Word Of The Day~ das Abitur

[breakingthrunow]

WORT DES TAGES
das Abitur - high school diploma, leaving certificateEr hat das Abitur gemacht. - He got/earned his high school diploma

Comments

Higher education meat grinder

[lakritze]

What variables affect a German student's chance to go to the best university (granted I realize best is relative when one takes into account study focus and such). Is it Abitur results, grades from the last few years of Gymnasium, connections, money

Re: Higher education meat grinder

[breakingthrunow]

Definitely not connections and money, hah. German universities are state-run and students don't pay astronomical amounts just to go to school. Students now pay about 500 euro per semester (this is relatively new, it was all free before) plus their personal expenses. Getting into uni is all about finishing Gymnasium (as opposed to Realschule and Hauptschule -- there are 3 forms of school in Germany from grade 5 or 7 on as opposed to just "high school" -- I might make another post about this later.)

Here's a pretty good overview on how uni works in Germany
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Germany#College_and_university

Re: Higher education meat grinder

[lakritze]

Thanks. I went to gymnasium for a year so I am familiar with that and how which school track you follow dicates what type of next steps you can take. One more question---what universities in Germany are considered tops and are hard to get into?

Re: Higher education meat grinder

[breakingthrunow]

Which German university is the best choice generally depends on your subject. There are no "elite unis" in that sense as you have in the US or the UK - in other words, there is no "Havard", "Yale", etc. -- no single university that is THE place to go for any subject. There are, however, particular unis that have particularly good programs in subject X. There is an initiative in effect as we speak that aims to identify and select Germany's "top unis" and continues to build something like an "ivy league

Re: Higher education meat grinder

[lakritze]

High school exchange-->Congress-Bundestag funded. I was in the Southwest---Kirchheim Teck. By your list up there, it looks like BW Unis did pretty well :p

Re: Higher education meat grinder

[nitanitachan]

you forgot the "Sozialbeitrag" we allready had to pay.... my university was so nice to NOT include it in the fees... so now the amount is 650 or even more... though sometimes you are lucky, in NRW the "NRW-Bank" pays the 500 to the university, of course you have to pay them back.........

Hessen is not allowed to take the 500 € beacuse on paragraph in their law sees those fees as "social not correct" lucky.... but maybe this paragraph will change the issue for other Bundesländer as well ;) we'll see *preferably, when I'm off >.<*

[zimtkeks]

You have to pay them back, if you don't have high Bafög debts. ;-)

[nitanitachan]

10 000 I know...... still... not what I like XD

[zimtkeks]

That's the reason I signed up with NRW Bank. I already had those 10,000 € debt. ^^
But I hate the fees anyway. I think education should be free.

[nitanitachan]

I'm not far from them too, so I used this service too ;) too bad, that I don't get bafög anymore.... damn limitation, and it's NOT my fault that it's taking me so long........
the only other uhm.... not so nice thing is. other financial things don't count.... it's the same with the GEZ <.< some people don't get it free, only because the parents are a few € over the bafög limit <.< nice.....

yeah... education should be free ;-; other people are paid when they learn their stuff.... students and physiotherapeuten are almost the only people who have to pay for their education <.< I think it's mean....

[zimtkeks]

May I ask what your username means? 'Cause "Nita" is my nickname and you have that twice in yours. :)

[nitanitachan]

actually nita is my nickname too ;)

my friend suggested to use my name + chan at the end as username, but I thought it was lame, so I ditched a letter, but then I checked if this means something in japanese and there I found out that nita nita suru means smiling ^^ so yeah it means something, and through the double nita my name reappeared too XD