Moving to Germany – how to mitigate impact on my kids college applications?

Parents Forum
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I am moving my family to Germany this summer. Mostly we’re excited, but I’m worried about the impact of the move on 8th and 10th grader’s college admissions odds.

They will be attending a local German school and I expect that year 1 will be mostly about learning German and that their grades will probably suffer significantly. I have read that most Americans transferring like this need to repeat a their first year in Germany.

Having a full failed year on the transcripts will be bad, of course. Does anyone have advice or suggestions on how to minimize the impact or other approaches that we/my kids could take to still be a strong college applicants?

Thanks!

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You don’t have an International School in the area? I moved back for my child to start school so not sure of the process. We still have our home there and lots of friends that could probably help. Which area? We are in Baden-Württemberg.

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Hi jpga13, we will be in Cologne. There are international schools, but the prices we’re seeing are €15,000+ per kid per year.

My job will be on a German contract, not a company sponsored international assignment, so there’s no company support for international school tuition.

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I’ll ask my neighbors and another buddy of mine there and see if they have any suggestions.

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If you have 529s, perhaps you could pull $10K/year out for international school? I think that would be allowed?

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That’s a good thought. There is also a tax refund available on some of the tuition, so we likely wouldn’t have to carry the full tuition cost.

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On a positive note if they stay there college is free!

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We were in exactly your situation–living in Germany for the year with our son in 10th grade in a local school. His German was pretty good but school was still tough…but we saw it overall as a plus for his US college applications. He had a great year, learned a lot, experienced opportunities he wouldn’t have had in the US, and had a unique story to tell. He’s also now more than ready for the transition to college life–he knows what it is to face a challenging transition and thrive.

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Thank you, Oshoyu!

That’s very hopeful. We also expect that the overall benefit will be high. Just some minor concerns about the impact of a lower GPA and possibly repeating a year.

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Be sure to talk to your US guidance counselors and inquire about online options that might ensure your kids fulfill necessary requirements. Our son was able to do that (our school district has a virtual learning department)–meant extra coursework to meet basic graduation requirements back home, but also a guarantee that he wouldn’t have to repeat a year. Now off to college in the fall without skipping a beat.

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Make sure your kid entering in 10th grade is on the Gymnasium track, otherwise the school career will end after 10th grade. That is when not University bound kids usually move on to a 3 year dual education vocational training.

If they can hack the Gymnasium level and pass the Abitur (test comparable to the IB program) they are in good shape to be ready for a US University.

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Your family will have a blast. Cologne is a great city to live in.
In my experience German Gymnasium is more difficult than regular American high school. In general grading is tougher as well. I’m pretty sure most larger US college admission offices are familiar with this.
As others have said, if they can make it there, they are well prepared for college. Back in the dark ages, my American college even gave me college credit for some classes taken at a German Gymnasium.
Beware, German schools have no guidance or college counselors, so you will have to manage that part.

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Hi all, just following up with what we did for future googlers to see.

Background:

There are 4 kinds of German schools.

The three traditional schools are:

  • Gymnasium — College prep / college track schools
  • Realschule — Leads to higher level vocational schools. High performing Realschule students can apply to switch to gymnasium after 10th grade
  • Hauptschule — Basic education, leads to lower level vocational schooling

The 4th type is Gesamptschule, which includes students from all tracks. Students can graduate out at 9th grade with a Hauptschule cert, after 10th grade with a Realschule cert, or after 12th (or 13th, depending on the state) with a Gymnasium cert.

Gymnasium grads (from Gymnasium or Gesamptschule) can take the Arbitur to get into college.

There are two ways to get your student into a German school.

  1. You can go to the local government office and they will find space somewhere. This path may land the student in a distant school, or a non-desirable or non-gymnasiun school.

  2. You can go to schools directly and ask for a place. School directors have a huge amount of discretion. Our relocation specialist (provided by my job) did a lot of arguing and discussing to work past the concerns some directors had.

Due to the situation in Ukraine, there are a lot of refugees in Germany right now. Many schools have an onboarding transition class for non-German speakers, and many of these classes are full. This limited which schools were willing to consider an additional non-German student.

We decided to send the 16 year old to a private Gesamtschule. It’s a German school, targeted at German students who want to be learning English. Most classes are in German, with a couple of classes in English. They will start him in 10th grade.

So, 1 year repeated, but it keeps him progressing, keeps a path to Arbitur open and the school was nice to work with.

He was accepted at a Gymnasium as well, but would have had to either: 1) go back to 9th grade (he should be starting 11th in the US), 2) pass a B2 German test (he’s a weak A2 at the moment) or be accepted as a provisional 10th grader, and get no credit for his first year at the school. We also heard that the school had a reputation of high drug use in the 10th grade class.

We were able to get the 14 year old into a 9th grade class at a Gymnasium. It’s a Catholic sponsored public school, and we aren’t Catholic, but it has a good reputation and the religion classes have ethics alternatives.

Purely on luck, he met a nice neighborhood kid who is going to his same class. So, we’re grateful about that.

We’re satisfied that both kids are in good enough situations. From a purely college prep perspective, this family move probably didn’t make the most sense, but from a life and total family benefits perspective we’re happy with how it’s shaping up.

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Sorry, didn’t mean to make that paragraph about Ukraine bold. I’m on mobile and must’ve typed in something extra. I don’t see an edit button or I would fix it. :-/

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Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I am glad that you had such good support from the relocation specialist in this complex situation. Heres hoping that your kids settle down well and make great friends.

I for one would very much appreciate the occasional update about how it’s going.

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I have an expat sibling who has raised her family in Germany. Her children went to Uni for free compared to the $250,000 for one of mine over the course of college here in US. The Uni system in Germany is wonderful. Take a look at Heidelberg and Freiburg.

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Fixed it. Thanks for coming back to update.