Hello Germany and auf wiedersehen high tuition and loans

[NJSue]

So, dorms are very hard to come by. Dorms tend to on the outskirts of town. A 40 minute commute to the University is considered ‘close in’ by German standards.

This means heading out into the WG market which requires some German speaking and reading ability. The costs given in the article are just silly. A WG room with ‘kalte meite’ might be advertised at 300 Euro but the ‘warme meite’ which adds on minor things like utilities, Wi-Fi a place to park you bike (yes bike, not auto) will easily bring this to 425 Euro. That’s if you want to live in a reasonable part of town. If you don’t mind stepping over a few drunks when coming home from class late at night, well you can get that cost down somewhat. Also, WG’s are often not furnished so now the student will need to purchase the basics of life like a bed, desk, chair etc. In their freshman year.

My D is a German and Art History double major and is studying at the Freie Universitat in Berlin her junior year. She lived in a dorm in the back of beyond the first term, and found a flatshare (WG) for the second term because the dorm was unavailable for the whole year. She had to go to "viewings’ which are like auditions, where you show up with the other 15 people who want to rent a room in the flatshare. It’s Darwinian social competition and if you don’t speak any German, it can be problematic for you. She got a furnished room in a flatshare with 2 other working young people in Friedrichshain “warm” (utilities plus wifi) but it’s 500 euro and it’s still almost an hour to campus. Thank the gods for the favorable exchange rate.