I’ve always wanted to go to school in Germany and am now seriously thinking about maybe pursuing a graduate/master’s degree there. My BS will be in Mechanical Engineering (from the US) and I would plan on continuing with that or a related subfield.
-How hard is it for an American to get into a master’s/graduate program there?
-Even though I would be looking for programs taught in English, I will have a B2 certificate (minimum language level to live/work/study there) in German, would that help my admissions even though it’s not required for some schools?
Any other general info/experiences about attending graduate/master’s programs in Germany (or abroad in general) would definitely be appreciated. Thanks!
I can’t answer your question with any authority, but I can point you to some resources. Look for US ME departments that have existing exchange relationships with German universities. They will be a wealth of information for you. Linked below are the programs Cal Poly’s ME program exchanges with (in both directions). At least it will be a start. Good luck.
Either you apply for a master program on a German university (of applied science) or you enroll in the US for a preferred master program on a college/university that cooperates with German universities. The second option will be the easiest in view to prerequired “language requirements”.
Exemplary requirements for German as a foreign language --> required certificate
( for details see also www.uni-assist.de or www.daad.de )
DSH-2 ( C1 Niveau )
or
TestDaF / TDN4 ( B2.2 bis C1.1 Niveau )
or
DSD II ( B2 bis C1 Niveau )
or
Goethe-Zertifikat C2 [ GDS C2 ]
The requirements for an exchange student from an US university are generally lower than mentioned
in point 1.
There´s also an third option what means that you just come to Germany for “Summer School” and/or
for a certain period of time (e.g. study semester).
Example for cooperation:
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh: [ www.cmu.edu ]
and
Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft, Saarbrücken: [ www.htwsaar.de ]
or
Universität Saarbrücken, [ www.uni-saarland.de ]
There are many German Universities (of applied science) that have relationships to US institutions
and it´s a challenge to find out the most interesting But first you should know what kind of Master
you´d like to get?
It’s not Germany but Groninger University in Holland operates an engineering Master’s program in English and their admission requirements seems to be straightforward. Perhaps the programs in Germany are similar for International students. Groninger may not be as strong as Delft in Germany but Groninger is supposed to be one of the best engineering schools in Europe.
TU Delft is in the Netherlands (in the town of Delft in South Holland, at that). It is one of the more highly-regarded engineering schools in the world. I do know of people who have gone to graduate school there without knowing any Dutch when they arrived (though they were essentially fluent by the time they left).
There you have the easy possibility to choose/preselect the following items:
Suchbegriff = search term ( leave this blank )
Abschluss = degree you are aiming for ( e.g. bachelor or master )
Studiengang = program of study ( e.g. mechanical engineering and futher detailes → hint: don´t restrict to much )
Kurssprache = program language ( e.g. German or English )
Ort = location [ Bundesland = country e.g. Saarland ; Studienort = City e.g. Saarbrücken ]
Hochschultyp = type of institution ( e.g. university or university of applied sciences )
university = [ Universität = Technische Universität = Hochschule ]
college / university of applied sciences = [ Fachhochschule ]
You are able to get bachelor and master degrees on both institutions.
The main difference is that only German universities have the right to "award" doctor´s degrees.
You´ll find also a lot of information for foreign students
Wow, thanks for all the replies! Didn’t think I’d get this many
This is a lot for me to look at. Allemagne, have you been through this (or a similar) process before? You seem to be well versed in it. For those CEFR requirements you gave, is that for programs taught in German, or does that also include programs taught in English?
I’ll look at these and check back with more questions, thanks guys!
I´m always happy if I could be of help and the information I gave was not hard to provide for me I think the most important information for you is within my post above. You should check ( in detail ) the web page from the “DAAD” the “German Academic Exchange Service” out. This page is especially designed for foreign students that are going to study in Germany and also for German students that want to go abroad. One main official collaborator of this web page is the “HRK” the “German Rector´s Conference” [ www.hrk.de ] which is a union of all rectors (presidents) of all German Universities (Hochschule) and Universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschule compar. with US colleges and UAS) ). All reliable and qualified information that you could get to answer all your questions is provided there as well as further links to other institutions that could be interesting too. Both web pages are also available in English as you´ll surely find on the top of each homepage. You wrote: “… I’ve always wanted to go to school in Germany and am now seriously thinking about maybe pursuing a graduate/master’s degree there …” If it´s really your “dream” to spend an educational period in Germany I´ll offer my support to you. “Ich bin Deutscher“ with probably the same interest/affinity for the American (higher) education as you are for the German´s. So please check the mentioned web pages out and come back with any questions you may have … I´d be proud to help - if I can
Here´s some information to my person (from another thread):
“… I think that you´re right and the only reliable possibility to get useful answers to my questions will be a visit of the prospective institutions. That´s what I´m planning to do even if it´ll takes a bit time until then. As you already said I´m a 43 years old [ Dipl.-Ing.(FH) Maschinenbau ; my education is more a M.Eng. than a B.Eng. ] and I´m working for many years for a worldwide acting company ( oil and gas, off shore, process eng. ). I travel a lot in Europe ( e.g. France, Italy, Norway, Finland, Sweden, …) as well as sometimes in the US ( e.g. Houston, Philadelphia, Bethlehem ¶, New York ). I´m just interesting in higher US education especially mech. engineering and it´s affiliated fields of studies. I´ve two children and some day (maybe) one of them is deciding for study abroad [ e.g. academic exchange ]. I´ll take them with me on my trip to NYC area in order to give them an expression of NYC and US colleges/universities even if that doesn´t mean that they´ll decide for one of the shown institutions. It´s more like a teaser to plant a dream, something that will motivate in hard times … That´s the reason why I´m trying to find an (engineering) college/university which is (also) very good looking When I think back to my study times it was always my dream of something important, something extraordinary that I´d like to obtain. For me it was the German Dipl.-Ing. … and if it comes to hard times it was always that dream that gives me the power and strength to bear up.
