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

[germankitty]

What's more, the €500 is not obligatory -- some universities are still free of charge.

And there are universities (mainly those with a long tradition, which have been in existence for ages) which get more than their fair share of applications -- Heidelberg, Münster, Berlin, München and others. Some of it is also based on location (= exciting, metropolitan cities, or 'pretty' landscape) or on the reputation of the whole "student culture", which in itsef is tied in with those traditions.

In NRW, the Ruhr-Uni Bochum had a reputation for being the "red" (as in socialist/communist) university for quite a while -- mainly right after its founding in the 1960s and 1970s; that was due to the fact that Bochum is/was mainly a commuter uni which draws most of its student body from working-class backgrounds. (Bochum barely missed out on becoming an elite uni last year, btw, and during my time there (1975-82) had some very famous names on staff -- a nephew of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, two sons of historian Theodor Mommsen, Suerbaum, who was the

[0_ohnein]

... nothing to do with abitur in particular...
but the good news is, the cdu/green soon to be government decided to cancel study fees in hamburg - at least a little bit. which is good because we had to pay 500€ each semester PLUS 290€ each semester, socalled semester-beitrag = ca. 800€... X( and to be honest we get exactly the same bad education we got the time there were no study fees...
now they want to change it into a system were you have to pay after you finished your studies, got a job and make at least 30.000 € a year, or that is the plan.

for more information look here http://www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/studium/0,1518,545553,00.html
(german only, sorry (;__;))