<p>Hi guys.</p>
<p>I’m new here and I have a lot of questions and I hope you can help me.</p>
<li>Lets just assume I would get into Harvard would you recommend to me to stay in Germany for my bachelor (paying almost nothing - only three years) and try to get into Harvard for the graduate program or do you think its better to be at Harvard right from the beginning?
The German graduation is at a much higher level than the North American one, because we have 13 years and a divided school system (means the smarter 50% of the students go to a different kind of school than the rest) so the first year could be kind of wasted. But are the chances to get into the graduate program better if you were at Harvard before? Could it be a problem that the German bachelor need only three years. Is it more difficult to get into Harvard if you need financial aid (six years could be a little bit too expensive)?</li>
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<p>My final aim is to get into the graduate program of Harvard (or maybe Columbia). Therefore my main question is how I have the best chances.</p>
<p>I’m in Vancouver at the moment as an exchange student, so English shouldn’t be a problem but I will graduate in Germany. The German grades are difficult to compare to North Americans (different Level and system) but I’ll try to explain it: You can get from 0 to 15 marks for each course those marks aill be translated into grades from 1 to 6 the best possible average is 0.7 (2/3 - 15 marks av) 15 marks are 95% and above but the level in Germany is much higher (its less about industriousness). I’m going to graduate with an average of better than 1.0.
I am very active in politics (not only school politics or however you call it), founded several working groups in school, participated on successfully on several math competitions, have been on working experience in the German Center for Aerospace (kind of like NASA but smaller and less important), 4 languages (English, Germab, Ancient Latin Ancient Greek), 3 instruments bla bla bla not that important</p>
<p>Maybe one more information: I would like to study either mathematics or physics.</p>
<p>I don’t know if the first year in the U.S. was totally wasted because we’re doing differential calculus in grade 11 (of 13) and start with Analysis in High school.</p>
<p>I’m happy about any information. I think the post is kind of confusing and unclear and my English is not very good yet either. It’s probably hard to answer but I hope you have some usable information for me.</p>
<p>(For Maths and Physics (NOT Engineering!!!): Harvard or Columbia? or something else?</p>
<p>Thanks!!!</p>