Switching College from Germany to the US for entry into this Fall

Student Lounge International Students
1

Hey there!
Some of you already know me in this forum, but for those who don’t: I’m a German first-year student in Industrial Engineering specialized in Electrical Engineering, so half Electrical Engineering and half Business Administration. SAT Scores: CR: 490, M: 560, W:440. While I am going to change my major anyway, I would like to transfer to a U.S. college. However, I couldn’t afford to pay more than ca. 2,500$-4,000$/year, but I can take out a loan of 8,500$/year (which I need to do anyway in the next year). Plus, it MAY be possible to receive additional 440$/month for the first 9 months of study for free, but I have to wait until mid-August to know whether it’s possible or not.
I was done with the will to transfer as it seemed to not be affordable at all, but I did a lot of research in the last few weeks and it seems like there is actually a chance, even when it’s already May.

Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida - I contacted them and they said that it might be possible to receive a scholarship that would cover the remaining cost, but they would need to evaluate my transcripts first.
South Dakota State University - told me I may receive a scholarship that could cover the remaining costs.

There are a few other colleges that told me the same, but first: Are those two good universities and is it worth to pay the remaining costs to them or do you think I am better off in Scotland, where I already have some offers?

Also if there are any other universities that are affordable for me, please tell me :).

Thanks!

2

Have you already applied to these two universities?

Until you apply and are admitted, you won’t know if you have received any financial aid. Until you know about the aid, you won’t know if either of them are affordable, which also means that you won’t know whether or not you will be able to present convincing information to the Visa Officer at the US Consulate where you will have to interview for your student visa.

To be perfectly honest, your SAT CR and W scores don’t indicate that you are ready for college-level work in the US. What is your TOEFL or IELTS score like?

3

No, I haven’t. I’ve contacted them yesterday and they told me I should apply until next week. I thought it’s a better idea to ask about reputation etc. before applying ;). However, they also told me I should apply this week.

I didn’t take the TOEFL. Also, I won’t - all unis that replied to me said that my SAT CR and W scores are sufficient in order to waive the TOEFL requirement. English is not my native language, that’s why these scores are below average.

4

Neither of these schools is very well known. I do not believe they are worth getting into debt for. And by the way, most Europeans wouldn’t be very happy in South Dakota. Heck, most South Dakotans aren’t very happy in South Dakota :wink:

5

No. Both are not really worth getting debt.
Just stay in Germany

6

Okay, thanks to both of you!
Well, I’d go to either Scotland or Romania then (6-year MD program), but I’m still thinking about it.

7

Where did you get in in Scotland? It’s a very interesting place to be right now with the SNP’s victory and Scottish vs. English attitudes toward Europe and Brexit.

If you’re really sure you want to transfer to a US college, email or call colleges from this list that indicate they still have FA and transfer places. Do this today or tomorrow.

http://www.nacacnet.org/research/research-data/College-Openings/Pages/College-Openings-Results.aspx

I would suggest prioritizing the following (relatively to very strong academically, and I’ve heard they sometimes had FA, although your having only $16,000 is going to make things very tightif not impossible, typically they want to see 25K)
Allegheny, Barry, Bellarmine, Cal Lutheran, Capital OH, Caroll MT, Concordia Moorhead, DePaul, Drake, Drew, Eastern, Eckerd, Elmhurst, Goucher, Guilford, Hamline, Hiram, Hofstra, Illinois Institute of Technology, John Carroll OH, Kettering, Lake Forest, Lawrence Tech, Lemoyne, Linfield, Longwood, Lebanon Valley, Lycoming, Loyola Maryland, Marist, Maryville MO, Nebraska Wesleyan, Ohio Wesleyan, Pace, Randolph, Reed, St Louis University, Salisbury, Southern Oregon U, Southwestern U, Stetson, SUNY Oswego, UMBC, UNiversity of Maine Farmington, UNC Pembroke, US Carolina Aiken, Valparaiso, Wells, Wheaton (MA).

8

Thanks for your reply @MYOS1634 , always helpful ;). I was offered admission to Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Strathclyde. Yes, I think that it’s really going to be interesting to see what’s going to happen there in the next years, but in general, the Scottish people like Europe.

I’m going to contact them as soon as I get home. And yes, I’m sure I want to transfer to the U.S. if it’s financially possible, that’s what I always wanted to do :).

9

What uni are you at presently in Germany? I would not recommend transferring to the U.S. until you have higher scores and better chances. Also, the semester system is on a completely different schedule. Since you are an EU citizen, the chances of you affording a higher-quality education is better in Europe. It may not even be worth transferring at all re: academics and career potential, which would be more important than a change of scenery – unless your transfer options were really excellent. Those schools you named are not considered that good, to be honest. For engineering you need at a minimum to ensure the program is ABET accredited. They may be, but they are not worth an expensive, debt-intensive international transfer. Germany has many technical universities with outstanding engineering.

