Your student tutor will contact you in August. Your contact information will be given to your tutor. Tutors are senior students who help new students during orientation week and at the beginning of their studies. Each new student is assigned a student tutor who has completed tutoring training. Tutoring is carried out in cooperation with tutors, University personnel and student organizations. Each major has their own tutors, who introduce students to the campus, student organization activities (KY & AYY) and student life in general.

Planning officers 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 planning officer during the orientation week and can contact them any time during your studies.

You can reach your planning officer through [email protected].

Academic advisers are faculty members who also act as mentors for students of their department. You can talk about your academic ambitions, interests and study goals with the academic adviser.

Some programmes assign academic advisers to all students, some name the advisers per research topic. If you don’t know how to contact an academic adviser, please ask your planning officer through [email protected].

You’ll receive a newsletter for new students via email about once a month during the summer. Please read the emails carefully since they include important information about starting your studies at Aalto University. The email address we use is the one you gave when you applied to Aalto.

Your student tutor and planning officer will contact you in August via email or phone with details about the start of studies. You can also chat with students of Aalto Business School here.

The events and activities during orientation are planned to ensure a smooth start of studies. You will learn all you need about the start of 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 study planning, available study options and instructions for all study related matters.

Please familiarise yourself with 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 preorientation 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 the planning officers and they get many emails. Your planning officer will reply to you as soon as possible.

If you have a study related question, instead of sending an email, please do the following.

1. Check if the information is available on these pages, New Master's students, or in the newsletters you received.
2. 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 and ask there.
3. If you can’t find the information and the matter is urgent, call your planning officer via phone or contact the student services at [email protected].

Please also note that during August-September we can't prioritize 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 and the detailed instructions for creating your study plan are part of the orientation programme.

Please note that 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. Please familiar yourself with the detailed course descriptions in the student information system Sisu.

Yes, you can transfer credits completed outside of Aalto University to your degree. You can use them 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 here. The detailed instructions are part of the orientation programme.

Course registrations are done in the student information system Sisu through your study plan. Please see the instructions here. The detailed instructions are also part of the orientation programme.

If the registration period is still ongoing, register for the course even if there appears to be more participants than allowed. The participants will be confirmed only after the registration period has ended. In many courses, priority will be given to students in the programme that organises the course. This information is available on the course brochure in Sisu.

If the registration period has ended, please choose another course.

Personal Study Plan or PSP (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.

PSP is used for e.g. course registration and graduation, but primarily it is your planning tool that helps you plan your studies. PSPs are made in the Sisu system.

Yes, you can. We ask you to make your personal study plan first and foremost to help you plan your studies. The first version of your study plan is done during the orientation, but you are allowed to change your plans. Please see the instructions under During your studies > Planning your studies.

The scope of the Master's degree is 120 cr. Students are allowed to extend the degree by one course. Plan your studies to meet the 120 credits.

No, they won't. 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.

We recommend that you start the thesis process in the beginning of the second study year.

Most programmes require a 30-credit thesis which equals six months of full-time work. If you won't be able to work on the thesis full-time because of studying other courses or employment, or you have another reason the thesis process will take longer than six months like gathering your own data, plan accordingly to start your thesis process earlier on in your master's studies.