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15.30 - 17.00 Kickstart your Studies: Introduction, Study plan & Course Registration

In this online session you will get to know the School of Science, draft your first study plan and register for your first courses. Session will be recorded. We expect you to draft your first study plan before the orientation week, so make sure to attend or watch the recording independently!

Place: Zoom

Registration link will be added here during summer.

15.30 - 16.30 Walk-in online session for questions

Problems with your study plan or signing up for courses? Pop by in our online Q&A session - the student services are available to help you. 

Place: Zoom

Zoom link will be added during summer.

Each new student is placed in a tutor group. The contact information you gave for admission is given to your guild. The guild will contact you in August at the latest.

The tutor acts as a guide to the student life at Aalto University, offers peer support and helps new students find their place in the student community. Tutors are volunteers who are trained to the task by the Aalto University Student Union AYY, student guilds and School of Science. Your tutor helps you in all matters related to studies and student life at the beginning of your studies.

Programme staff support students in study affairs: planning of studies (personal study plan), guidance on practical study affairs and counselling in challenging study situations. You meet your programme’s staff (planning officer or coordinator and study secretary) during the orientation week. You can contact them any time during your studies.

You can reach your programme staff through email. You can find their contact information on the Contact page or on page School of Science Learning Services.

You will receive a newsletter for new students via email about twice a month during the summer. Please read the emails carefully, since they include important information about starting your studies. The email address we use is the one you gave when you applied ɫɫ��.

The events and activities during orientation are planned to ensure a smooth start of studies. You will learn all you need about starting your studies by following the instructions on this page, reading your email, and participating in the orientation.

Here on your programme pages. This is the study guide of the programme, and here you can find the curricula, instructions for planning your studies, available study options and instructions for all study related matters.

Please read the page New Master’s students and this page that you are currently on (Starting your studies). These pages contain information relevant to new students. Complete also the pre-orientation in MyCourses.

You can browse through the Student guide to learn more about practices. The most important information is part of the orientation programme.

The beginning of the academic year is the busiest time for planning officers. Your planning officer will reply as soon as possible.

If you have a study related question, instead of sending an email, please do the following:

• Check if your question is answered on these pages, New Master's students, or in the newsletters you received.
• If the subject of your question is part of the orientation programme, attend the orientation event. Please also attend the available Q&A sessions and/or clinics to ask your questions.

Please be aware that during August and September we cannot prioritise emails with questions that will be answered during the orientation or are answered in the materials sent to new students.

The degree structure of your programme and the courses it includes are listed under Curriculum 2024–2026. You can find instructions for planning your studies under During your studies > Planning your studies.

The study plan is created in . You will receive detailed instructions for creating your study plan before orientation.

All our programmes are full-time programmes that run mainly on campus. We do not recommend working full-time during the studies.

The amount of compulsory attendance depends on the course. You can find the links to the course descriptions under Curriculum 2024–2026. You can find course descriptions in . In your study plan, choose the course and click the course code or search courses by code or name.

Yes, it is possible to transfer credits completed elsewhere ɫɫ�� University. It may be possible to substitute a specific Aalto course, or include them in the degree as is towards e.g. the electives. Please read more about credit transfer. Detailed instructions are part of the orientation programme.

The suitability of these studies is evaluated taking into consideration the learning outcomes of the degree of Aalto University.

You register for courses in the student information system Sisu through your study plan. Please read the instructions.

If the registration period is still ongoing, register for the course even if there appears to be more participants than allowed. Sometimes there might be restrictions, and priority will be given to students in the programme that organizes the course. This information is available on the course brochure in Sisu. In case you have issues with course registrations, you can contact the responsible teacher directly. Please note that there might be some differences in course registrations between different schools.

Personal Study Plan (sometimes referred to with the Finnish abbreviation HOPS) is a plan for the courses you are going to include in your degree. It also includes a schedule for your studies over the planned study time.
HOPS is used for e.g. course registration and graduation, but primarily it is a tool that helps you plan your studies. You create your study plan in the Sisu system.

Yes, you can. We ask you to create your personal study plan first and foremost to help you plan your studies. You create the first version of your study plan before the orientation week, but you are allowed to change your plans. You will receive instructions in August in the newsletter. You can also find general instructions under During your studies > Planning your studies.

The scope of the master's degree is 120 credits or as close to it as possible. The minimum requirement is 120 ECTS. Plan your studies to meet 120 credits.

No. The degree certificate includes only the courses that are part of your degree. You can, however, download a transcript of records from Sisu that will show all the courses you have completed at Aalto University.

This is not possible. You cannot hide or delete courses from the study register. However, if you fail a course, it is not shown on your transcript of records.

