Chalmers Motivation Letter: Required or Optional?

Chalmers Motivation Letter: Required or Optional?

Chalmers requires a motivation letter (it also calls it a letter of intent) from three groups only: Chalmers scholarship applicants, applicants to programmes with a portfolio, and applicants to Learning and Leadership. Everyone else may send one. Either way it is one page, in English, uploaded by 1 February 2027.

That makes the letter optional for everyone outside those groups, but not idle. Chalmers lists the letter among the factors its merit rating can consider, and you cannot view or delete what you upload. Our view: if anything in your record needs explaining, send a letter, and treat it as final the moment it goes in. When you have a draft, choose the one-page European motivation letter rubric for a free review.

Every Chalmers and University Admissions page quoted below was checked on 31 October 2026. Chalmers' key-dates page says "the dates below may be subject to change", so recheck before you submit.

Who must send one

Chalmers' Apply for Master's programmes page lists the document as "8. Letter of motivation (Letter of intent)". It then says:

"A letter of motivation is required if you apply for:"

"A scholarship that is administred [sic] by Chalmers. The scholarship assessment team will access the documentation at your account at universityadmissions.se."

"A programme with a portfolio as a specific requirement."

"Learning and Leadership, MSc (language of instruction: Swedish)"

Four programmes have their own letter instructions. Chalmers says "There are no standardised forms or templates, except for the following programmes with instructions on each programme's webpage:" and names Architectural Design, Urban Design, Human-Centred Design and Engineering (Integrated Product Design specialisation), and Learning and Leadership.

The Swedish Institute's scholarships are not in the first row. Chalmers' key dates page says "the Swedish Institute (SI) scholarships for Global Professionals are not administered by Chalmers."

Should you send one anyway?

Chalmers does not use the word "optional" for the letter. It says what is required, then: "You may provide one letter of motivation for each Master's programme that you apply for." On selection, the same page says:

"In the overall assessment and calculation of the merit rating several factors such as a high average grade in courses that are required or recommended, CV, letter of motivation (intent), letters of recommendation, international ranking of the home university, relevant internships or work experience etc. can be considered."

It also says "Chalmers does not apply a minimum CGPA requirement for our programmes". Admission depends on "place availability and the general overall strength of your application".

Our view: send a letter if any part of your record needs a sentence of explanation. Examples: a degree title that does not match the programme name, required courses spread across several course titles, a weak year, or work experience that explains a change of field. Grades and course lists cannot explain themselves. A letter can.

The countercase: if your bachelor's is a close match, your required-course grades are high and you have no gap, a generic letter adds little. A weak one gives the reader a worse page to read. Skip it rather than send filler.

What about the national rule against extra documents? University Admissions says: "If the university hasn't asked for any additional documentation, be sure not to submit anything extra. Documents that haven't been requested won't be considered". Our reading: Chalmers lists the letter and says you "may provide" one, so a letter for a Chalmers programme is not an unrequested document. What nobody publishes is how much an optional letter moves the merit rating.

What Chalmers wants in one page

The general instructions, verbatim:

"The letter of motivation must be in English and must not exceed 1 page."

"The autobiographic section can be fairly brief."

"State the reason why you have chosen a specific Master's programme and Chalmers University of Technology."

"Explain the connection between your current studies and your choice of programme and how your interests and skills can contribute to your success as a Master's student at Chalmers."

"Elaborate on what you hope to gain at Chalmers, what your expectations are for your future career and the impact it may have on the society where you will practice your profession."

"You may also outline a thesis proposal based on your interests and views on the subject field."

Read the list as a paragraph order: a short background, why this programme and Chalmers, the link from your current studies, what you will gain and where it leads, and an optional thesis idea. The society line is unusual. Chalmers asks what your career will change for the people around it, not just what job you want. Answer it with something concrete.

Who else reads your letter

The Chalmers page adds: "Please note, all letters of motivation can be read by the different evaluators at all universities in Sweden." It also says "Documentation submitted in your account at universityadmissions.se is never confidential." If you also apply to KTH or Uppsala in the same round, write each letter for its own programme. Our guide to one motivation letter for several universities covers how to do that.

There is a second trap. University Admissions says: "we do not currently have the capability on Universityadmissions.se to display uploaded documents." You cannot delete a file either. You can upload a corrected one, named as an updated version. Its advice: "The best thing is to be sure the documents you're uploading - especially things like essays and letters of intent - are your final versions."

Constructed one-page letter, annotated

Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant statement.

