Each semester, Hunter pays a fee of €111 ($120) to the Technical University of Munich (TUM), one of the most highly regarded universities in Europe, to get his degree in physics.
Included in that fee is a public transportation ticket that enables Hunter to travel freely around Munich.
Health insurance for students in Germany is €80 ($87) a month, much less than what Amy would have had to pay in the US to add him to her plan.
“The healthcare gives her peace of mind,” says Hunter. “Saving money of course is fantastic for her because she can actually afford this without any loans.”
To cover rent, mandatory health insurance and other expenses, Hunter’s mother sends him between $6,000-7,000 each year.
This might also offer the most amazing opportunity for helicoptering parents to splurge a bit and getting a family apartment. Of course, this is not obvious for everyone!
I am not sure if it is mentioned in the article, but the bachelor’s degree is also 3 years in most of Europe with the master’s being 2 extra years. One could combine UG abroad and the Master’s in the US for a nice combination of 4 years.
The rent & food seems very cheap. However, university education in Germany will be even more bare-bones and sink-or-swim than most state schools here. They’ll provide you with lectures (usually huge ones; often by profs not terrible interested in teaching), a library, and exams (usually tough) and whatever societies/clubs that the students organize. Studying will be up to you. Obviously little in the way of social programming/amenities. Also nothing like a writing center. Tutoring or access to profs would be doubtful. Undergraduate research opportunities would be rare.
For the right type of kid, it’s a good cheap opportunity, though. I’d say the German unis (which don’t differentiate all that much by prestige, at least at the undergraduate level) are probably comparable to the SUNYs, which are only $6K in tuition for NYS in-state.
It helps to read the article in question. It turns out one would not have to know German (although it certainly couldn’t hurt).
They’re not as cheap as in Germany, that’s for sure. And living expenses are high at the most desirable ones (which is often the case). But last time I looked, McGill still seemed like a decent deal.
“However, university education in Germany will be even more bare-bones and sink-or-swim than most state schools here.”
Oh, boo-hoo. Maybe we need to get over this idea that – for most people – a university education needs to be a huggy country club experience. The elites will still have their Princetons and precious, posh LACs. If you have the money, go for them. But the American middle class has to accept it’s not as rich as it used to be. And if it can educate its children at superb European universities at the fraction of the state U, so be it. I for one welcome the competition from Europe, Australia, Canada and all the other countries that see the U.S. as a source of future students.
If such basic, no frills colleges and universities with good (and respected by employers and graduate/professional schools) academic programs existed in the US at lower net cost than other choices, would you (if student) or your kid (if parent) consider attending them?
I.e. students would just get classes, libraries/labs/computing/etc. that directly support classes, and basic necessary administrative services (admission, class registration, transcripts).
Housing? A web site where local landlords can offer housing.
Food? Go look for grocery stores and restaurants on a mapping web site.
Career center? A web site for employers to list jobs, and someone answering the phone for employers to book rooms for on-campus recruiting.
But such a college or university would likely be seen as resembling the commuter-based universities that many students do not like, so the answer is likely “no” for the great majority.
Ain’t that funny! When one is interested in boosting the reputational indexes of public universities such as Cal or Michigan, the weapon of choices is one of those (questionable IMHO and irrelevant for UG) rankings a la ARWU. Yet, when it comes to make a comparison between a US school and one of those prestigious euro-schools, the same people change lenses and suggest those schools are SUNY caliber.
Well, the school in question does not compare with SUNY but with a different stable of animals!
42 Brown University United States 63.6
43 Heidelberg University Germany 62.9
43 University of Bristol United Kingdom 62.9
45 Boston University United States 62.8
46 New York University (NYU) United States 62.4
47 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) United States 62.3
48 Ohio State University United States 61.6
49 Technical University of Munich Germany 61.1
50 Paris-Sud University France 60.8 - FYI - See http://www.u-psud.fr/en/university/about-us.html
51 University of Manchester United Kingdom 60.7
52 University of Minnesota United States 60.6
53 Stockholm University Sweden 60.4
54 University of California, San Diego United States 60.3
55 Carnegie Mellon University United States 60.1
On the other hand. the lifestyle is very different as the euroschools are not the 24/7 entertainment uber alles centers that our misguided leaders have built. They are institutions of higher learning … primarily.
