<p>Hi there, right now I'm a senior in high school, and I've been accepted to VT as a chemistry major. I know I'd like to do study abroad sometime during college, and thought that Germany or Austria would be the best countries to think about, because I'm in my 5th year of German in high school. I've also visited Germany and Austria in the past on a school trip, and really loved it.</p>
<p>The thing is, my university's study abroad program only offers chemistry courses in Germany/Austria in German. I think I would be ok with that, but I was planning on possibly going in my junior year, when physical chemistry is. I'm pretty confident in my German skills, but I don't know how I would fare taking a non-German class in German. I'm also planning on taking a couple German courses at the 300-level in college, so that may help.</p>
<p>So, if anyone has experience taking courses in German, was it difficult for you to understand, and do tests and homework? I thought a summer internship may work also</p>
<p>Hi</p>
<p>I am German (so know some things about the language and universities) and am studying full-time abroad (so am used to the experience of suddenly producing academic work in a foreign language).</p>
<p>I have not heard your German (ofcourse), but it should generally be possible. Especially since you plan on studying sciences where language is more precise and standardized. Normally foreign language speakers have the biggest problems with German adjectives and all the stuff that comes with cultural background (ancient words still in use, nuances among synonyms etc), this should not be a big problem for you. It will take a few weeks to familiarise yourself with the German translations, but since most of the vocabulary is latin-based the words are actually extremely similar. </p>
<p>I would advise you to try and maybe get a small intensive German tutoring in the summer before the trip and focus on academic writing.</p>
<p>Since you are studying Chemistry: Have you considered Switzerland? Especially ETH in Zurich is very renown!</p>
<p>Good luck</p>
<p>I agree with the above poster, and this is coming from an American. I had HS german and one semester of college german, and studied a year of ChemE in Germany, in German. I had a 4 week intensive course built into my exchange before I actually started class, but it wasn’t so bad. At first I had to go through the course materials with a dictionary, and made myself a list of technical words. But I eventually didn’t need to do this. </p>
<p>The more difficult part might be that German grading doesn’t include homework or tests–just a final exam at the end.</p>