We recommend that you start the thesis process in the beginning of the second study year. You can find more information about the thesis process in .

Most programmes require a 30-credit thesis, which equals six months of full-time work. If you cannot work on the thesis full-time because of studying other courses or employment, or you have another reason for the thesis process taking longer than six months (like gathering your own data), start your thesis process earlier. Please note that exceeding the target time of six months may affect the grade.

• You have to be registered as an attending student when you submit your thesis, request for graduation, and on the official graduation date. You do not have to be registered as an attending student when participating in the graduation ceremony or Aalto graduation party.
• You have to complete all studies included in your degree before applying for graduation. The only exception to this is master's thesis. To avoid any delays in graduation, ensure that all required study modules have been approved at least three (3) weeks before the graduation request deadline.
• Your degree is based on the studies that you have on your primary study plan (HOPS) in Sisu. Sisu generates the degree certificate based on both your study plan and the graduation request, so please check that your study plan is approved and up-to-date. Do not hesitate to ask for advice from Learning Services.

 After you've made sure your HOPS is in order, you can request for graduation. 

Step by step instructions for making a graduation request in SisuThe degree certificate is issued in English (the language of the degree) and either in Finnish or Swedish according to your choice. If you want the degree certificate in Swedish, please provide the information as Additional information on the graduation request form. Otherwise, the certificate will be in Finnish by default.

If you have agreed with your supervisor on submitting your master's thesis at the same time as you wish to graduate, see dates and more information on submitting your master’s thesis at  

Students who in their master’s degree studies have shown excellent knowledge in the field as well as exceptional maturity and sense of judgment in their thesis, may have this recognised in their degree certificate with the phrase "The degree was completed with honours".

A degree may be awarded with honours when both conditions below are fulfilled:

• The weighted average grade of the courses (including the thesis) included in the degree is at least 4.00. Courses graded with pass-fail are not considered when the average grade is calculated.
• The grade for the master’s thesis is at least 4.

Respond to Graduate Survey – Your answer is highly appreciated! 

Please fill in (surveypal.com).

The Graduate Survey provides current information about studies and working life that can be utilized in developing teaching and research. Additionally, students who are still deciding on their studies and job opportunities value the information gained from the career paths of graduates. The information received is also used to follow the employment and salaries of recently graduated technology professionals in Finland.

The survey is conducted by Aalto University together with other technical universities and the Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland (TEK). All responses are confidential, and it is not possible to connect any response with an individual respondent. 

• The monthly deadline date for making a graduation request will also be your official graduation date.
• Degree programme committee approves the final master's theses in their meetings.
• Your thesis topic must be approved before you submit your final thesis for evaluation. Thesis topic approval is the starting point for working on your thesis. Send the thesis topic approval application through as soon as you have agreed with your supervisor on your thesis topic.
• It is possible to submit the final thesis for evaluation and apply for graduation at the same time. Please remember to inform your supervisor in advance and to leave enough time (4 weeks) for the supervisor to read the final thesis and write a statement.  

*possible graduation date, if your master's thesis has already been approved and registered in Sisu.

You can collect your certificate from Learning Services of School of Science when the certificate is available for pick-up. 

You'll find the date for when your certificate is ready in the graduation schedule above.

See SCI LES contact information, opening hours, and power of attorney.

• Please have your ID with you. You must prove your identity when collecting your certificate.
• If you are unable to collect your degree certificate, you can either: 1) authorize another person to collect it for you, or 2) ask Learning Services to mail it to you as a registered letter. Certificates are mailed only outside the capital region (Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo, Kauniainen). In both cases, fill in the Power of attorney form and submit it to Learning Services (studentservices@aalto.fi.s).
• In some situations, you can get a copy of your degree certificate. Read more about ordering a copy and arranging the translation of the degree certificate.

School of Science arranges three graduation ceremonies every year. The ceremony includes speeches and music, and it lasts for about two hours. Refreshments are available after the ceremony. You can invite up to three guests. 

The invitation will be sent to graduates by email about one month before the ceremony. The invitation will be sent to your personal email, so please check that your email is up to date in Sisu.

Email any questions to scigraduationparty@aalto.fi. 

Aalto University organizes Graduation Party outdoor event after the school's ceremony in June. Invitations to the outdoor event with registration link will be sent in April and May. 

If you wish to take part in the event, update your personal email address you’ll be using after the graduation in Sisu. 

Read more about the Graduation Party. 

If you graduate in the beginning of a term (autumn or spring), and you can change your enrolment status from attendance to non-attendance in OILI before the enrolment period ends, you can apply for a membership fee refund from Student Union AYY.

