Question:
Hi, I was wondering if it is possible for a US citizen (myself) to attend a college in France or Germany (I already have a B.A. from an American University) to obtain an additional bachelors degree or masters level education if I have a child that is 8 years old and will need to be in a grade school while I am in college?
Do you have any idea whom I can contact or any general ideas where I can get started in my searching?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated,
Seth
Contact your nearest French or German consulate about appropriate visa for your child. (You will be on a student visa)
http://www.consulfrance-washington.org/spip.php?article385
http://www.young-germany.de/topic/study/how-to-apply-for-a-student-visa-in-germany
Here’s a summary of information for new residents of Germany (visas, housing, schools, insurance, etc), with pointers on where to find more information about each topic:
https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/EN/Publikationen/Broschueren/willkommen-in-deutschland.html
Once you are in Germany, the best source of information on local schools and other public services is the local city service center (“Stadtamt” or “Buergeramt”). For more general information about the school system and resources for parents, you can talk to the education department (“Bildungsministerium”) of the respective state. The state education department could, for example, tell you which elementary schools have German-as-a-second-language programs.
A few words of caution about the German public school system, in case your child is not fluent in German.
Generally speaking, public schools in Germany are not very good at accommodating students who are not fluent in German. Most schools don’t have German-as-a-second-language programs or individualized assistance, though there’s exceptions. The only legally guaranteed assistance is that new immigrant students will not be held back a year if - in their first year of enrollment - they receive failing grades due to language difficulties.
Many large cities have private schools that teach in English, if you can afford to pay tuition for them.
Homeschooling is illegal in Germany. If a child is not enrolled in school, the parent(s) gets arrested. If a child is truant, police will be informed and start an investigation within the first hour of the school day…
The other really important thing to know about the German school system is that students get “tracked” at the end of 4th grade. There’s 3 standard tracks; the lowest offers mostly vocational training (Volksschule or Hauptschule), while only the highest track (Gymnasium) follows a college-preparatory curriculum. I wanted to point this out because many immigrant students get slotted into the vocational track by default, and their families don’t realize till years later that this means that their kid may never have the option to go to college.
One more thing to look out for is school hours. Traditionally, elementary school in Germany has had very short hours (when I was in school, it was 7:30am to 10:50am). Recently, many states have made an effort to transition to longer school days to accommodate working parents. What that looks like depends on the state: it may mean more mandatory classes but no homework, or optional supervised playtime and homework help, or organized extracurricular activities, or there may be no afternoon program available at your particular school at all. Which is to say, please do not take for granted that elementary school will function as a free nanny while you’re in class yourself.