Medical School Admissions 2026: Quotas, Chances, and the TMS Explained

Who allocates the places?

Medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and pharmacy are subject to nationwide admissions restrictions in Germany. Places are allocated centrally through the Foundation for University Admissions (Stiftung für Hochschulzulassung) and the Dialogue-Oriented Service Procedure, or DoSV for short. Applicants list several preferred programmes there in a personal order of priority, from which the process then makes its allocations.

The three quotas

First, small shares go to pre-allocation quotas: hardship cases, second degrees, the rural doctor quota, and the quota for the public health service. The remaining places are then distributed as follows:

The former waiting-time quota was abolished in 2020. Racking up semesters no longer automatically improves your chances — waiting time has simply become lost time.

The numbers behind it

Around 10,000 places in medicine are available nationwide each winter semester, against roughly 30,000 applications — considerably more in some years. In dentistry, there are around 1,500 places; in veterinary medicine, around 1,100.

That's the real heart of the matter: this isn't a process you can outsmart, it's one where there simply aren't enough places. Two out of three applications go unsuccessful every year, regardless of how motivated or qualified the applicant is.

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The most important lever in the process: the TMS

The Test for Medical Studies (TMS) is the most heavily weighted additional criterion at many universities, and it counts both in the Additional Aptitude Quota and in universities' own selection procedures. A strong result can noticeably improve a weaker school-leaving grade — which is exactly why many applicants spend months preparing for it.

Beyond the test, universities weight other criteria very differently: completed healthcare-related vocational training, relevant work experience, interviews, or volunteer work. Each university decides for itself which criteria count and how much, and the rules differ from faculty to faculty and from year to year.

The second route: studying in the EU

The German and international application processes run independently of one another. Holding a place at an EU university doesn't rule out an application through the central German process, and dual enrolment is permitted. Many people use exactly this combination: starting their studies abroad while keeping an eye on Germany at the same time. That way, no time is lost, whatever happens with the German allocation process.

And this is where the difference lies compared with the German process: at Medschool Experts, we work with the largest selection of official partner universities for medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, and veterinary medicine. Instead of trying to interpret grade thresholds and quotas, we look at your profile — your school certificate, any previous study achievements, and your preferred countries — and tell you which university, in which country, we can place you at and where we can reliably get you started. If you're already studying, we also check the highest possible year of entry for you; that's often one of the final two years of the programme.

We deliberately don't publish lists of requirements, documents, or deadlines: they differ by university and by year, and an outdated list can easily cost you a semester. We'll go through what applies in your case in a free consultation.