To qualify for admission to our communications design program, you need to pass our aptitude test in addition to meeting the higher education entrance qualification requirements. The application deadline for this test is June 1 (for entry in winter semesters) or December 1 (for entry in summer semesters). Please use the relevant form for your application. You will find further explanatory information about the aptitude test, the application form for the test and a petition for waiving the test requirement can be found by following the links below.

Please do not send us any portfolios prior to the test. Instead, carry your portfolio along on the day of the test. Your portfolio will be returned to you on the day of the test.

If you have successfully completed a secondary school with a design specialty (minimum grade average 2.5), you can petition for a waiver of the aptitude test requirement. However, waivers are approved in rare cases only; we thus strongly recommend participating in the aptitude test.

For further application information please contact RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, Kurt-Schumacher-Ring 18, 65197 Wiesbaden or send an e-mail to the university's student advising office at studienberatung@hs-rm.de

• Aptitude Test Information Flyer (in German)
• Aptitude Test Application Information

For you to be able to prepare effectively for your application to the degree program, the communications design programs offers three portfolio consultation events per semester that are offered by different professors. During the consultation event, a professor explains the basic formal and content requirements for the portfolios in the course of a two-to-three-hour conversation. As a matter of course, the portfolio consultation includes discussion of some individual exemplary pieces brought along by the applicants. All other relevant issues can then be clarified directly.

• General Portfolio Consultation (by professors on three days per semester); please find the dates here.
• Peer Consultation on the Aptitude Test by Students at the Student Advising office; the consultations start on March 28, 2011, each Monday from 2 p.m. in the Student Information Center
  Location:
  Kurt-Schumacher-Ring 18
  65197 Wiesbaden
  Building A, garden level, room 106.
  Please note:
  Bringing along some of your own work will help make the peer consultation most effective. No registration is required. For more information, call +49 (0)611 9495-1590.

The aptitude test comprises three parts.

• Firstly, it requires that you submit a portfolio of your own work that includes your realization of the task assigned each semester specifically for the aptitude test.
• Secondly, it comprises the on-site execution of five different assignments that are given during the test.
• Thirdly, the test includes an interview of selected applicants with the admission committee.

You need to bring your portfolio along to the aptitude test. There is no prior selection of applicants. Thus, everyone has a chance to get in.

The portfolio should include work that demonstrates that you are working on themes and techniques of design. Your work should show that you are capable of developing ideas and thinking conceptually. It should contain 20 pieces with drawings from nature, artistic experiments, comics, cartoons, photographs, typographic work and other things.

For more information, have a look at our flyer on the Artistic Aptitude Test for the Communications Design Program or – even better – attend one of the three portfolio consultation events that are offered each semester (see the "portfolio consultation" section above).

The artistic aptitude test takes place on three days. The portfolio is submitted on the first day. On the first two days, applicants take tests in the following five areas:

• creativity and graphic imagination
• illustration
• verbal expression: text and language
• visual navigation (using a drawing to represent a function)
• photography

The third day is devoted to the interviews with selected applicants.

More detailed information is available during the portfolio consultation events.

What and How Much Should I Include?   How Should I Present My Work?   

Experience shows that a portfolio with about 20 pieces, neatly mounted on neutral DIN A2 cardboard, is sufficient and representative enough. Three of the pieces must be realized based on the assignments given out each semester by the admission committee.

Can I Include Processed Photos?

Yes, digitally generated work can be included as a print-out.

Must I Include the Originals?

You don't have to, but the admission committee places high value on originals.

How Do I Start a Portfolio, and What Theme Should I Work On?

It's best not to use any work that was completed as an assignment in school. Recent work that results from self-created assignments is most essential.

This includes drawings "from nature" and experimental work, comics, cartoons, photographs (analog and digital), type and writing (typography and calligraphy), printed graphics, digital work ...

Attend one of the portfolio consultation sessions of the current semester at the Faculty of Design – Computer Science – Media on the Unter den Eichen Campus (in the glass house). No registration is required.

How Can I Prepare for the Aptitude Test?

Start well in advance with developing a quality portfolio with well-chosen pieces and then participate in our portfolio consultation. The work in your portfolio must show that you are creatively grappling with design themes and techniques and demonstrate a certain degree of conceptual thinking.

During the artistic aptitude test your portfolio will be evaluated, and you will then be asked to complete five assignments. The assignments focus on: Graphic Style: Color and Illustration Visual Navigation: Representing Function Verbal Expression: Text and Language Creativity and Graphic Imagination and Photographic Vision

How Often Can I Take the Aptitude Test?

The aptitude test is required at all German universities of applied sciences for creative programs and can usually only be taken twice.

What Happens During the Test and How Many Applicants Pass?

• Day One: Portfolio submission, assignments from three areas.
• Day Two: Assignments from two areas.
• Day Three: Interviews with selected applicants.

About 30 students are admitted each semester.