Master's in Finance in Germany in English: Mannheim, Frankfurt, WHU, LMU

Finance in Germany happens in Frankfurt, and the schools worth applying to are either in it or close to it. If you are aiming at banking or asset management, the city you study in decides which internships you can physically take, which is why this shortlist is short. The public and private split behind it is set out in the public versus private cost comparison for business degrees.

There are two Frankfurts, and they are not the same price

This is the mistake that costs the most money. Goethe University Frankfurt is a public university. Its English-taught finance degree is Money, Macro and Finance (M.Sc.), four semesters, with no tuition and a semester contribution of about 340 euros that includes a public transport ticket and free entry to the city's public museums.

Frankfurt School of Finance and Management is a private business school in the same city. Its Master of Finance is also four semesters and taught entirely in English, and it costs 10,500 euros per semester, 42,000 euros across the degree, plus a 100 euro application fee, a 400 euro enrolment fee in the first semester and a semester contribution of roughly 245 euros. Both are excellent. Only one of them is free. Search results and forum posts use "Frankfurt" for both, so check the institution name on every page you read.

Goethe's window for winter runs 15 January to 15 May and applications go through uni-assist. A valid GRE or GMAT report and a letter of motivation are both required, and English has to be at C1, which IELTS Academic 7 or Cambridge C1 Advanced satisfies. Frankfurt School accepts applications until 30 June, wants a bachelor's of at least 180 ECTS, a GMAT or GRE score or its own admission test, and an interview.

Mannheim: public, but not free if you are not from the EU

Mannheim's business school is among Germany's best, and the closest match to this subject is the Mannheim Master in Finance, Accounting and Taxation, taught in English over four semesters. It is a public university, which is where the "low or no tuition" assumption comes from, and for non-EU students that assumption is wrong. Since the 2017 fall semester Baden-Wuerttemberg has required international students who come to Germany specifically to study to pay 1,500 euros per semester on top of the semester fee, which the economics faculty currently states as 169 euros. Students from the EU and EEA, refugees and anyone holding a German Abitur are exempt.

The academic bar is a credit count rather than a test score. You need an undergraduate degree of at least three years or 180 ECTS, with at least 36 ECTS of prior business administration content, and English at C1: TOEFL iBT 100 or above, IELTS Academic 7, Cambridge C1 Advanced or telc English C1. Applications for winter run 1 April to 15 May, and that window is the same for applicants from every country, so there is no early international deadline to catch you out.

LMU Munich: no tuition, and the gentlest English bar

LMU's English-taught route into this field is economics rather than finance by name: the M.Sc. in Economics and the Master in Quantitative Economics, both taught exclusively in English over four semesters, with no tuition and a semester contribution of 140 euros.

Two details make it worth a place on most shortlists. First, the English requirement is B2, met by IELTS Academic 6.5 or TOEFL iBT 80 with at least 20 in each section, which is a full band below what Goethe, Mannheim and WHU ask. Second, if your grades fall short of the entry threshold, an overall average of at least 2.50 on the German scale, you are not simply rejected: you sit an admissions examination covering microeconomics, macroeconomics, empirical economics, mathematics and public economics. That is a genuine second chance, and it rewards preparation. The catch is the window, which is only 1 April to 30 April for winter, the shortest of the four. Compare city budgets in which German cities suit Indian students.

WHU: private, priced like it, and not where you think

WHU is a top-ranked private business school, and its Master in Finance is taught entirely in English at the Duesseldorf campus rather than in Vallendar, over three or four semesters depending on whether you take the 90 or 120 ECTS track. Tuition is 10,100 euros per semester.

Its entry conditions are the most prescriptive of the four and they are worth reading before you invest in a test. You need a bachelor's in business or a quantitative field, at least 12 weeks of internship experience with 20 weeks recommended, and no more than 4 years of postgraduate work experience, which quietly excludes career changers. On the test side it accepts a GMAT of at least 555, or 600 on the tenth edition scale, or a GRE with 158 in both verbal and quantitative reasoning, or GTEBS at 102. English must be C1: TOEFL iBT 100 or above, or IELTS 7.0 or above. Deadlines split by nationality, with April 30 for applicants who need a visa and May 31 for EU and EEA applicants.

What gets you in

• A strong bachelor's in finance, economics, business or another quantitative subject, and enough of it: Mannheim counts 36 ECTS of business administration, Frankfurt School wants 180 ECTS in total.
• A GMAT or GRE. Goethe, Frankfurt School and WHU all require one. Mannheim and LMU do not, which is the single biggest reason to keep them on the list.
• IELTS 6.5 to 7.0 depending on the school. Do not sit the test until you know which bar you are aiming at, because a 6.5 opens LMU and closes the other three.
• APS if you studied in India, China, Vietnam or Mongolia. See the APS process.

Sequence the year properly. The GMAT or GRE has to be sat, scored and reported before Goethe closes on 15 May, which in practice means booking it in the winter. Then April is crowded: Mannheim opens on 1 April, LMU opens and closes inside that month, and WHU's visa deadline falls on 30 April. A single week of drift in April can cost you three of the five options on this page.

What it costs

Compare the extremes over a two-year master's. Goethe costs roughly 340 euros a semester and nothing in tuition. WHU costs 10,100 a semester before you have paid rent. Mannheim sits in between at 1,500 plus 169. Living costs of 900-1,200 euros a month apply everywhere, more in Munich and Frankfurt than in Mannheim, and the 11,904 euros financing proof applies to all of them. Full arithmetic in what a year in Germany actually costs.

Careers, and staying on

Finance graduates go into banking, asset management and consulting, with Frankfurt pulling the most of them. A Werkstudent role or internship is the standard way in, and it matters more here than the name on your degree, which is also why WHU's twelve-week internship minimum is less of an imposition than it reads. Afterwards, the 18-month job-seeker visa leads to a work permit and permanent residence. See the student work rules and the post-study visa.

Sources

• DAAD: Goethe University Frankfurt, Money, Macro and Finance M.Sc.
• DAAD: Frankfurt School Master of Finance
• DAAD: Mannheim Master in Finance, Accounting and Taxation
• DAAD: LMU Munich M.Sc. Economics
• DAAD: WHU Master in Finance
• University of Mannheim: tuition fees for international students

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