<p>Any International students studying in Germany here?
what is your avg living expenses?
I heard it is very expensive, however some german website only quote EUR$600+ a mth for food and housing. Anyone can give more insight?
what is the cost of health insurance?</p>
<p>I’m not studying in Germany, but 600 Euro seen reasonable if you don’t need a 200 sqm apartement.</p>
<p>It depends on where you are living though - Munich will be far more expensive than e.g. Dresden or a small village. Germany is not cheap, that’s true, but for the basic stuff (bread, butter & beer) you will hardly find a less expensive industrial country.</p>
<p>You will spend a bunch of money for partying, vegetables & fruits, car (if you need one) and technology (mobile, pc, etc.) - these things are rather expensive. Compared to let’s say London, Paris or the American universities (esp. as German universities don’t charge much) it’s incredibly cheap and offers a good while not outstanding education. Again, the last thing depends on what you are studying. If engineering is your course of choice, Germany is fantastic.</p>
<p>I am a native German.
Your cost of living will heavily depend on where you want to study. In Wuerzburg (city of 130,000; close to where I live) you can easily rent a room in an apartment-sharing community for 200€ per month including utilities. In Munich that same room would be around 400€.
I would expect to spend another 200€ for food, mainly cooking for myself and having lunch in the dining halls (dining hall food sucks…).
Official statistics say that the average student needs 694€ a month in total right now. That number will rise next semester due to the introduction of tuition fees (500€ per semester).</p>
<p>About the health insurance. Many German students qualify for free insurance, those who don’t pay a discounted premium of about 50€ a month. That same insurance plan should be available to international students as well (I am not 100% sure though)</p>
<p>alle gegen studiengebuehren protestieren!!!</p>
<p>I don’t think we can do anything against them, unfortunately.</p>
<p>I hope that we cannot do anything against them.</p>
<p>I preferred paying a reasonable amount of money and receive an outstanding education instead of getting a mediocre for free.</p>
<p>Let’s look at the numbers: If you are really successful in your job, you’ll easily make 100 - 200 k within 10 years from graduation. Adding, that the costs of a family are low within the first few years, you will have plenty of money you don’t have to spend (of course, you can buy an expensive house, a s-class merc etc.).</p>
<p>If the increase in your wage is only as much as 15000 Eur a year (which is an amount a top tier school will likely provide you with), you will be able to pay back 60000 Eur (15000 Eur / year of study) within ~ 5 years (assuming that there is a moderate interest rate as well as a moderate inflation.</p>
<p>I agree, that paying 500 bucks and getting to know that this amount is used for heating hurts, but this is a failure in the system which would sort itself out as soon as tuition fees increased.</p>
<p>Investing into education is the best investment you can make. If you don’t see this, you should do something different but study. If you are motivated and intelligent, you’ll figure out where to find the 40 bucks you have to pay additionally, if not - well then the system works!</p>
<p>PS: Not pointed at your direction b@rlum, but at chriscap.</p>
<p>In general, I don’t mind paying 500€ or even 5000€ (with adequate fin aid opportunities, of course) a semester to receive an outstanding education, but this is NOT the case with what’s going on in Germany right now.</p>
<p>I talked to a university prof about this. A few years ago (6 or maybe 8) the decision to implement tuition fees was inofficially made, and in the same instant universities received significantly less funding. E.g. the average rehersal group size for math courses was about 20-30 students, and the TAs received an adequate compensation. Now, the average rehersal group is 50 students, and the TAs teaching them earn less than most waitresses. With the help of the tuition fees next semester, the university can approach (but not quite reach) its standards from 6 or 8 years ago, but for the current students it will look like a huge improvement thanks to the tuition they pay. The bad condition of our universities right now is nothing else but a marketing strategy…</p>
<p>are all engineering major good in Germany?
