1. The departments assign theses independently. You will not be assigned a thesis by the university!
2. The departments usually advertise open theses on their website or physically on the department's notice board. Here you can find a overview of all departments.
3. On the websites you will also find instructions on how to apply for a thesis. Chairs often want specific application documents and you will be asked to send applications to the secretary's office, for example, and not to the professor.
4. When choosing the subject area: Think about which professors you liked in courses? Which topics did you find exciting? Have you perhaps already done a project or research project somewhere?
5. You can apply to several departments at the same time, but be fair and state that you have also applied to other chairs.

1. Some departments always accept applications, but some have a fixed application period. Be sure to check the website of your chosen department early to see if there is an application deadline.
2. You will usually find information on how to apply and with which documents on the departmental websites. Otherwise, write to the secretary's office and ask politely.
3. You usually apply with a letter of motivation in which you also propose your own initial ideas. Have a look at the department's website. In which subject area does the department conduct research? What projects are currently running? What particularly interested you at the time in the relevant course? Write why you are interested in the subject area. Do you have any private projects or involvements that would fit in with this, for example if you are learning another programming language out of interest that could be useful.

• You should get the impression that your caretaker is taking time for you and your questions.
• Ask how often you can get feedback. Is there a fixed number of appointments or can you contact us at any time with questions?
• Do you get feedback from your supervisor? Can you have your texts proofread?
• What steps do you need to take before you can register your work? Do you have to write a synopsis? If so, use the synopsis to familiarise yourself with the topic. Should you draw up a timetable? If this is not a requirement, you should still do this to see how much time you have for the individual sections.
• What are important points that are included in the evaluation of your work?
• Is there a template for the work itself or a style sheet? Do you write in German or English?

• For the departments, supervising a thesis means that the supervisors invest time and resources in you. If you do a good job and deal with an interesting question in an academically successful way, everyone benefits. However, if you do not work properly or independently and your results cannot be used afterwards or the supervision is time-consuming, it is not worth the effort for your supervisor. Therefore, try to show your supervisor that it is worthwhile for everyone involved if you write to him or her.
• Supervision will be better from a technical point of view and more rewarding for the supervisor if your topic is based on a research report in the subject area. Therefore, try to suggest suitable topics. You can also take a look at the publications in the subject area, for example. This will usually give you a good impression of what is currently being researched.

The structure may vary depending on the subject area and topic, so always ask your supervisor. In general, however, a rough outline looks like this:

Introduction

In the introduction, explain why your work is relevant. What is the underlying problem? What research question do you want to answer? Is there a research gap? Has the question you are addressing already been raised somewhere?

Theoretical Background

Here you present what has already been researched on this topic and what the reader of your work needs to know in order to understand the work. What are the basic assumptions and hypotheses? Which papers have already dealt with this area? Which derivations are relevant?

Methodology

This is where you describe what you are doing. If you are writing a literature-based paper, this section can be much shorter. If you are conducting your own experiments or studies, this section will be longer. If necessary, use illustrations or diagrams to make it clear what you are doing.

Result

Here you only present the results, but do not yet interpret them. Accordingly, you only describe your analysis and state figures and data. If necessary, use tables or diagrams to quickly visualise what you have calculated.

Discussion

Here you follow on from the theoretical derivation. In this section, you interpret and explain the results that you have described in the methodology. The discussion is often the centrepiece of the paper, so put a lot of effort into it to show how your work has advanced the research.

Conclusion: Limitations, outlook, further research

In this last chapter, you summarise your most important results very briefly and also mention limitations. These are often time limitations, but a study may not have enough test subjects or your data may not make sense. Be honest and critical here, but don't overdo it. Then give an outlook on where there are still open questions and where there are further points of contact with your work.

Bibliography

Here you name all the sources you have used. Be sure to ask in advance which citation style you should use (e.g. APA, MLA, ...).

Some chairs require a timetable before you are allowed to start. Even if no timetable is required, we strongly encourage you to draw up your own timetable, as time flies by faster than you think, especially for Bachelor theses.

Be sure to build in buffer times of 1-2 weeks in total. One week should be before submission and one week after a particularly critical phase that may take you longer than expected.