Context (invented): Tomás Ferreira studied mechanical engineering at an invented university. He is applying to a Chalmers MSc in an energy-related field, without a scholarship. Square brackets mark the items you take from your own programme page.

Letter of motivation: [Programme name], MSc

I am applying to [Programme name] because my bachelor's project showed me where my training stops. For my final project I modelled heat losses in a 40-unit housing block and found that the insulation choices mattered less than how the heating was scheduled. I could measure the problem but not design the control system that would fix it.

My degree is in mechanical engineering, and the programme asks for credits in thermodynamics and mathematics. My transcript shows these under three course titles, Thermal Sciences I and II and Engineering Mathematics III, which together cover the requirement. I list them here so the match is easy to check.

I chose Chalmers for [named course] and [named course], which teach the modelling and control methods my project lacked. I want to spend my second year on [named track or research area], and I would like my thesis to test scheduling rules on real building data.

After the degree I want to work on heating retrofits for municipal housing. Better scheduling lowers energy bills for tenants who cannot choose their own heating, and that is the part of the work I care about most.

I hope to gain the control-systems skills my degree did not give me, and to bring to the programme the experience of a project that went wrong in a useful way.

The letter body is 222 words (our count), which leaves room on one page for your name and application number. Each paragraph answers one Chalmers instruction: the opening is the brief autobiography, the second is "the connection between your current studies and your choice of programme", the third is "why you have chosen a specific Master's programme and Chalmers" plus the optional thesis idea, the fourth is the society line, and the last is "what you hope to gain". The second paragraph does the job grades cannot: it maps oddly named courses to the requirement. All names, courses and projects are invented.

Dates and where to upload

Chalmers uses the national round on universityadmissions.se. Chalmers says "All deadlines are at midnight CET (Central European Time) on the date indicated."

The letter goes into your universityadmissions.se account with your other documents: Chalmers says "Submit required documents to your account, according to the list at this webpage." University Admissions confirms "It's up to each university to decide how they'd like to receive these special letters/documents". The scholarship itself is a separate application, but the assessors read the letter from your account. Rank order is its own decision; see ranking your Swedish choices.

Questions about the Chalmers motivation letter

Is a motivation letter mandatory at Chalmers?

Only for Chalmers-administered scholarships, portfolio programmes and Learning and Leadership. For other programmes the page says "You may provide one letter of motivation for each Master's programme that you apply for."

How long is the Chalmers letter of intent?

It "must not exceed 1 page" and must be in English. Chalmers gives no word count.

Can I send one letter for two Chalmers programmes?

The page allows one letter for each programme you apply for, so write a separate one per programme and name the programme in it.

Do Chalmers scholarships need a different letter?

Chalmers' scholarships page describes "a separate application process" that you can start "only" after submitting your programme application, "as you will need to provide that application number". It describes no second letter. The apply page says the scholarship team "will access the documentation at your account at universityadmissions.se", so the letter you upload there is the one they read. See the Nordic master's motivation letter guide for how KTH, Lund, Aalto and DTU differ. Chalmers closes with the Swedish round on 15 January; the European master's deadlines for 2027 put it beside ETH, TU Delft and EPFL.

Portfolio programmes are the exception: the Chalmers Architectural Design letter is 400-500 words on page 1 of an anonymised portfolio.

Uploading a letter nobody asked for is one of the motivation letter mistakes European rules punish.

Get a free review of your motivation letter

Get a free Quick Review of your motivation letter against GradPilot's one-page European motivation letter rubric. It reads whether the letter names the programme and why you chose it, answers what the programme asked for, ties your preparation to its demands, states what you will gain and where you go next, and fits one page. Applying elsewhere in Sweden too? See the Uppsala statement of purpose and summary sheet, or browse all graduate school essay guides.

Sources

Retrieved 31 October 2026, except where noted.

• Chalmers University of Technology, Apply for Master's programmes (page updated 23 October 2026; 2027 entry): who must send a letter, instructions, merit rating, CGPA statement, confidentiality.
• Chalmers University of Technology, Key dates for Master's applications (2027 entry): round dates, portfolio and documents deadlines, scholarship window, SI note.
• University Admissions in Sweden, Autumn semester dates (first admissions round, 2027): opens 16 October 2026, deadline 15 January 2027, documents 1 February, results 1 April.
• University Admissions in Sweden, Find out what you need to submit (updated 8 October 2026): rule on unrequested documents.
• Chalmers University of Technology, Scholarships for fee-paying students (2027 admission round): separate scholarship application, needs the programme application number.
• University Admissions in Sweden, Supporting documents FAQ (no year stated): how universities receive letters; uploads cannot be displayed; final versions.