It is NOT for everyone but then spending 100,000 to 240,000 for four years of leisure and few marketable skills is neither for everyone.
BTW, I spent a year at a French grande ecole. Plenty of entertainment to be had there. Just don’t tell the Americans who think that studies outside the US are all work and no play
@jhs, some programs in Germany are all in English. Many aren’t still, though.
@Vladenschlutte, depends on the school/program. Many majors in McGill (most of the ones outside of engineering and the b-school) are as cheap as in-state (as of now). Same with Waterloo (which has a CS program that has turned out some great grads). For most Americans, having a university (McGill) that I’d put on the same tier as UCLA/UW-Madison/UNC at in-state rates is a great opportunity. As is having a CS program (Waterloo) that I’d put on the same tier as Cal.
BTW, yes, undergrad in Germany is 3 years. That means that you only take courses in your major and specialize from an early age. If you switch majors, you start over. Most European unis don’t see the value of a broad liberal arts education.
Are you suggesting that American students after graduating from HS schools that have a bunch of counselors, special ed and ESL teachers, synthetic football and soccer fields, tennis courts, orchestras, theatre and debate teams will have to go to bare-bone colleges without lazy rivers? College has to be a step up, not a step down!
@xiggi, you win, they’re not comparable to the SUNYs. They’re comparable to OSU and UMinny. Would you say that OSU and UMinny are prestigious?
@katliamom, as I said, it’s a great cheap opportunity for the right kind of kid. Not much hand-holding there; pretty high attrition rate.
I’d certainly look in to it when my kids are college-age.
Agree that there’s a ton of social stuff available outside a uni.
Lots of high school graduates go to community colleges and local commuter universities, which may not necessarily be a step up in non-academic features.
But perhaps the less desirability of such schools due to the lack of frills makes it unlikely for a no-frills school with “top-end” academics (however that is defined) to attract a lot of students in competition with the usual “top” schools.
Regarding the actual universities in Germany that are being discussed here – even if they are no-frills otherwise compared to schools in the US, attending one automatically means study abroad, a commonly desired feature that many high school students applying to colleges seem to want, based on their forum posts. The same can apply to other universities in other countries.
@PurpleTitan: Germans get their broad liberal education at their college-track high schools. It’s a little bit like taking all APs all four years of high school and then some because German students have more than six classes per year. If I remember well my 11th grade class (before the so called G-8 and US college style specialization in a somewhat double major) covered: German literature, Math, Physics, Biology, chemistry, English, French, P.E., History, Ethics or Religion or Philosophy, Civics or Geography and more. Everything was taught on block schedule two or three times a week, two full afternoons included. I got an ample general education in high school and even got credit for it at my American university. Of course, times have changed and a lot of German states now lead to the Abitur in twelve years plus a K-year, instead of 13 years plus the K-year/Vorschule.
The article paints studying in Germany a bit rosy … class sizes are often enormous; cost of living in large cities is a lot higher than the amounts mentioned; the professors English is terrible. And each university has their own access criteria for international students. Some might require 7 or 8 APs at a level 4 or 5, others might require more. Most German students stay at home and commute to their university, dorms are very limited or hard to find. There is no real campus life and no school pride anywhere to be found. Institutes are usually scattered all over a town or city.
I can see extremely motivated American 18-year-olds study in Germany and probably older students at a master’s level but I would never send my own child back home for college. Now, the German dual system of professional training where you truly learn a trade is a different issue. I don’t think anything better can be found to become a banker or plumber or insurance agent etc. - three years of fairly well paid traineeship with alternating blocks in a company and at a so-called Berufsschule.