If you graduate later during the autumn term and have paid for the entire academic year, you can apply for a refund of the spring term’s membership fee. Read more on AYY website: .

Your study right at Aalto University ends on your graduation date. Because the digital student cards deploy a real-time system in verifying your student status, you cannot use your digital student card after you have graduated.

If you have a plastic student card, it is valid until the end of your AYY membership period. However, if you have a plastic student card and you apply for reimbursement of the membership fee, you must visit Starting Point with your student card. Starting Point will record the change of your status and remove the academic year tag on your student card.

Further information:

• When your right to study ends, remove all the software that the university has provided for home use, unless otherwise stated in the license agreement of the software.
• Return all borrowed study material and equipment.
• Return all keys and access badges.
• The right to access Aalto University IT services remain valid for two months after your graduation. The validity of the access rights may be extended beyond two months only for exceptional reasons.
• Remember to make a copy of the files in your university-provided home directory (network drive) and cloud services (e.g., Google Drive) for yourself. The files in your home directory will be removed once your access rights expire.
• Any messages sent to a closed Aalto email account will not be delivered. If you have used your Aalto University email address to create user accounts for other services (for example Apple ID or Dropbox), please remember to replace the Aalto address with your personal email address in those services.

Please note that you may be bound by a confidentiality obligation even after you graduate, if you have, for instance, gained access to secret information while in a position of trust at the university.

National career monitoring survey is conducted by Career Services of Finnish Universities. The target group in the master's survey is alumni who graduated five years ago. In the doctoral survey, alumni who graduated three years ago.

Please take the time to respond when you receive the survey after graduation. Your response is highly appreciated! It will provide current information from working life that can be utilized in developing teaching and research. Additionally, students who are still deciding on their studies and job opportunities value the information gained from the career paths of graduates.

For more information: /en/collaboration/aalto-university-graduates-in-working-life

Aalto University graduates' degree information is saved automatically in Aalto's alumni and partner system (CRM) after graduation.

By joining , the digital network, you can update your contact details, stay connected with fellow graduates and current students, and you can obtain an @alumni.aalto.fi mailbox.

Further information: /en/for-alumni or alumni@aalto.fi.

Fill in an application for extension in Sisu.

1. Update your primary study plan in Sisu. Request approval for any parts of the study plan that need it.
2. Make a timetable for completing the missing courses in the Timeline sheet in Sisu. The study plan must be goal-oriented and feasible.
3. As soon as the status of your study plan is Selections done, navigate back to the notification box on the Sisu front page to apply for the extension.

Send the required attachments mentioned below to extensions-sci@aalto.fi. Use the following email subject line “SCI, your name, attachment to application for extension”.

• Documentation of the reasons for the delay in your studies. NB! Working will not be taken into account.
• If you have previously been granted an extension of your right to study, please provide an account on how you used the granted extension.
• If you have statutory absences (military service, maternity or paternity leave, parental leave), please provide certificates for these absences.
• If you are studying in a master's programme and are currently working on your master's thesis, send a thesis plan with a timetable. Ask your thesis supervisor for a statement evaluating the progress and timetable for completing your thesis.
• If the reason for delayed studies is illness, submit a medical certificate. Such documents should be fairly recent. Documents which are several years old are usually not taken into account. Send all confidential material to confidential-sci@aalto.fi.s.

Secure email

• If you are using an email address other than your aalto.fi address, do this: first, sign in to the portal at https://securemail.aalto.fi. Then follow the instructions in the portal to send your attachments to this address: confidential-sci@aalto.fi.s.
• Use the following email subject line: ‘[Your school: ARTS, BIZ, CHEM, ELEC, ENG, SCI], [your name], attachment to application for extension’.
• Please find the instructions for encrypted email at /en/cyber-security/deltagon-for-aalto-community.

You may be granted an extension if you can be expected to complete your studies within a reasonable time. The number of courses not completed is considered in relation to the planned time of graduation. Circumstances that may be considered as grounds for an extension include illness, difficult personal circumstances, extracurricular societal activities, student exchange or internship abroad and systematic sports training. If you have been granted an extension before, your progress during that time plays an important part in the decision.

The extension is granted by the dean.

The extension remains the same even if you enrol as absent during the extension. The absences not counted towards the overall duration of study mentioned above do not automatically mean a longer extension. They are, however, taken into account if you apply for another extension.

The dean awards the incentive scholarship to those students who have completed at least 60 credits during the academic year (1 August – 31 July) and have applied for the scholarship. The required 60 credits need to be mainly included in the bachelor’s or master’s degree.

In addition, getting the scholarship requires completing the degree within the normative duration of studies according to the following criteria.

