At CODE we worked hard (actually it was quite fun) to develop a special admission process that is an interesting learning experience in itself and not just a necessary administrative annoyance.
Don’t worry that you might not know enough to shine in the admission process. We are primarily concerned with assessing your potential and motivation, not only the skills you might have acquired already.
And if you need further motivation: There will be cake!
Even if you are not 100 percent sure you want to study at CODE: give it a try! Chances are you will be able to make a better decision after going through the process and you will certainly have gained valuable experience. During your application process, you will have the chance to learn how we think, talk and act at CODE. Apart from the information you can find here on our website, we won’t give you too many details about what awaits you during the different steps of our admission process.
If it doesn’t challenge you,Fred Devito, Motivation and fitness authority
it doesn’t change you.
We have a special approach to learning and teaching at CODE, which requires you to be exceptionally self-driven, cooperative and inquisitive. Because we are looking for special talents, we don’t believe that standardized test results or school grades will be of much help in our application process.
What we can promise you is that we evaluate all applicants equally, with no preferential treatment given regarding gender, sexual orientation or social background.
Our admissions process is designed to identify if you are the type of student who will realize his or her potential at CODE and be a valuable part of our learning community.
Step 1Start your journey
Every journey begins with a single step. Your first step toward admission is super easy and has no strings attached. You provide us with your name and a valid email address and thereby create a private account with us. We will pass on all information regarding your application, upcoming deadlines etc., there.
Starting the application process is free. You can discontinue your application at any time and have no obligation to accept a positive application decision. All data submitted are protected by our terms of privacy.
Please note: If you need a visa to study in Germany, please consider earlier deadlines for your application! We’ve made a list of requirements, so you can check all the necessary details.
Step 2How you think and act
We are not particularly interested in your math or biology grades from school because we believe that school performance does not reliably reflect your skills and potential. Instead, we present you with an exciting and thought-provoking challenge and watch carefully how you approach it and what kind of solution you arrive at. Rather than confront you with standardized tests, CODE gives you the flexibility to define for yourself how you want to present yourself and your abilities. As soon as you have completed the challenge, we will start evaluating your application. After a short time we will inform you if you have made us curious enough to invite you to Berlin for the final step.
Step 3Let’s get to know each other
For the final step, we will invite you to Berlin. You will spend a day at CODE and work on a group project together with the other applicants. Your team will get the project assignment in the afternoon and is expected to present a result the next day. At some point during the 24 hours, you will have a 20-minute interview with two CODE team members, which will be the least challenging part of the admission process. Our goal here is to simply get to know you as a person. There is no need to prepare for this interview because we don’t want to test your knowledge or your cleverness. We just want to have a good conversation and give you a chance to ask any questions you still have.
Our admission process has another unique quality: you are not competing with the other applicants for a spot. We cannot enroll an unlimited number of students but there is no fixed number of places to fill. We will make sure that we can enroll every applicant who made it past step 2. So as soon as you have been invited to meet us in Berlin for the last step of our admission process, you don’t have to try to outshine or outperform your fellow applicants.
After your day in Berlin you will know if you’re going to be a part of the next generation of CODE students. If it’s a ‘yes’ from us, it also means that everybody who was involved in evaluating the different steps of your admission process voted for you. Isn’t that a great feeling?
Drive and curiosity
Desire for a positive impact
Ability to collaborate efficiently
Passion for digital technologies
If you’re not sure about your application, don’t hesitate to ask the CODE team. Also don’t be competitive. You’re not really competing with others against certain slots, just do your best and work together with the others. Help each other. If you’re motivated and if you are yourself, the others will notice. That’s what counts.Christoph Janke, student at CODE
By registering for our application process, you will receive an email from us with an invitation to set up your personal account.
We’re already taking applications for September 2018.
Questions? Do not hesitate to contact us!
After you log into your personal account you will be presented with all the information you need to start working on your challenge. Whether you choose to plow through it in a few all-nighters or take a more laid-back approach is up to you. We will do our best to match your speed and supply assignments, feedback and admission decisions because we know what it is like to wait for such an important decision after finishing an extended admission process. We have all been there ourselves.
If you successfully complete stage two by the end of July 2018, you will be guaranteed a slot in stage three before our semester starts in September 2018. Please note: The earlier you apply, the earlier you will get your admission decision.
We recommend to carefully check the requirements for studying at CODE. If you need a visa, the application process for that usually takes a few months’ time, so please hand in your application as early as possible – best case by April 2018.
As a private institution we have to ask our students for a substantial financial contribution in the form of tuition, because we do not get any financial support from the state.
The costs for our bachelor’s programs are a total amount of €26,892 (no matter how long you study). So, the monthly payment would be €747 for 36 months. This calculation and the underlying assumptions will be updated every three years.
At the same time, we want to inspire and empower the digital change-makers of tomorrow. What we therefore cannot and will not do is exclude those who cannot shoulder the financial burden of private-university tuition.
That is why we are very happy that – with the help from our friends at Chancen eG – we can offer you a solution where there is no upfront or monthly payment of any tuition required while you study at CODE. Instead, you commit yourself to making a yearly financial contribution as soon as you start working and earning serious money (see option 1).
In this model your payment starts after graduation. This contribution will be a small percentage (around 6.5%) of your yearly, pre-tax income for ten years, but only if your relevant income in a year exceeds €21,000. After ten years you are done. That means if you – for whatever reason – never earn more than €21,000 a year, you won’t have to pay any tuition fees.
On the other hand, if you are earning obscene amounts of money, you will never pay more than two times the tuition fees a student with an average income would have paid. In the end it’s a solidarity model. One for all, and all for one.
For this option we will assume what the average income of a CODE student will be in his or her first ten years of professional life and calculate the discounted equivalent of what he or she would pay with the income-based delayed tuition model. At the moment this would result in a monthly payment of €747 for 36 months, adding up to €26,892. This calculation and the underlying assumptions will be updated every three years.
That means students who decide to pay their tuition on a monthly basis while studying will pay exactly as much as the average student who decides to contribute via the income-based delayed tuition model.