collageAre you interested in studying Architecture at TU Delft? With its prestigious reputation and cutting-edge research facilities, Delft University of Technology is a top choice for those pursuing a career in architecture. However, gaining admission into the program is competitive and requires meeting specific academic requirements.
To be eligible for the Architecture program at TU Delft, you will need to have a bachelor’s degree with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of at least 75% of the scale maximum. Your degree must be comparable to a bachelor’s degree from a research university in the Netherlands and closely related to the MSc program you are applying for. Additionally, a minimum cumulative GPA of 4.5 is required to study at Delft University of Technology.
As a prominent research university, Delft is quite selective in its admissions process. The university has an acceptance rate of 82%, which means that competition for admission can be fierce. It is important to ensure that you meet all the academic requirements and submit a well-rounded application to increase your chances of being accepted into the Architecture program at TU Delft.
delft university of technology architecture master requirements
Admission requirements for the post-master degree, the Berlage Post-Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design.
General admission requirements
To be considered for The Berlage program, you must meet the following requirements.
1. You have distinguished yourself in your professional degree in the following disciplines: Architecture, Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, Spatial Planning, Town or Urban Planning or an allied discipline.
2a. You have a master’s degree equivalent to a Dutch MSc degree in a main subject closely related to the post-master’s program or,
2b. a 5 year professional bachelor’s degree that is equivalent to a Dutch MSc degree in a main subject closely related to the postmaster’s program or,
2c. you have a four-year, or longer, university bachelor’s degree with proof of qualification/registration entitling the applicant to practice architecture in home country plus a minimum of two years of work experience.
The TU Delft requires all applicants to its post-master’s programmes to meet specific entry degree requirements. Eligibility for recognition and comparison of qualifications is determined via a series of international databases.
3. Applicants must demonstrate proficiency in written and spoken English (see this site for exact requirements).
4. Personal Position Statement (see requirements below).
5. Two letters of reference in English.
6. Extensive Curriculum Vitae.
7. Self-introduction Video.
Each applicant is asked to submit a three- to four-minute video that introduces you to the admissions committee, sharing your background and experiences and telling about your traits and motivations. Please provide a video link (URL) to your self-introduction video in a separate PDF page as part of your CV, and not embed the video file itself. Please upload the video to either YouTube or Vimeo, making the video public and unlisted. Unlisted means that anybody who has the link can view the video, but it doesn’t appear in your channel or in search results. Note that the size of your application documents should not exceed 20 MB.
8. Proof of identity.
9. A portfolio (see portfolio requirements below).
10. Payment of the application fee.
delft university of technology architecture master fees
The Dutch government has decided to lower the tuition fee rate for academic year 2021/2022 in regards to Covid-19. Included in the overviews below are the fees that were actually payable.
Dutch + EU/EFTA + Surinamese
| Students withDutch nationalityEU/EFTA country nationalitySurinamese nationality* | Adjusted fees 2021/2022*** | 2022/2023 |
| Statutory fee | € 1.084 | € 2.209 |
| Statutory fee first year students in higher education (bachelor) ** | € 542 | € 1.105 |
| Exchange students | Tuition fee is paid at home institution. | Tuition fee is paid at home institution. |
| Students in a degree programme similar in level to the degree already obtained | € 1.084 | € 2.209 |
| Bridging programme | € 18.06 per EC | € 36,81 per EC |
| External students | from €6.000 | from €6.300 |
Non-EU/EFTA
| Students with:Non-EU/EFTA nationality (incl UK nationality arriving after 1 January 2021) | Adjusted fees 2021/2022 | 2022/2023 |
| Institutional fee Non-EU/EFTA students (incl UK) | BSc € 13.416 MSc € 17.666 | BSc € 15.200 MSc € 19.600 |
| Transitional fee For non-EU/EFTA students who enrolled in or between the academic years 2016-2017 and 2018-2019 for the first time and have been continuously enrolled. The transitional rate will cease to apply if the student switches to a different degree programme. | BSc € 9.842 MSc N.A. End date is 31/8/2021 | BSc: N.A end date is 31/8/2022 |
| Statutory fee Non-Eu/EFTA students who have been granted Dutch “Studiefinanciering” and refugees who have been granted a UAF grant. | € 1.084 | € 2.209 |
| Exchange students | Tuition fee is paid at home institution. | Tuition fee is paid at home institution. |
| Bridging programmes | € 18.06 per EC | € 36,81 per EC |
| External students | from €6.000 | from €6.300 |
If you’ve already paid the tuition fee: Tuition fee is adjusted according to the new regulation on May 1, 2020. After the start of the academic year, you will be reimbursed for any overpaid fees. Once your reimbursement is processed, you will receive confirmation. We will then ask you to send the IBAN account for receiving the reimbursement.
Specifications personal position statement and portfolio
Personal position statement
A personal position statement is integral to your application. This statement should position yourself within contemporary architecture practice and clearly express your future career goals, the skills you want to develop by studying at the Berlage, and how will the Berlage help you prepare you for the future you envision for yourself in architectural design practice and/or research. We use the personal position statement to evaluate your position, writing skills, and ability for critical thinking. The personal position statement should therefore be in English and between 2000 and 3000 words in length.
