Entry Process

Admission to Maximilianeum College is highly competitive. Please note that graduates from high schools outside the German regions Bavaria and the Palatinate are not eligible to apply. To get into the Stiftung Maximilianeum a multi-stage entry process must be passed:

Stage 1: Recommendation by School

Every year, by mid-March, headmasters and headmistresses of all grammar schools as well as technical colleges and Vocational Schools in Bavaria and an area of the Rhineland Palatinate (which in 1852 belonged to Bavaria) can recommend exceptional pupils in the top year for entry into the Stiftung Maximilianeum. To be considered for this, they are required to have had outstanding school careers. As well as this, according to the rules determined by the founder, it is necessary to have have lived in Bavaria (or the Palatinate) for some time and to be able to demonstrate a ‘Christian belief and perfect moral conduct’. No means-testing is involved. Students of theology for church office and students of medicine cannot be admitted. Self-application is not possible.

Stage 2: Final school exam

1. Nine-year grammar school in the Palatinate:

All candidates must overall possess the best mark possible, in their A-levels – 1.0. No individual mark of the intensive courses (in either the written or spoken exams) nor of the 22 contributing modules of the basic courses may score fewer than 13 points of 15. Candidates must score at least 13/15 in all of thee subjects they take for their final exam. In the Palatinate these requirements are only valid for the qualification phase.

2. Eight-year grammar school in Bavaria:

All candidates must overall possess the best mark possible, in their A-levels – 1.0. None of the 40 contributing six-month modules may score less than 13/15 and no module may score zero points. In two of the five subjects examined at A-level (among them one of them must be German, Maths or a foreign language to an advanced level) no module may score less than 13/15. Of the five subjects at least four must score at least 13/15 and no more than one of them 12/15.

3. Technical Colleges and Vocational Schools:

All candidates must overall possess the best mark possible, in their A-levels – 1.0. Here, too, no module taken during the final year may score less than 13/15. In two of the four final exam subjects no module may score less than 13/15. Of the five individual modules taken three must score 13/15 in at least four of them and no more than one of them 12/15.

Stage 3: Exam for exceptional pupils

The exam with the representative for the grammar schools of a the district in which the pupil lives determines not only entitlement to entry into the branch of the ‘Max Weber Program of Bavaria’ which supports students financially, but also the admittance to the ‘Maximilianeum Exam’ connected to it. Usually, at least 60 points out of 75 must be obtained in this exam (in Technical Colleges and Vocational Schools: no fewer than 48 out of 60). In the Palatinate there is no comparable exam, thus stage 4 follows on directly from stage 2.

Stage 4: Maximilianeum Exam

The final round of the entry procedure takes place in the Ministry for Teaching and Education. The examinee is put in front of a group of about twelve teachers, who ask him/her questions on a very wide variety of subjects, and are not confined to A-level material. The exact contents of this discussion must, of course, remain secret! Particular value in choosing the candidates is placed on the breadth of their interests, their openness for new and unusual lines of questioning and their social competence. The final decision on who gets in is left to the Trustees of the Stiftung. A right to entry cannot necessarily be derived from a successful sitting of the exam.

In the area, from which applicants for the Stiftung Maximilianeum come, about 400 of those doing the Abitur each year achieve an average of 1.0. Between six and eight candidates are admitted.