One Motivation Letter for Every German Uni?
uni-assist lets you attach one letter to several applications. TUM says a generic letter is not sufficient. What to change for each target, in order.
One Motivation Letter for Every German Uni?
The portal will let you. Two published rules make the reused file the weakest document you send: TUM states that "A generic letter of motivation is not sufficient", and LMU's letter is a plain-text field with a character cap your PDF cannot be pasted into intact.
What the portal actually allows
uni-assist's instruction for the My assist account is "Please upload each document only once", and one account is used to "Submit applications to any uni-assist university". One account carries all of your applications, "including applications for multiple semesters", so the same uploaded file is in reach of every one of them.
That is right for the documents it was built for: your degree certificate, transcripts and semester-wise marksheets are the same evidence at every target. The motivation letter rides along on that mechanism — and it is the one document that is supposed to change.
What the universities say
| Target | Published rule | What that does to a reused file |
|---|---|---|
| TUM | Statement of purpose "should generally be no longer than one page"; "A generic letter of motivation is not sufficient. Please specifically address your desired degree program and TUM"; A4 PDF, 12 pt, 1.5 spacing | A two-page letter is over length before it is read, and a letter that never names the programme misses the instruction TUM prints |
| LMU, M.Sc. Economics | "2,000 to 3,000 characters (key strokes, including spaces)", "inserted in the provided text field … as an unformatted text without using control characters, indentations or other special symbols" | Roughly 350–500 words of plain text. A formatted PDF loses its structure on the way in, and a one-page letter is too long |
| TU Berlin, Design and Computation | "A letter of motivation (max. 2 DIN A4 pages)" — the only letter on its master's requirements list for applicants with a foreign first degree | A third length regime, on the one programme that asks |
One file cannot satisfy three length regimes. Universities outside Germany anticipate the same error: Lund tells applicants to "make sure that you fill out and upload the correct version of the document for all the programmes you are applying for."
What to change per application, in order
Work down this list for each target, in this order — each step changes what the next one can say.
- The unit, before anything else. Pages, characters, or a text field. Rebuild to the target's unit first — a 700-word letter cut to 3,000 characters is a different document, not a trimmed one.
- The programme and degree title, everywhere. Including the file name: uni-assist asks you to "Give your documents an unambiguous name", and one account holding motivation_letter_final.pdf for four courses is how the wrong version gets sent.
- The named evidence. The modules, chairs or labs you cite come from the target's own material. German programmes commonly require your module descriptions as a separate document, so the reader compares your claims against your syllabus.
- The "why this department" paragraph. Rewrite it. Re-labelling — swapping one university name for another in the same sentences — is the version readers recognise.
- Formatting last. Font, spacing and margins for a PDF target; plain text with no indentation or bullet characters for a text field.
What stays the same is your own record: the projects, coursework and results you can evidence. That half is true everywhere, and rewriting it per application only introduces inconsistencies.
Worked example, written for this guide. An Indian B.Tech applicant shortlists TUM, LMU Economics and one TU Berlin programme. The evidence is identical at all three: a final-year project, two labs, one internship. The letters are not — one page of PDF, about 400 words of plain text in a browser field, and up to two A4 pages. The fastest route is to write the shortest one first.
Check your own draft
First check whether your target reads a letter at all: does uni-assist read your motivation letter answers that, and the German motivation letter guide carries the per-university limits. Copying a sample instead has a published consequence at TUM — see TUM's plagiarism and AI rule, and the Europe and UK motivation letter guide for targets outside Germany.
The German Motivationsschreiben rubric shows what a review reads for, and GradPilot runs a free Quick Review of each version you build. More in the graduate application guides.
Official wording quoted above was checked on 12 September 2026.
Review Your Motivation Letter
See how your own draft reads against the limit and the questions your programme publishes.