We are looking for:
- evidence of a clear position about how you related to contemporary architectural and urban design practice.
- evidence of intellectual maturity and desire to pursue advanced design and research studies.
- definition of the key questions that might be answered during study; or the important issues that would be addressed by the study at The Berlage.
- willingness to develop cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary design and research skills.
- willingness to learn in a collaborative and experimental setting.
- evidence of ability to establish a logical and well-reasoned English-language discussion.
Portfolio
The digital portfolio should include samples of work from your educational and/or work experience. A portfolio should reflect the scope and variety of your previous training and experience with specific emphasis on your personal interests as well as your academic and practical skills particularly in drawing, writing and analysis. Neatness and clarity of presentation are extremely important as they reflect both your attitude towards your work as well as your ability to communicate your work in a comprehensive and deliberate manner.
What to include in your post-master level portfolio:
The portfolio cover should include your full name and contact information.
Number and nature of projects:
- Include a maximum of five projects, either from your previous education or practice. “Projects”: demonstrate your experience and capabilities, and might comprise examples of design or planning projects, extracts of written reports, publications, or research and analytical work such as spatial analysis or mapping.
- Include at least one single authored project.
- Include your final project (or include your most recent project).
- At least one of the projects included should clearly demonstrate your capabilities with respects to analytical and reasoning skills.
Please keep in mind that the admissions committee judges your individual skills. In general individual projects show your capacities better than group work. If you decide to add group projects, please indicate carefully what your contribution is. If this is not clear to the committee they can’t judge your personal skills and this might decrease your chances of being admitted to the post master programme.
Project Documentation:
The five projects can include (either A or B):
A. Design or planning projects:
- Concept sketches and/or diagrams, showing preliminary visual development of ideas, approaches and methods and showing how you organise your ideas;
- Finished drawings of original design or planning work;
- A written explanation (in English) of the problem, the goals and objectives of the project, overall concept, how the solution was reached and your contribution to team work;
B. Research projects, publications, or research and analytical work:
- Extracts of the material which give a good impression of the overall project including the problem, questions, the method of analysis and findings; which may include drawings, text, maps or other examples.
- A summary explanation (in English) of the objectives, findings and conclusions of the work and an explanation of your contribution.
Please note that for all projects shown we require you to include the name(s) of the author(s).
Per project define:
- name and location of the project
- if it is academic or professional
- if it is individual or group work
- your role in the process
- your exact contribution to the project
- the level of the project, if academic (year/semester of your study in which the project was carried out)
- date when the project was carried out
- name and email address of the supervisor of the project
The size of your portfolio
Please be aware that quality is more important than quantity.
Note that portfolios are evaluated digitally and should be easily readable without zooming or scrolling. Therefore:
- The size of your portfolio should not exceed 20 MB.
- The size of the pages should not exceed A4.
- The number of pages should not exceed 30 A4 size pages.
- It is not allowed to show more than one A4 size page per screen
- It is not allowed to use the booklet format because that is two pages per screen
- The document format should be pdf.
- Be aware that a landscape layout suits our requirements best.
We will work strictly to these requirements. If you do not meet them, your portfolio will not be evaluated and you will not be given another chance to apply this academic year.
Please note: Though we take the utmost care with all submitted documentation, we cannot be responsible for files that have been sent either corrupted, incomplete, or beyond the maximum size accepted by our system. Therefore, we highly advise you to check and double check your PDF documents before uploading.
Evaluation criteria for the portfolio and the personal position statement:
Please note that you are not assured of admission simply by meeting our requirements and sending us all the required documents. Your application will be evaluated by at least two expert members of the admissions committee. They will then decide if you qualify for admission based on the information and materials provided in your application.
Applications will only be evaluated once during an academic year; it is not possible to send new documents for re-evaluation in the same academic year.
- The Berlage Post-Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design (pdf)
Outline of the procedure
Step 1: Submission
Apply and upload all required documents
Step 2: Interview
Selected applicants will receive an interview invitation by email.
Step 3: Post-interview decision
Interviewed applicants will receive a final decision.
Step 4: Acceptance
Berlage students: If successful you will be asked to submit non-refundable deposit fee.
Step 5: Payment
Payment of the tuition fee, and if applicable the living expenses, is part of the admissions proces. The deadline for payment is 1 July (23:59 CEST) in order to be enrolled in the program. Information on tuition fee and finances can be found here. For the payment procedure of The Berlage, please contact: info@theberlage.nl.
Interviews
After reviewing your application, the admissions committee may invite you to an interview. Interviews are by invitation only and conducted by a member of the admissions committee, who will have thoroughly read your entire application package. The invitation will be sent by email. Interviews are conducted via Zoom or, when logistically possible, held in person in Delft. Following the interview, students will either be accepted or rejected to the program.
The application process is based on rolling admissions so that applications are reviewed as soon as possible after submission.
Application deadlines
Application deadline to start in Fall 2021: June 1st 2021
For Non-EU residents, we recommend applying before March 2021.
Contact
If you have further questions about the admission to the post-master programme, please contact:
The Berlage Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design
E: info@theberlage.nl
International Office – Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment
E: internationaloffice-bk@tudelft.nl
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