quotas, you cannot participate in the other quotas (neither the further preliminary quotas nor the main quotas). If you fall under one of these quotas, a test result would have no effect. In this case, you are therefore excluded from participating in the test.
So-called auxiliary quotas (cf. § 22 ZSP-HU) are
- the "hardship quota,
- the "underage quota",
- and the "sports profile quota".
They are only taken into account after the ranking according to the three main quotas has been processed and thus only have an effect on persons who qualify for the respective auxiliary quota and could not already be admitted in the main quotas.
After deduction of the preliminary quotas and for the very most part, the remaining study places are allocated to the three main quotas
- "merit quota",
- "Waiting period quota",
- and "Quota of the selection procedure of the university"
are awarded. Applicants who do not meet any special criteria regularly participate in the selection process in all three of these quotas.
In the performance quota (according to which 20% of the remaining study places are awarded), only the grade of the university entrance qualification is used. The most common university entrance qualification is the Allgemeine Hochschulreife, i.e. the Abitur. The ranking list is drawn up here only according to the grade. With an Abitur grade of 1.0, you are therefore at the top of the rankings in this quota.
In the waiting period quota (according to which 20% of the remaining study places are also awarded), only the number of achieved waiting period semesters is taken into account. Only full semesters from the time of acquisition of the university entrance qualification to the beginning of the semester for which admission is requested count. Semesters in which an applicant was enrolled at a university are not taken into account. The maximum number of eligible waiting semesters is 10 - all semesters beyond this are only considered as "10" in total. The longest waiting period in this sense leads to the top rankings in this quota.
Finally, the "quota of the selection procedure of the university" accounts for the largest number of the remaining study places to be awarded (60%) and here the test has an exclusive effect. In this quota, two selection criteria are combined. The first selection criterion is again the grade of the university entrance qualification. It is converted into up to 90 selection points, which corresponds to a grade of 1.0. For each tenth grade above this, 3 points are deducted, so that from an average grade of 4.0, no more selection points are awarded. The second selection criterion is the test result, for which up to 85 selection points can be earned. The ranking list for this quota is formed from the sum of both selection criteria. Persons with the maximum value of 175 selection points occupy the top positions in this quota.
If a case of equal ranking occurs in any quota, i.e., according to the ranking mechanism governing the respective quota, several persons are on the same level, a sequence must nevertheless be established. For this purpose, a so-called "service" is first given priority. Thus, someone who fulfills a service and is listed in the performance quota with a grade of 1.2 has a better rank and thus a higher chance of admission than someone who can also prove a grade of 1.2 but does not fulfill or has not fulfilled a service. If rank equality still prevails after this, the final sorting will be based on a lottery number assigned individually to each person applying through an automated data processing procedure.
Please note:
Non-participation in the test does not affect the chances of admission in the other main quotas, i.e. there are still chances of admission in particular via the "performance quota" and the "waiting period quota", and possibly also via the auxiliary quotas. The ranking of all applicants will only be carried out after the end of the application period (15.07.2023, cut-off date). Only then will the applicants receive their clear ranking position in the respective quota. Only after the ranking lists have been fed into the Dialog-Oriented Service Procedure of the Foundation for Higher Education Admission (hochschulstart.de) will it be decided whether and in which quota an offer of admission can be made to the individual person or whether admission will be granted immediately. Before that, it is not possible to make any reliable statement about the success of an application, especially with regard to the relevant quota.
Depending on the development of the allocation procedure, an applicant may - irrespective of test participation - ultimately also receive an offer of admission or admission, for example, via the performance quota or the waiting period quota. This also applies in particular if an applicant has taken the test: in this case, admission can also be granted via the other main quotas and does not necessarily lead to admission in the "quota of the university selection procedure".
However, the decision regarding the quota that is ultimately decisive for the specific individual person is only made well after the day of the test and only in the context of participation in the coordination of all applications submitted to Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in the dialogue-oriented service procedure.
Special case of test cancellation
In the event that the test has to be cancelled for all registered persons or cannot actually be carried out for all registered persons for other reasons or the test result of all participants cannot be used, an alternative selection procedure will come into force in accordance with a corresponding decision made by the admission committee of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in accordance with § 11 Paragraph 5 Sentence 2 ZSP-HU in conjunction with the subject-specific admission rules for the Bachelor's degree program in the subject Psychology 2. 1.1.43. (20232), an alternative selection procedure in the "quota of the selection procedure of the university" comes into effect. The ranking in this quota will then be formed instead on the basis of the combination of the grade of the university entrance qualification and the auxiliary criterion "Relevant practical work experience amounting to 900 hours". For further details, please refer to the subject-specific admission regulations for the Bachelor's program in Psychology 2.1.1.43. (20232).