College outside the US?

b_r_um
Mon, 06 Oct 2014 07:58:03 +0000

I’m not familiar with France, so I’ll only tell you about Germany.

First you’d have to find out if the major you want to study would correspond to a college degree program in Germany at all, and if so, which kind of college it would be taught at. Germany is still big on apprenticeships and many common occupations (e.g. accountants, nurses, kindergarten teachers) are trained through apprenticeships and not colleges.

If your desired training program is taught at a school, there are different kinds of schools it could be taught at.


There’s a wide range of occupational schools, which offer degree programs that are typically 1-3 years in length. Somewhat similar to community college but less heavy on general education.
There are Fachhochschulen, which are comperable to teaching universities in the US. They award Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees but not PhDs. Fachhochschulen typically feature small classes and only offer applied majors. They might teach engineering but not physics; management but not economics; you get the idea.
And then there’s Hochschulen or Universitaeten, which would correspond to research universities in the US. Expect large lectures and many theoretical classes even in “applied” majors. Bachelor’s students are generally avoided by faculty, who usually care much more about their research than their teaching duties. Universitaeten offer arguably an inferior learning environment to Fachhochschulen, but German students attend them anyway because their degrees are more prestigious. (FWIW, Universitaeten also have much higher drop-out rates than Fachhochschulen. At my former German university, 80% of the first-year students in my major had failed out or quit by the end of the first year.)


Back to admission procedures: German public schools (including universities) are legally required to admit anyone qualified for admission unless they can demonstrate that they are physically incapable of teaching all prospective students. In practice that means that the majority of all degree programs have no enrollment restrictions except a qualifying high school degree. Those with enrollment restrictions usually select the applicants with the highest GPA. You’ll often see the term “NC” (Numerus Clausus); that was the minimum GPA required to gain entrance to that program in the previous year.

Applications for admission happen fairly late, between May and September (depending on whether a particular degree program has enrollment restrictions), and you’ll need your final school grades and external exam results in order to apply. If you’re applying from outside of a German-speaking country, you’ll also need to provide exam results documenting your proficiency in German. You can find the exact application requirements and application deadlines on the website of the university of your choice.

Re qualifying high school degree: in order to attend a Universitaet or Fachhochschule, you’d need high school or college credentials deemed equivalent to a German Abitur or Fachhochschulreife. For example, 4 year-long AP exams (with at least one language and at least one science) would do. Or any high school diploma plus 2 years of community college. You’ll also need to meet the specific prerequisites of the college degree program. For example, anything sciency will require a working knowledge of calculus. (Calculus is a graduation requirement at German high schools and often not listed in the general requirements for admission, but universities WILL check for it for foreign applicants.)



Idk. Also, do you think it would be good for me to take a gap year after graduating high school if I do decide to go to Europe?

If you’re not already comfortable in the local language, then yes, you would need to take a gap year and learn it.