Is GRE or GMAT Required for German Master's/MBA in 2026?

Two applicants ask the same question and get opposite answers, because they are looking at two different programmes at the same university. TUM's Informatics M.Sc. never mentions the GRE. TUM's Automotive Engineering M.Sc. makes it mandatory for Indian applicants. The test requirement is set per programme, and in the cases that matter most it is set per passport too.

The rule everyone repeats is backwards in two places

The familiar version says German public master's never ask for the GRE, and business schools always want the GMAT. Checked against the admission pages, both halves fail. Public technical universities have quietly made the GRE a formal requirement for non-EU applicants, while several private business schools have made their tests optional or replaced them with their own. Sorting your shortlist by university type will give you the wrong answer in both directions.

The public universities that do require a GRE

RWTH Aachen is the clearest case, and it is not one rogue programme. The computer science faculty applies the same rule across its master's, and the automotive institute applies it too.

For the Data Science M.Sc. and Software Systems Engineering M.Sc., RWTH publishes minimum GRE General Test results:

• Quantitative reasoning above the 75th percentile, the top quarter of test takers.
• Verbal reasoning above the 15th percentile.
• Analytical writing of at least 3.5.

The exemption is not earned by a strong degree. The GRE is not required only for applicants with EU or EEA citizenship, or for those who completed their secondary education in Germany. Everyone else submits it, however good their transcript.

The Automotive Engineering M.Sc. is blunter still. Its institute states that applicants from outside the EU or EEA need the test as a formal requirement, and that without it the application is rejected on formal grounds, before anyone reads the academic file.

TUM's version is narrower but harder. Its Automotive Engineering M.Sc. makes the GRE mandatory specifically for applicants from Bangladesh, China, India, Iran and Pakistan, with a quantitative reasoning minimum of 164 and analytical writing of 4.0. Verbal reasoning has no minimum. Indian applicants may submit that year's qualifying GATE score instead, which is worth knowing if you already have one.

The same university gives two different answers

Look at the TUM rows together. Three master's degrees, one institution, and the test requirement flips depending on which school inside TUM runs the programme. TUM's Informatics and Data Engineering and Analytics master's select through an aptitude assessment, a point system over your bachelor grade and written documents that can end in an admission, a rejection, or an interview. No standardised test enters that process at all.

This is why "does Germany require the GRE" has no answer. The unit of decision is the programme, and sometimes the faculty. If grades are the weak spot in your profile, the GPA German master's programmes actually ask for is the more useful read.

Business schools are the ones going test-flexible

Meanwhile the schools everyone assumes demand a GMAT have loosened up.

• WHU has no mandatory GMAT or GRE on its full-time MBA. It runs an Excellent Fit Assessment with five qualifying pathways, of which a test score is only one.
• Frankfurt School prefers a GMAT or GRE but accepts its own Frankfurt School Admission Test instead, and waives the requirement entirely for exceptional candidates.
• ESMT Berlin accepts four options: the GMAT, the GRE, the GMAC Executive Assessment, or its own Business Admissions Test, which costs USD 100.
• Mannheim Business School still names numbers, but as a recommendation: a GMAT of 600 on the 10th Edition scale, 565 on the Focus Edition, or an equivalent GRE.

The common thread is work experience. Every one of these programmes requires two or three years of it, and where the record is strong the test becomes negotiable. Where it is thin, no score repairs it. The wider picture is in the guide to doing an MBA in Germany as an international student.

The deadline arithmetic nobody does

Discovering the requirement is only half the problem. RWTH says the GRE result must be submitted before the application deadline, and its deadline for non-EU applicants to those master's is 1 March for an October start.

Work backwards. Scores take days to reach institutions and a retake needs a gap between sittings, so a realistic plan books the first attempt in December or early January and keeps a February slot in reserve. An applicant who reads the admission page in February has one sitting, no retake, and a percentile bar in the top quarter of a global test population. That is the version of this mistake that costs a year.

When a score helps even though nobody asked for it

A strong GMAT or GRE can carry a borderline application at a competitive school, especially when your GPA is average for the field. That is the one case where the months of preparation pay for themselves. Otherwise the same hours spent on your language certificate and your statement of purpose will do more for you, and language certificates have their own trap: RWTH does not accept TOEFL MyBest scores, and its computer science admissions generally do not accept a Medium of Instruction letter in place of a test.

How to settle this in an afternoon

1. Open the admission page of every programme on your shortlist, not the university's general page. The requirement lives at programme level.
2. Search that page for "GRE", "GMAT" and "GATE". If it names one, note the exact minimum and the exact exemption wording.
3. Check whether the exemption is by citizenship, by where you went to school, by work experience, or by grade. RWTH's turns on the first two, so a strong transcript will not release you.
4. Find the deadline for your applicant category. Non-EU deadlines at RWTH run months earlier than the EU ones.
5. Count backwards from that date to a test booking, with one retake in the plan.

Which route you apply through matters as well, and VPD, APS and direct application compared sets out the three options.

What actually decides a German admission

Outside the programmes named above, it comes down to the APS certificate, your language proof and how closely your modules match the published prerequisite list, which German universities usually publish in credit points rather than in adjectives. Start with how the APS certificate works for Indian applicants and whether you need German to study in Germany. Budget the test fee only once you have confirmed a programme wants it, and keep in mind that the EUR 11,904 blocked account still has to be funded for the visa. See what a blocked account costs and how to open one and the student visa process step by step.

Sources

• RWTH Data Science M.Sc. admission
• RWTH Software Systems Engineering M.Sc. admission
• RWTH ika Automotive Engineering FAQ
• TUM Automotive Engineering M.Sc.
• WHU Full-Time MBA admissions
• Mannheim Full-Time MBA admissions

Not sure whether the test is worth it? A free profile evaluation tells you whether the GRE or GMAT changes anything for your target programmes.