I do not recommend taking out any loans at this point, considering you probably don’t have to take out much now. Why would you do this? In your case, if you were absolutely insistent on attending school in the U.S., I would make sure you have outstanding grades, and much better test scores, amd plan on applying properly during the next cycle – it seems you didn’t do a great deal of homework or preparation this time around. Still, you may have to pay quite a bit at a solid engineering / business uni in the U.S. I don’t think that is wise. I also don’t think your employment opportunities will be as good with a Scottish degree as with a solid German degree. Maybe St. Andrews or Edinburgh, but I honestly think you’d be better off at, say, T.U.B., Tübingen, München, etc.

10

Thank you! I attend the Technical University of Darmstadt. But I’m pretty sure I don’t want to continue this major, so I’ll have to change unis anyway.
Regarding the Scottish degree: the University of Strathclyde is ranked among the best universities for Business in Europe and Edinburgh Napier University offered me admission to their Engineering with Management course. Maybe the uni isn’t as reputable as others, but after I have attended almost one-year a German university I can say that they are absolutely not worth the reputation they have. We are 600+ students in lectures and the professors neither care about their students nor are they able to explain simple facts, because they never learned how to teach. It’s all about independent study. In fact, 56% of the students (including those who took it the second time) failed their Mathematics examination (and GPA of 3.9, which is a “D” or a 1.1 in the U.S.), 51% failed their Electrical Engineering examination (GPA of 4,0; also a D or a 1.0)and even in Bookkeeping we had a failure rate of 32%. Until now, 35% dropped out of their major.
For me, it’s more important to have a good education and to really learn something, instead of only having a reputable degree. Scottish schools are well-known among German transfer students for an outstanding teaching style compared to what they have experienced here, so I think it’s definitely worth going abroad.

11

Your two Scottish choices are good.
Have you secured your place there?
You can always call US universities and see if you could attend at a similar cost, but I don’t think it’ll be feasible.
You may want to look at the international exchanges the two universities have with the US, and choose the one with the exchange that’s most interesting to you.

12

I was already going to mention Darmstadt as well, as another great university. I will think more on this and respond, but have you considered that the way things are going, the German economy will be more likely to provide you with better employment than the U.K.? I don’t mean to dissuade you; I actually think you are in a better university than you will be transferring to.

13

If I understand it right, Samman 1° is failing out of his current university and 2° doesn’t want to study engineering anymore but rather business.

14

I am gathering that as well. But studying business in Scotland right now… I agree, Strathclyde is good. But I have some difficulty in proposing that he go to another country, for another major, with both Germany’s excellent higher education, and arguably the strongest economy in Europe right now?

I would actually prefer to see him wait it out, do well, and apply for better caliber universities in the U.S., rather than leave the German opportunities.

MYOS, how do you see grad / employment prospects in the next few years with a UK degree? I can speak more confidently about German prospects; UK looks a little shaky to me. Romania I wouldn’t suggest, either.

15

It looks like your English is a lot better than some international students I know.
Why your SAT scores are low? Did you prepare well for the test?
I think you should take additional English classes, prepare for SAT and TOEFL, and you will have better chance for better colleges.

16

@MYOS1634
I will have to respond until Thursday next week, but I’m struggling with making the decision between either studying Engineering with Management, Business or going to Romania and studying Medicine. Could you give me your opinion on this, please? While Business always interested me, I found it a bit boring in my current major and it bothers me a bit that you are only calculating, selling and working in order to “produce” money. It’s however a flexible degree, so I could do Business Technology and Economics or Psychology as it is a joint honours degree and I really like the University of Strathclyde.
Engineering with Management is similiar to what I’m doing now, but the focus is on Management in the Business part and on General Engineering in the Engineering part. I’m sure I would be succesful studying it and job prospects are excellent, also there is the possibility to do “real” research and working on things that could influence the world compared to Business.
And as for Medicine, I imagine it to be very interesting to work as a Doctor and help people or to work in a research based field. But this is something that I have been interested in since a few months only.

I know I’m interested in so many things and I wouldn’t regret doing any of those subjects, but I’m still afraid that I could not pick the right one…and that’s one of the top reasons I wanted to study in the U.S.: because I don’t have to declare my major until my junior year.

