Freshers guide
Student Life at TUM: Setup, Study Spaces & Working Alongside
Beyond exams and registration, most questions are simply practical: what equipment do you need, where can you actually work, and how much time is left for a job or an internship.
Getting set up
You do not need a high-end machine. Any laptop that runs a browser, Office and Excel comfortably is enough, statistics and operations research courses occasionally use software that runs on both Windows and macOS.
For lecture halls and seminar rooms, NavigaTUM (nav.tum.de) resolves every room code across all campuses.
Time, work and sports
Between the semesters there are several weeks without lectures, which is when most students do internships, keep in mind the exam and retake periods at the start and end of that window.
Working alongside your studies is common, especially from the third semester onwards once the GOP pressure is over. The ZHS sports card gives you access to the university sports programme of TUM and LMU.
Questions students ask us
8 answers on this topic, collected from your fellow students. Every question has its own link, so you can share a single answer.
+What laptop do I need?
It should be running Windows 11 or MacOS: Both work (especially for computer engineering / informatics). For mechanical engineering it can look a bit different.
My tip: Don’t have an ARM64 laptop as your only device. While it works fine most of the time, sometimes compatibility issues may arise.
+On what do I take notes?
Some write digitally, some on a notebook, some type. It really depends on the subject and preference.
I'd suggest having the opportunity to type and write on a screen.
+Are there rooms where you can talk and work?
- Bookable group study rooms in each TUM library
- StudiTUM houses
- In front of the Carl von Linde
- LMU Philologicum: “Forum”
+How can I find where my room is?
If you want to check the location of a room, use the TUM Roomfinder/NavigaTum, link above.
You can also look up rooms in Garching there.
+How do I register for ZHS card and how does it work?
https://www.zhs-muenchen.de/zhs/startseite/.
Refer to the provided link above to register for a ZHS card and access sports courses.
ZHS stands for Zentraler Hochschulsport. The ZHS card is required before you can register for any ZHS courses.
+Can I manage working and studying at the same time?
It’s manageable as long as you plan your time wisely. However, it’s recommended to first focus on your GOPs in the first semester before starting a job, to make sure you pass your mandatory courses.
+How much time do I have between semesters for an internship?
Winter semester:
Lectures typically end in early February, with exams running until the end of February or early March. The summer semester then begins in early April, giving you about one month for an internship.
Summer semester:
Exams for BWL usually finish in mid-August (around August 9–15). However, depending on your specialization or retakes, exams may extend until the end of August, and in some cases even into September or October. Lectures for the winter semester generally start around October 13, leaving roughly two months available for an internship.
Please note that dates may vary. You can find the official lecture periods here: TUM Academic Calendar.
+Do you have tips for the application interview?
"Here are my tips, mixed with advice from others who have already had the interview:
- Almost always, there's a question about current economic, economic policy, or technological topics. For example, the impact of the Ukraine war, inflation, electric vs. hydrogen cars, and so on. In most cases, you're asked about your general knowledge. Sometimes, you're allowed to choose a topic that interests you and briefly talk about it.
- There are also some very unusual questions. The examiners are more interested in a calm and thoughtful (not necessarily correct) answer. Examples include: "How much oxygen is in this room?" or "How much money would you need to open a pizzeria in Munich, and how much would a pizza cost?"
- Logic questions also come up. For example, I was presented with a kind of supply chain between 3-4 suppliers and had to figure out where problems could arise. There was information about capacities, trade directions, and so on, so you could quickly see where the bottlenecks might be.
- Motivation questions are also common: Why do you want to study in Munich? Why specifically at TUM (implicitly also: "Why not at LMU?")? Why are you interested in this particular program and not, for example, industrial engineering or pure business administration?
- Questions about the study program are also typical: Which specialization do you want to choose? It's enough to indicate simple preferences and explain why (for example, because you were already interested in this field in school). Also note that there are both technical and economic specializations that start in the later semesters. Knowing a few modules and understanding how the program works is certainly helpful.
- Questions about prices have also come up, like the price of a barrel of oil, an ounce of gold, the current level of the DAX, or current electricity costs per kWh. Here, it's more about knowing approximate values to show you're not out of touch with the world.
If you can't answer a question, it's better to admit it rather than make something up. The examiners notice, ask more specific questions, and then you can quickly get tangled up.
In general, it's not really predictable what will be asked, but these tips should cover a lot. I hope this helps you!“”
- Kai Maegdefrau
Kurz auf Deutsch
Für das Studium reicht ein normaler Laptop, der Browser und Office flüssig ausführt. Räume findest du über NavigaTUM, Lern- und Gruppenräume gibt es auf dem Campus und in den Bibliotheken.
Nebenjob und Praktika sind gut machbar, besonders ab dem dritten Semester. Über die ZHS-Karte bekommst du Zugang zum Hochschulsport von TUM und LMU.