what about Biz or Life Sci (eg Biotech, Chem etc)?</p>
<p>Can suggest some Uni?</p>
<p>Engineering is prob our best field, so you’ll get a solid education here, don’t expect any ivy calibre stuff though! I guess TU Muenich would be a good address, also Aachen is pretty prestigious.</p>
<p>TU Koblenz just won this “elite universtity” stuff (which, in my opinion, is crap).</p>
<p>It really depends on your field of study. The ones in the east are generally considered to be worse and they definitely lack the prestige but they are extremely well funded (nobody knows why - in 2 decades the demographic change will change the east into a big national park.) and the number of students / professor does not exceed a reasonable number.</p>
<p>You don’t need a god to teach you economics, and don’t expect them there! The east is way cheaper to live, too, but the infrastructure is bad, the population consists of skinheads and grandparents (well ok not that bad, but due to the high unemployment rate in eastern Germany, everyone reasonable has moved to the west) and don’t expect a huge partying scene.</p>
<p>Of course former IU Bremen is a good one, Vallendar for economics as well. However, they are not too easy to get into. In the west (Dusseldorf, Cologne, Bonn) you’ll have a lot fun partying (esp. during carneval), the south (Stuttgart, Munich) is the most expensive but also the most prestigous and probably the region with the best networks.</p>
<p>Regarding engineering, it’s the same as everywhere. You could be lucky, get a fantastic prof, you can be unlucky and get in contact with someone boring. However, if you come somewhere in the world (be it the US, UK, Africa, Asia …) and tell 'em that you have an engineering degree from Germany, you have more than a good shot. Made in Germany is something very valuable.</p>
<p>Furthermore, if you decide to stay in Germany, you have many opportunities and all of the work will be interesting and challenging - we are not copying other stuff but invent it ourselves… </p>
<p>A note at the end: A scientific education is always good in Germany, however, don’t think that you will work in laboratories a lot or have many projects going on. Our universities are poor at best, the labs underfunded and there surely is no money to play around with (though we have some sort of a student f1) The profs will teach you a lot, but if you are searching for the most modern devices and freaking research in cost expensive fields - go for an American university !</p>
<p>Hi… I am getting ready go to a German school as a US citizen and I was wondering how I should go about getting a student visa… I have heard different things but some say I should wait til I get there… is that really the best idea?</p>
<p>Hi, are the Achen and Munich Universities in english? if not, what %age is taught in german?</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t know ANY programs taught in English which does not mean that there ain’t any.</p>
<p>I’m sure there are some, but they are rare (which is one of the reasons I want to study abroad). The people here speak English fairly well - and you will get along quite fine if you cannot speak German, but you will struggle in university.</p>
<p>I might be wrong here, so better backup by some1 else, but at least in the German public, English taught programs are inexistent.</p>
<p>There are very few programs that are completely taught in English, and those are mostly graduate programs.</p>
<p>Here’s the situation in Nuremberg and Wuerzburg (those are the universities that I am most familar with):
In general, all introductory classes are taught in German. The more advanced classes (undergrad and grad) may be taught in English. Many of those classes are not scheduled to be taught in English, but the profs often decide spontaneously to do it (e.g. because there are a few English speaking students in that class, or because the lecture is based on literature written in English). You can never be quite sure if a class is taught in English or German until you talk to the prof who teaches it. But as you can imagine, most German students are quite ****ed off when they are told on the first day of class that they will have to write their term paper in English…
A math prof in Wuerzburg said that about one third of math classes beyond the first year classes are taught in English, and a prof in Nuremberg said that many (didn’t specify how many) advanced engineering classes are taught in English.
I don’t know about Munich or Aachen, but it seems that the science departments in general are trying to be “international” by teaching some stuff in English. I personally wouldn’t expect a humanities class to be taught in English.</p>
<p>Bottom line: if you don’t speak German well enough, you won’t even get to the classes that MIGHT be taught in English.</p>
<p>Classes at Jacobs University Bremen (International University Bremen) are taught only in English but there is no economics major. A combination of Economics, Sociology, Mass Communications and i think politics/history (not sure) is called Integrated Social Sciences.</p>
<p>
I am not 100% sure, but as far as I know you have to get a student visa/entry permit while still in your home country and once you arrive in Germany you go to an “aliens department” (whatever you call it) to get a residence permit.</p>
<p>OK, I just found that:
Apparently as an American you don’t need to apply for a student visa before you get here (Germany ;)).</p>
<p>Hey there folks,</p>
<p>I’ll be heading over to Düsseldorf as a student in March. I was wondering if anyone could give me an idea of how much i’ll need to budget per month for living expenses. </p>
<p>The German embassy recommends a bare minimum of 600€ a month for all students but I’ve been getting the impression that Düsseldorf is more expensive than your average German city. I’ve seen Düsseldorf specific estimates suggesting that I budget as much as 900€ a month which is a bit of a stretch for me. </p>
<p>Any advice on the cost of living in Düsseldorf would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Düsseldorf is one of the most expensive cities in central Europe but offers some of the best quality of living you will ever encounter. Just returned from a weekend there, really nice. And the Ruhr-area is pretty close: Europe’s cultural capital of the year with really great stuff!</p>
<p>Yes you should plan around 900. It obviously is possible to live with less (Germans will be able to make it with around 700), but in order to do that you’ll have to know the typical native stuff. </p>
<p>You won’t need a car or anything (an old bike would help though), the larger metropolitan area Dusseldorf/Cologne/Bonn/Ruhr has one of the best (if not the best) public transportation systems in the world. Buying yourself a student-pass is the first thing you should do.
I really don’t know about your diet, but other than in the US you can purchase very cheap quality ingredients for cooking. Preprocessed food will be more expensive and you should leave your hands off of it. Germans don’t go out for dinner/lunch remotely as often as Americans do. So eating at a diner will be expensive.
So learn how to cook and shop at low price retailsers (Aldi, Kaisers, Lidl, Edeka, Penny).</p>
<p>Also plan some money for nights out: Dusseldorf has some great clubs and bars.</p>
<p>But I guess you’re going to share a flat with local students? They could show you a lot of little tricks for.
In case you’re planning to rent a flat of your own:
1st You shouldn’t, being a student in Germany is about “Wohngemeinschaften”
2nd Sort your trash (its a like religion here)
3rd Clean the stairwell and street in front of the house whenever told to. Just do it.</p>