Bachelor Thesis Summary in a Motivation Letter

Bachelor Thesis Summary in a Motivation Letter

Write it as a short report, not a story: the question, the method, the result and your workload. At TU Delft the summary has a cap of 250 words inside a 1,000 to 1,500-word letter. Twente wants a separate English summary, and some Uppsala programmes ask for the whole thesis.

European master's programmes call the main document a motivation letter (Uppsala uses "statement of purpose" for the same thing). Several of them ask for your bachelor's thesis as evidence alongside the letter. That changes what the thesis paragraph is for. It is not a place to say research made you passionate. It is the one place in the file where a reader learns what you actually did, how long it took and how much of it was yours. If your draft is ready, you can test it against the master's motivation letter rubric.

Every university page quoted below was checked on 31 October 2026. Where a page states an intake or a date, the table gives it. Recheck your own programme page before you upload, because document lists change between intakes.

Who asks about your thesis, and in what form

Seven programmes or offices, seven different requests. The column that matters most is the last one: some want a paragraph, some a separate file, some the whole thesis.

Two findings come out of the table.

1. 250 words is TU Delft's number, not a European norm. Of the seven pages we checked, TU Delft is the only one that caps a thesis summary inside the letter. Twente and the UvA ask for a summary as its own document and give no word limit on the pages we checked.
2. Backward and forward are different documents. TU Delft, Twente, Uppsala and the UvA want a report on work you did. Chalmers and the ETH scholarship want a plan for work you have not done. TU Delft asks for both, in separate parts of the same letter: the summary and up to three "possible topics" for your MSc thesis.

Which thesis text are you writing?

Run this before you draft. Each branch has a different job and a different length.

1. A summary inside the letter (TU Delft). Report the four facts below in 250 words or fewer. Count them in the letter's total.
2. A separate summary file (Twente, and Uppsala programmes that ask for a summary). Write a standalone English summary. In the letter, refer to it in one sentence and use the space for what the thesis led you to want next.
3. The full thesis (Uppsala Peace and Conflict Studies, the UvA research master's). The reader has the work itself. Do not retell it in the letter. Name the question, your method and what it left you unable to answer, in two or three sentences.
4. A proposal for a future thesis (Chalmers, optional; the ETH scholarship pre-proposal; TU Delft's thesis topics). This is a plan. Do not reuse your summary here.
5. Nothing about the thesis is requested. Give the thesis one or two sentences in your preparation paragraph: question, method, your role. Do not add a summary file. Uppsala tells applicants to "Submit only the documents requested."

If your bachelor's programme had no thesis, the guide to writing with no research experience covers which project to use instead.

The four facts a thesis summary must give

1. The question. One sentence, in words a reader outside your sub-field understands.
2. The method. What you built, measured, read or modelled, and with what.
3. The result. What you found, including what did not work. A result you did not expect is still a result.
4. Your share and the workload. Credits as your university states them, the months it ran, roughly how many hours a week, and which parts were yours.

Our view: put the workload and your share in the first sentence. The basis is in TU Delft's own wording: it asks for "information about the workload", a request it makes nowhere else in its letter items. A reader in Delft or Uppsala cannot tell from a thesis title whether it was a two-week report or a six-month project, or whether you did it alone. Uppsala's Peace and Conflict Studies programme even requires an independent work "of which you are the only author of" [sic]. For a group thesis, name your part plainly. The co-authored work guide shows how to separate your contribution from the team's.

The countercase: where the full thesis is uploaded, as at Uppsala Peace and Conflict Studies or the UvA research master's, the reader can see the work and its length. There, a summary in the letter repeats what is already in the file. Spend those words on what the thesis made you want to study next. The Uppsala summary sheet guide and the Dutch research master's letter guide cover those two cases.

What is unknown: none of the pages we checked says how a thesis summary is weighed against the rest of the letter. Uppsala Peace and Conflict Studies is the only one that names the thesis as a selection emphasis.

If your thesis is not finished, or never existed

The rules are specific, so follow the one for your target.

• TU Delft, not started: "If you have not yet started your BSc thesis or final assignment, please state this clearly in your essay. Describe the topic you intend to research, how you plan to conduct your research, why you have chosen this topic, and what you expect to find."
• Twente, not finished: "If you have not finished your thesis yet, please describe your plans regarding the thesis".
• UvA research master's, no thesis or not finished: "please upload a substantial piece of academic writing in English (more or less 5 A4 pages)."
• Uppsala, no thesis: "alternative essays or dissertations may be accepted. Contact the programme (details on the programme page) to confirm."

TU Delft's rule covers a thesis you have not started. It does not say what to do with one that is half done. Our recommendation: report what is finished in the past tense, label the rest as planned, and give the month you expect to submit. Never write a result you do not have yet. "what you expect to find" is TU Delft's own wording, and "I expect" is the honest form for a pending result.

If the thesis is written in another language, the UvA asks for "the introduction of your thesis and a summary of your thesis translated to English". Twente and Uppsala ask for the summary in English.

Constructed 250-word summary, annotated

Constructed example: a mechanical engineering thesis summary for TU Delft

Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant statement. Context (invented): Ravi Menon finished a BSc in mechanical engineering in June 2026 and is applying to a TU Delft MSc. Square brackets mark details he must take from the programme page.

