Uni Jena

[scottygirliwish]

Can anyone tell me about Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena and/or the city? I am curious to know what the place is like and its reputation as a University in Germany. I passed by the city of Jena once and it looked rather pleasing to me. So, any thoughts? I thank you in advanced!

Comments

Aww nostalgia!

[green_blooded]

I absolutely love Jena. It has a great atmosphere; really friendly for a city. The nightlife is great - I particularly enjoyed the Rosenkeller. The Goethe Galerie is really good for shoppping (too good for me, I spent a fortune!) The infrastructure is good; reliable buses and trams.

I didn't study at the Uni I'm afraid, though I have been in the main library which seemed relatively small for an institution of that size.

The only things I have to say which aren't postive are that the suburbs are REALLY steep if you are on foot, so it is a bummer to get anywhere outside the centre if you are as unfit as I am. Also, when I was last there a bunch of rednecks constantly hung out in a lane just above the huge LIDL store, so probably best to avoid that shortcut.

[cebus_albifrons]

I didn't much care for Jena when I was there. I did a day trip to Jena while in Berlin. I'd been really wanting to see it since I study German Romanticism and early German Idealism, and Jena is pretty much where all that stuff happened. Although I enjoyed visiting Romantikerhaus, I didn't like Jena itself. It seemed kind of dirty and run down in comparison with the other German towns/cities I visited. Also, I have a lot of tattoos and made the poor clothing choice of a sleeveless dress, which didn't go over too well. I think my tattoos offended some of the older people in Jena, as they'd stop and stare in the street. I wound up tossing on a sweater that was a little too warm for the weather that day, just so I wouldn't stand out so much. Also, my boyfriend and I had discussed staying there for dinner, but while there were a handful of okay looking cafes (one of which we stopped at for lunch) we didn't really see any place that looked like it would be a good "romantic dinner together" type place, so we just headed back to Berlin

[ikaya]

I've never been to Jena, but I just wanted to add a little something concerning university reputations in Germany. Unlike some other countries, Germany doesn't have a bunch of well-known "elite" universities (like Harvard, Princeton etc.); at least not yet. If you asked me what the best university in Germany was, I wouldn't know what to answer. ;) If you want to check a university's reputation for studying a certain subject though, there's lists which are updated yearly for the biggest subjects (published by Spiegel or Stern I think... you can try and google Universitäts-Ranking or something like that), though those are probably only important to the people that are actually concerned with the subjects rated.