Engineering in Germany...need your help guys

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>hi </p>

<p>I have posted similar topic before but now I really have to do this again...</p>

<p>I am going to graduate from High school in 4 weeks from now and then I have to make a decision ...</p>

<p>I have 2 options :</p>

<p>the first 1 is going to the US and study in Cleveland State university ,paying 30 k a year >> as I am going on F-1 visa.</p>

<p>the second option is :
my family is going to leave Syria once I finish my high school >>the destination is Germany.</p>

<p>so clearly the second option is Germany :
since I was a kid my main interest was USA so basically I have no idea about any another country like Ger UK ... etc
my father is telling me that Germany is a good choice for the undergraduate level and then I can do my master degree in the US but I am kind of torn between both ...
for sure in Germany I will pay much lower tuition than US.</p>

<p>what do you think?</p>

<p>how is the education quality in Germany?</p>

<p>will I have a chance to do my MS/PhD in institutions like CalTech ,GT if I have my BS from German university??</p>

<p>my math teacher studied in Germany and he says it is awesome and you can expect high-quality education there , do you agree?</p>

<p>what about the Job opportunities in the US for German Engineers ??</p>

<p>waiting to hear your suggestions ...</p>

<p>best;</p>

2

<p>You ask a LOT of questions! :slight_smile: But that’s understandable given your age and situation. German engineering education is excellent but classes will be in the German language. Many foreigners come to the US to obtain a Masters or Phd. FYI - there are some German universities that have joint degree programs with U.S. universities. For example, TUD in Germany has a program where you can obtain a mechanical engineering degree from both TUD and Virginia Tech (only applies to ME not EE or other majors that you might be interested in).</p>

<p>Good luck with your decision.</p>

3

<p>so you think that the education quality in Germany will be the same in the US?</p>

<p>thanks for the reply.</p>

4

<p>Coming from someone who lives in Ohio and is familiar with Cleveland State, don’t go there. It is not a great school and definitely not worth 30k a year.</p>

5

<p>Engineering in Germany is totally different-My stepfather studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and later came to the USA</p>

<p>Because tuition in Germany is very low and funded with taxes, they have a different approach- like for example, they take attendance, there is less freedom and flexibility whereas here in the US, no one cares if you go to class or not, since you are paying for it.</p>

<p>Also, there is very little difference in the quality of education between let’s say: a TU-Berlin and TU-Darmstadt. Whereas here in the USA, the difference between MIT and Cleveland State can be dramatic.</p>

<p>In terms of facilities, it is a lot more limited, they do not have the type of libraries, student labs and facilities that we have here in the USA-Germans are much more utilitarian overall</p>

<p>In terms of quality of education, I don’t think German undergrad education is better or worse than the US- just a totally different approach. </p>

<p>Most Americans who go study in Germany complain about the bureaucracy(something that really sucks about Germany), the lack of facilities/resources, etc compared to the USA.</p>

<p>Now if you are used to Syrian standards, I think either an American or German education will be much better than what you would get in Syria.</p>

<p>P.S: My ancestors left Syria in the late 1800’s, immigrated to Brazil, then my parents immigrated to the USA- I am American/Brazilian but my ethnicity is Syrian.</p>

6

<p>Compared to Cleveland State University, go with Germany. Look at the grading system there. If they don’t have high grade inflation like in the US, your grades will look like crap when competing for a grad school in US></p>

7

<p>The first question is whether you can get accepted in a decent school in Germany. Since tuition is laughably low in most schools there (assuming you qualify for in-state :slight_smile: or whatever it’s called) I don’t think the admissions process is as simple as mailing in the Common App. Find out what is involved.</p>

<p>Second, unless you speak flawless German, studying there would be UberDifficulten, or account for 2+ years to learn the language. German is nowhere as easy to learn as English, and without a solid understanding of the language you’ll be in BIG trouble in a hurry. </p>

<p>Third, the lack of flexibility, the too-formal curriculum etc are all pretty standard. We had the same in Elbonia, no big deal.</p>

<p>Fourth, as an engineer trained in Germany you end up with a slightly different mentality compared to a US engineer. I’ve spent weeks working there with my colleagues and years working together on projects. They like more formal approaches, over-design at times, and so on, while we prefer to hack solutions once in a while. Good to know both approaches but it’s quite funny to sit in a design meeting with half the team being Germans and the other half Americans :)</p>

8

<p>

100 % agreed with you.
this point is really pushing me to go with Germany.</p>

<p>

actually the admission process in Germany is much easier than the US.</p>

9

<p>Check <a href=“https://www.daad.de/en/index.html[/url]”>https://www.daad.de/en/index.html&lt;/a&gt; - from my little country of Elbonia apparently no tests are needed :). For US students, a 3.0 GPA and SAT around 1300 allows direct admission… For other students from other countries it varies wildly, from no admits for undergrad study to admits. Very funny site if you have time to waste btw :)</p>

<p>Again, remember that German is considerably harder to learn than English…</p>

10

<p>German Language is not my concern ,the education quality is …
I am afraid because I have seen a report on TV that the German universities are always full and the lecture halls have around 300 students ,you can check it on Youtube.
but same time I love German Engineering and I think the Engineers in Germany are so smart and the products talk about that.</p>

<p>what do you think?</p>

11

<p>If you don’t understand the lectures or textbooks education quality is irrelevant . Trust me on this…</p>

12

<p>@turbo93:
so what is your conclusion ?</p>

13

<p>Do you speak German fluently enough to understand a physics lecture in German?</p>

14

<p>@BeanTownGirl:
read my above reply. “Language is not my biggest concern”.
my uncle & my math teacher have studied in Germany and my aunt’s husband studied in France and they all told me that in 1 year you will have ZERO problems with the language.</p>

