You Can Now Go to College in Germany for Free, No Matter Where You’re From

[ashling]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/10/10/germany_college_is_free_there_even_for_foreign_students_why.html

Well, you might be thinking, isn’t that just wunderbar for the damn Germans, with their excellent supermarket commercials and their spectacular beach nudity and their pragmatically dressed Chancellor. Now with their free college they’re just showing off. Well, here’s the kicker: Germany didn’t just abolish tuition for Germans. The tuition ban goes for international students, too. You heard me right, parents of Amerika: You want a real higher-education bargain? Get your kids to learn German and then pack them off to the Vaterland.


***


But maybe, just maybe, we should find a way to make public education here a better bargain than round-trip airfare to Munich.

[KittyWampus]

1. If you have the grades.

[Octafish]

2. Ich liebe Deutschland.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Ludwig van Beethoven. Albert Einstein. Heidi Klum. Meine Familie...

[ashling]

3. HEIDI KLUM! das ist ja AUSGEZEICHNET!

Now your just gloating.

Aber Amerika was heim vur Werner von Braun

[Octafish]

5. ILL!

Ich Laut Lachen!

http://www.jfklibrary.org/~/media/assets/Museum%20Objects/Crops%20and%20Not%20Museum%20objects/AV%20crop%20images/VBM_JFKjpg

Und von Braun hat uns zum Mond.

[DetlefK]

6. Your sentences have no verbs...

[Octafish]

7. Ich lache laut auf.

Besser?

[DetlefK]

11. Viel besser.

[aikoaiko]

4. In Georgia, your state college tution is free if you graduate HS with a 3.8 GPA

If you graduate HS with a 3.0 tuition is discounted 90%.

About half the fees are paid for, but room and board is not covered.

[jwirr]

8. If we ever have the sense to do what Germany did it would be good to link it to high school grades.

That is what Germany does. They have a two level high school program which determines if you are going to college or want to prepare for the trades.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. State of Georgia?

Just to make sure there is no confusion with the country of Georgia.

[aikoaiko]

16. Yes, Ma'am, the State of GA. Zell Miller was instrumental in getting the HOPE scholarship in place.

Sadly not that many students take advantage of the opportunity.

[librechik]

9. Norway, too!

in case you find Hamburg too sunny, lol!

[Jefferson23]

15. ha ha, good one. Norway, rocks. n/t

[DetlefK]

10. Some corrections and additions:

* While fraternities/sororities are rare, there are other organizations that organize social life (like parties, the orientation-week at the beginning of each semester...). The students of each department have their Fachschaft, which is just a permanent committee of organizers and it's pretty easy to join. The Fachschaften do have official rights and responsibilities, but they are politically a small cog. Their main purpose is to bind the students together. Then there's the AStA (Allgemeiner Studierenden-Ausschuss = Common Student Committee), which does basically the same, but on the university-level. Also they have more power, more responsibility and their members are elected.

* Most universities have a park and a small gym and sports-facilities. (For those who study "sports" and become fitness-trainers, coaches, physiotherapists...) There is no hype around some kind of official sports-team though.

* Though you apply for a specific major, you are still free to join other classes. However you are not allowed to take tests outside of the classes in your major. And universities weed out the bad apples early on: The tests in the early semesters are deliberately too hard, so if you are not made for a major, you will fail fast, before you waste anybody's time.

* Homework depends. In some classes it's mandatory, in some it's not. However, if you fail to keep up with the content by doing homework, you are guaranteed to fail in the exam.

* I knew a student who didn't like the professor giving a particular class. She knew which book his lecture was based on, so she bought that book, skipped the classes, learned from that book, wrote the exam and passed it. I would not recommend that though.

* Though you are free to leave lectures any time (to go to toilet or have a snack or lay down in the grass and take a nap), this could backfire: If you disturb the lecture too much, the professor will remember your face. And maybe you have to take an oral exam with him one day...

* Universities regularly offer language-courses, including german-courses for foreign students.

* It's possible to write an exam in english, but you have to make an official request for that.

[MineralMan]

14. Sounds like it's time for High School students to start

learning German. Other European countries also have opportunities for foreign students. Some people have been taking advantage of those for years. People should look into those opportunities.