Students completing both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees

• A student needs to graduate with a Bachelor's degree on their third year of attending. If the student completes 60 credits during their third year of study, but they do not graduate with a Bachelor’s degree, they are not entitled to the incentive scholarship.
• A student is entitled to the scholarship, if they graduate within the timeframe (three years) with a Bachelor’s degree, even if they completed less than 60 credits during their third year of attending.
• A student needs to complete 60 credits during their fourth year of attending. However, they cannot be awarded the incentive scholarship on their fourth year, if the Bachelor’s degree is still incomplete.
• A student needs to graduate with a Master’s degree on their fifth year of study. A student is entitled to the scholarship, if they graduate with a Master’s degree, even if they completed less than 60 credits during the academic year.
• The credits being earned need to be mainly included in the degree which is being completed first.

Students completing only a Master’s degree

• A student needs to graduate with a Master’s degree on their second year of study.
• A student is entitled to the scholarship, if they graduate within the timeframe (two years) with a Master’s degree, even if they completed less than 60 credits during their second year of attending.

Further information

For the purposes of the incentive scholarship, studies completed in one academic year means studies that have been completed and marked into the Aalto University student register for the period from 1 August to 31 July. This includes credits earned during that academic year in some other Finnish or foreign higher education institution, provided they have been transferred into the Aalto University student register. Any raised grades must also be entered into the student register by the end of the academic year in order to be counted towards the total credits earned.

A study year is defined by adding up all terms the student has enrolled as attending in the programme. Being absent for half a year cannot be taken into account when awarding the scholarship.

Example. Right to study for both BSc and MSc degrees, started on 1.8.2020:

Further conditions

• The student must have a primary right to study in the School of Science on 31 July of the academic year in question (excluding students who have graduated with a BSc or MSc degree from the School of Science during the academic year). Students with a right to study entering into force the next day, 1 August, are not eligible for the scholarship.
• If the student has another valid right to study for another degree at Aalto University, the student must have completed at least 45 credits in accordance with the study plan of the School of Science.
• Students pursuing double degrees are eligible to apply for the scholarship, if during the academic year they have earned 60 credits for studies included in the programme curriculum (either at the partner university or at Aalto) and these credits have been recorded in Aalto University student register.
• The dean’s incentive scholarship can be obtained from only one Aalto school at a time. Tuition-fee-paying students who have been granted the EUR 1500 incentive scholarship are not eligible for the dean’s incentive scholarship.
• The dean has decided to lower the minimum number of credits required of students who have informed the university of having a learning difficulty or dyslexia, which has slowed the progress of their studies. In such cases, the student is required to earn at least 55 credits during the academic year.

The total number of credits earned is checked on 31 August; any changes made to the register after that date will not be considered. An exception are students who are completing a double degree or who have completed exchange studies abroad, but who have not received the documents from the partner university in time. Their credits must be marked into the student register by 30 September. However, graduation must occur within the target time according to the above conditions.

The application period for the dean’s incentive scholarship is in October. Application instructions are sent by Aalto email to students who are eligible for the scholarship, based on the credits in their Aalto student register. The application period is also published on university communication channels.

The application period for autumn 2024 is from 2 October 2024 to 31 October 2024. If you meet the criteria for the scholarship but have not received the application instructions to your email, please contact studentservices@aalto.fi during the application period.

The scholarship is only awarded upon application, and applications submitted after the application period will not be considered. The decision on granting the scholarships is made by the dean.

Further information: studentservices(a)aalto.fi.

The Dean of the School of Science has made a new decision regarding the conditions and payments of the incentive scholarship. With the decision dated 9 May 2025, the criteria and amounts of the dean's incentive scholarship are revised as follows:

• If a student completes 60 credits in the bachelor's programme during the first year of study, the scholarship amount will be 250 euros.
• If a student completes 60 credits in the bachelor's programme during the second year of study, the scholarship amount will be 250 euros.
• For the master's programme, no incentive scholarships will be paid for fourth-year studies (when both bachelor's and master's degrees are pursued) or for first-year studies (when only the master's degree is pursued) in the future.
• A scholarship of 500 euros will continue to be paid for completing the degree within the target time. Practically, this means completing the bachelor's degree in three years and the master's degree in either five years (when both bachelor's and master's degrees are pursued) or two years (when only the master's degree is pursued).

This decision applies to the criteria concerning studies for the academic year 2025–2026 and onwards, until the dean decides to discontinue or change the incentive scholarship criteria.
 

(26.5.2025)

(7.4.2025)

(17.2.2025)

(5.12.2024)

(14.10.2024)

(26.8.2024)

(27.5.2024)

(15.4.2024)

(19.2.2024)

(11.12.2023)

(16.10.2023)

(28.8.2023)