@anhydrite
What do you mean by waiting it out? I am sure I don’t want to continue my current major, at least not in the way I’m doing it now. The Strathclyde Business School is ranked better than any other business school in Germany and I would always have the opportunity to work in Germany after graduating. While I don’t think it would be a disadvantage in terms of employability to be a graduate from abroad, I think it might be an advantage compared with German graduates, because they know that I would have learned much more than them while maintaining a solid academic standard. In addition, teachers always told us how important it is to have international experience.

FWIW regarding Romania: I thought about studying Medicine, but I don’t have the grades to be accepted to any Med School in Germany now. Normally, people don’t do a 4-year degree before going additional 4 years to a Med School as a graduate over here, but rather do a six-year Med program straight after graduating from High School. If I wanted to study Medicine, there would be two options for me: 1) Either doing this 6-year MD program in Romania or 2) Studying Biomedicine and then doing a 4-year U.S. style Med degree in Poland. These Med Schools are completely recognized and German students always go back to work in Germany. I never intended on studying anything different or working there ;).

@coolweather
Thanks :). I don’t know… The CR part is very hard for somebody whose native language is not English and I was somehow happy that I scored the average American score as they used vocabulary I never heard. I wasn’t able to learn all those vocabs by heart while preparing for my finals and the Writing part was just bad luck. I had been one of the best 5% in my english class in school.

17

@anhydrite: I’m assuming OP plans to take advantage of the Schengen area agreement, whereby he can study anywhere in Europe and have his degree recognized everywhere, hence graduating from the UK (or with a Romanian medical degree) and being able to work/practice anywhere. I know that a lot of European students denied from strict post-HS medical schools choose to go to Poland and Romania. They’re fully accredited to teach in their native country and because there’s such a dearth of doctors willing to work family practice and/or in rural area, they are snapped up. UK degrees are well recognized but most non-apprenticeship jobs in Germany tend to require a 5-year degree.

18

I meant waiting it out re: the U.S. system. Germany so far as I know is on Wintersemester / Sommersemester, and that does not match up well at all. If you are just entering the transfer process here so recently, and without having requisite grades / scores to be accepted to schools of the same caliber in the U.S. (or even German, re: medical programs) that you have available in Europe (Darmstadt; Strathclyde, etc.), it would be better for you to remain where you are, get your grades scores up (even if you have to switch majors; take a little time; whatever), then re-apply to U.S. schools with a solid package and a clear plan.

It still sounds to me right now like you are making a last-minute decision, with different countries, different career ideas, and a range of options that aren’t all equivalent. In other words, it sounds like you want to escape without an optimal plan, and are being led by your current acceptances, rather than deciding what you truly want, creating a solid preparation plan, and following through. Since I have some experience with the German system as well as the U.S., I think it is fair to let you know how you will match up post-grad. I am trying to see you in the best position possible. Especially in Germany, it is not a problem to wait a little longer and plan your education / career well – students stay in undergrad much longer than is typical in Anglo-American systems.

Thanks for the reply, MYOS. That makes sense; I know the EU degree will be accepted. I still must wonder, because I have seen a variety of experiences: does a businessperson with a German degree get preference in Germany over a businessperson with a foreign degree, even within the EU? (I am not implying a Stanford MBA, which is not a fair comparison). Does a German citizen with a German medical degree get preference in Germany over one with a Romanian degree? I don’t mean what is accepted on paper – I mean experiential, real-world hiring (totally fair if you don’t know the “street” answer, it’s not a challenge, but an important distinction nonetheless). And, if you have even a good U.K. degree, and decide to stay on in the U.K., graduating in roughly three years – how do you think the hiring scene will be there?

By the way, I did say above I felt Strathclyde is good, but that is also tempered by recent events in that region, both economic and otherwise, as well as a fragile job market in the U.K.

19

Since you don’t have a particular career goal yet, I would suggest that you look around for a Gap Year option, and give yourself time to think more clearly about what you’d like to do for the long term.

20

Samman: I’d stay with Strathclyde and Scotland, but since some of the US colleges on the list are “free to apply” and you’d completed the commonapp last year already, thus have all the essays etc, you can try your luck. I don’t think any college will cost less than Strathclyde, especially with SAAS.

Doctors willing to work in underserved areas are snapped up very quickly and offered nice perks (town hall job for the spouse, free house, this kind of things!) regardless of where the degree is from. Of course, the student has to actually complete the degree and even though the entrance requirements are not stringent, the yearly qualifying exams really are. This is probably something American students could look into :p… I’m not sure Samman is up for it because it’s really tough. In addition, in Romania, speaking Romanian (duh), English, and French is very useful, rather than German.

The introduction of a second party in Scotland (vs. All-Labour, All the time :p) is an exciting political development and the nation is recovering. Glasgow’s transitioned very interestingly from the 80s gloom. Hard to predict what the EU economy will be like 3 years from now. It seems to be recovering…