The weak version (58 words):

My bachelor thesis was about 3D printing, which is a very important technology for the future of manufacturing. I studied fatigue in printed parts and did many experiments in the lab. The results were very interesting and showed that print direction matters. This experience made me passionate about research and confirmed my wish to do a master's degree.

It gives no question, no method a reader can check, no number, no share and no workload, which is the one thing TU Delft asks for by name.

The revised version (176 words):

My BSc thesis was a 12-credit project that ran from February to June 2026, at about 20 hours a week, and I was its only author. It asked whether print direction changes how many load cycles a 3D-printed plastic bracket survives before it cracks. I printed 24 brackets in three directions, eight per direction, and tested them on my department's fatigue rig at three load levels. I designed the test plan, ran every test and wrote the analysis scripts; my supervisor set the load range and a technician trained me on the rig. At the middle load, brackets printed with their layers along the load lasted about three times longer than brackets printed across it. At the highest load, the difference disappeared, which I had not expected. Eight samples per direction is too few to explain why, and the thesis says so. What I could not do was read the fracture surfaces, because I have not studied fracture mechanics. That gap is why [course named on the programme page] is part of my reason for applying.

What changed, against the four facts:

• Workload and share come first. Credits, months, hours a week and sole authorship sit in sentence one, where TU Delft's request is answered before anything else.
• The question is one sentence that a reader outside additive manufacturing can follow.
• The method has numbers a reader can check: 24 samples, three directions, three load levels.
• The result includes the surprise and the limit. "Too few to explain why" is a stronger signal than "very interesting".
• The last sentence links the old work to the new programme, so the summary feeds the part of the letter on why you chose the programme, instead of standing apart.

At 176 words it leaves 74 words of TU Delft's 250 unused. That is fine. The cap is a maximum, not a target. A similar summary for TU Delft in a civil engineering setting appears in the TU Delft motivation letter guide, which also covers the thesis-topics section.

Checklist before you upload

1. You know which of the five branches above your target uses.
2. The summary names the question, method, result, your share and the workload.
3. A TU Delft summary is 250 words or fewer, and the letter is still 1,000 to 1,500 words in total.
4. A pending result is written as "I expect", with the month you will submit.
5. A summary in another language has an English version where Twente, Uppsala or the UvA asks for one.
6. The summary does not repeat a thesis you are uploading in full.
7. The thesis facts match your CV and transcript: same title, same dates, same credits.

Questions about thesis summaries

Can I paste my thesis abstract?

Not unchanged. An abstract reports the study, but it usually leaves out the workload and your share, which TU Delft asks for. Start from the abstract and add those. The PhD guide to turning a thesis abstract into evidence covers the same rewrite for doctoral statements.

Does the 250-word summary count toward TU Delft's 1,500 words?

TU Delft's page does not say. It lists the summary as one of the items the 1,000–1,500-word essay addresses, so our recommendation is to count it inside the total.

Do other universities also want 250 words?

Not on the pages we checked. Twente and the UvA ask for a separate English summary without a word limit on those pages. The ETH scholarship pre-proposal is 500 words, but it describes your future master's thesis, not your bachelor's thesis.

My bachelor's degree had a final project, not a thesis. Does that count?

At TU Delft, yes: it asks about "your BSc thesis work or final assignment/project". Uppsala says "alternative essays or dissertations may be accepted" and tells you to contact the programme. Check your target's own wording. For how the thesis sits beside coursework in a CS application, see the computer science motivation letter in Europe.

Applying for TU Delft's van Effen scholarship as well? Its five-question scholarship form is due 1 December 2026, earlier than the admission deadline.

Get a free review of your motivation letter

Get a free Quick Review of your motivation letter against GradPilot's master's motivation letter and personal statement rubric for UK and European programmes. It reads whether your preparation shows you can complete the programme, whether claims carry concrete evidence, and whether the letter is concise and easy to evaluate. For TU Delft, the TU Delft research motivation letter rubric reads the BSc thesis summary and the thesis-topic proposals directly; for a one-page letter such as Chalmers or Uppsala, use the one-page European motivation letter rubric.

Applying to several of these programmes at once? Using the same motivation letter for several universities covers what to keep and what to rewrite. More master's and PhD guides are in the graduate school essay hub.

Sources

Retrieved 31 October 2026, except where noted.

• TU Delft, Required documents, MSc international diploma (no intake year stated on the letter item): 1,000–1,500-word letter; 250-word thesis summary with workload; wording for a thesis not yet started; thesis topics.
• University of Twente, MSc Computer Science, admission for international students: English thesis summary or thesis plans; 1,000-word letter.
• Uppsala University, Supporting documents for master's applications: full thesis or summary in English; summary-sheet fields; alternative essays; only requested documents.
• Uppsala University, Master's Programme in Peace and Conflict Studies (autumn 2027): full thesis upload; sole authorship; selection emphasis on the thesis.
• University of Amsterdam, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Documents Explained (last updated 18 September 2026): 750-word statement; complete thesis plus English summary; writing-sample alternative; translated introduction and summary.
• Chalmers, Apply for master's programmes: optional thesis proposal in a one-page letter.
• ETH Zurich, Pre-proposal for master thesis (Excellence Scholarship; no year stated): 500-word plan for a future master's thesis.