15

<p>I agree that immersion helps you learn the language quickly, but how long would you be in Germany before you start school? So, since you’re graduating soon, would you start at the Germans university in the fall, or would you defer it for a year to get used to the language? Or are you moving to Germany soon and will have the entire summer to learn the language? </p>

<p>I’d definitely choose Germany over Cleveland State. I’m sure it’s a very nice state school in Ohio, but for an international student, I’m not sure if it would be worth all your money and time. I think the people that told you to go to the US for grad school have a good idea. And when you apply for schools, I’d try to go for a more nationally renown one. That would really help your international employment options. (like someone said, MIT trumps Cleveland) </p>

<p>If you feel that you can comfortably transition to the language well enough, then start applying to German schools! :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Ps: I’m studying French and am going to study abroad in France, so I know and understand where your family comes from on being able to quickly adapt. However, my French university will place me at my appropriate level, and I’d be worried if I just jumped into a regular, native French class being taught at full-speed with the language.</p>

16

<p>Hi,
I have so many friends studying engineering in the Germany(government scholarships).
As for language: you are required to spend ONE FULL year learning German before getting into the Uni. So language is not an issue.
I myself could have gone to TUM but I preferred the US for so many reasons including getting into a Top 10 Uni .
However, the quality of education in Germany is quite uniform and does not depend on the Uni that much, which is not the case of the US.
So, final conclusion: go to Germany (cheaper + better education at that certain level compared to a state school) and then either do an exchange program or do grad studies in the US. (which totally depends on how good you do in the Germany Uni)
But keep in mind that German schools are harder than the US when it comes to grades: no INFLATION.
Good luck.
And I hope Syria settles soon( Greetings from Tunisia)</p>

17

<p>Anyone who believes they can learn German in a year should seriously reconsider. It is considerably more difficult than English to learn, and while classes like math should not be a problem, other classes that have more reading and writing could be an issue.</p>

<p>I took 6 years of high school English in Elbonia and 3 years of night classes a few hours a week and had no problems, but I has spent tons of hours reading English paperbacks and listening to English tv without subtitles. To this day 30 years later I still have an accent straight out of Central Casting, my writing, while flawless, is way too complex for the natives (Elbonia spec) and the way I speak (idioms etc) is 1970s British TV spec…</p>

18

<p>I agree that the OP wouldn’t be perfect with German, but do German schools have special sections or resources for foreign students? Would a student be okay with being mostly competent with the language? I’m not very familiar with international students, and it makes me curious. </p>

<p>It may be different since I’ll be a study abroad student, but I know that my French university has an entire different building for foreign students. We’ll get tested and placed according to our levels, and we’ll only go with the natives if we test high enough. </p>

<p>Is that only for study abroad students, though?</p>

19

<p>I am sure about this. In high School, we study 2 years of German, which equals 2 semesters of University-level German.
My friends study Intensive German for 6 months. (Erasmus Program: compulsory for ALL) in order to take the DSH exam. And ALL OF THEM passed. (all those who have taken it along the years). The DSH exam is like the German TOEFL and is required to apply for any German Uni.
However, they do confirm that it is way too hard. (I am learning Germa, myself at a US university and kind of hate it )</p>

20

<p>I’m speaking from the perspective of a foreign student among other foreign students in the US. All of us passed the TOEFL requirement, usually 550 or so (ye olde scoring). There were people that, with months of coaching, could score a 550. I walked in, scored a 610 on my first try, and that was all she wrote.</p>

<p>Now, there’s 550’s and there’s 550’s. 550, or acceptable to study in the US of A, is barely “Me Tarzan, you Jane” level English. If Ms. 550 comes in to study Marketing at a directional state university, chances are she’ll do fine. If she goes to Cornell to study Nukular Engineering, well, good luck with that.</p>

<p>Most foreign students don’t begin to comprehend how badly they speak and write. To this day I remember a Malaysian buddy who sent me an email “Hey Turbo, I will see you yesterday”. I kid you not… Maybe I was a bit more sensitive than most students as I was researching my graduate work in computational linguistics, and had to understand English grammar 100% in order to program the VAX to understand it…</p>

<p>After a couple years I could read a couple paragraphs of someone’s term paper or homework or class notes or what not and determine where they’re from, merely by the types of mistakes they did. Hilarious. Bunch of missing articles? XXXXXX. Disregard for tenses? YYYYYYY. What’s a verb? ZZZZZZ. Impossibly long winded sentences? Elbonian :). </p>

<p>Bottom line, don’t underestimate the language part, and the side effects that go with it. In the US the system is flexible enough to allow one to take, say, 1 year worth of intensive ESOL (english as a second language), maybe 2 summers before and after, and a slightly reduced load the first year and catch up in the summer. I would not count on such flexibility in other countries. </p>

<p>Of course, German universities could be as writing-challenged as Elbonian ones. We never did much writing, it was all design work, homeworks, and the occasional multi-page project but not the treatises I see my daughter produce in architecture school here…</p>

<p>Mind ya, I’m not claiming my 610 was good either. I had zero experience speaking other than with the Canadian wife of my cousin (OMG I thought Canada spoke English) and all the Benny Hill episodes I watched did not prepare me for my first epic failure at the Kentucky Fried Chicken at Johnston St. in Lafayette, LA. The cashier asked me “to eat here or go”, but that came out devoid of spaces and vowels, sort of “tethrorg”. After tethrorg’ing me a few times she dumped my order on a tray… I never ate at KFC again for some reason, interestingly enough (Popeye’s chicken is what we eat down there).</p>