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 to Aalto.

Your planning officer will contact you in August via email with details about the start of studies.

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 student information system Sisu. 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 Sisu. 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 to Aalto 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 are emailed instructions in August. 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 SCI Master’s thesis workspace in MyCourses.

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.