Attending business school in Berlin

Hello!

Well first off, my first topic here so I will introduce myself. My name is Renat and im a 21yo university student from New Jersey, US. I've always been drawn to the German culture and way of living and just the place in general, it is very beautiful there, and just the fact that its the center of Europe, makes it an attractive place. I will be starting 3rd year of school next fall. Recently me and my friend decided to attend an exchange student program in Germany for a year. Mainly interested in taking language and business courses. I do not speak a word of German.
I have been looking at many diffrent programs and school, some are expensive some less, but my budget is abuot 12-14 grand a year. I haven;t decided where, but would prefer something up north. So my question"s" are.

-Any general advise?
-Cost of apartment for students
-Cost of food
-Transportation
-Benefits/draw backs of being a "non EU" student

Actually any info is helpful!

Thanks!

Renat

Great decision, welcome to the madness! First advice: Learn at least some basic German - you will need it when dealing with The Man (authorities). Second advice: Read all the topics here about living in various parts of Germany. Third advice: Do not drink beer here or you will never drink US "beer" again unless you also read the thread on good US beer.

I definitely agree with the point about learning at least some German, but since you seem to have Russian and Israeli passports (at least according to your profile page) I think the first thing you should look into is visa requirements.

About the beer, well too late I've visited Germany twice this year and I realized what good beer is, but its no problem, every bar in NYC has German beer, let alone the 200+ German bars they have on the lower east side!
Learning basic German will probably not work too well because I am planning to start there for the fall semeste (around october)
Israel is not part of the EU, but, you might as well say it is... No regular or student visa is required to stay in Germany, though I have't figured out about working permits/visas there yet.

Btw, thanks for the info! any other suggestions are much appreciated!

Renat

depends if you want a room in a shared house/flat or your own place. In Munich I guess €200-700 but 'up north' is cheaper.


€150 a month maybe


€50-60 a month perhaps

Renat, does your university not have an office that deals with semesters and years abroad? I'd think most unis, even small ones, would have at least a person connected with another office (such as student placement) whose responsibility is to help students who are interested in such opportunities, since they are so popular. Junior Year Abroad was a big program in my small university.

Or possibly the German language department can point you in the right direction?

I thought you were coming to Germany to study?

Verbatim,
Yes, this is the main reason I am going there, but as a student I would like a little bit of spending money, nothing major. I am looking for an internship in my field(investments/economics/anything busines related) that might pay a minimum, or some sort of stipend.

cinzia,
Rutgers University does have study abroad programs, but they cost an arm and a leg+your first born baby! I've found individual programs that would cost me much less, and no previous knowledge of German required. I did contact them, and outside of their programs they don't know much... looks like a bunch of kids my age are working there and reading to me some info form a booklet. So I decided to go the private route while having the credits transfer to my school through another united states based school that works with the program I will be taking abroad. I am a little tight on time but I know that most schools start around mid october, so I hope I haven't passed most of the deadlines yet.

boomtown_rat,
Great, right around what I've estimated! I figured the few school that I am looking at now, also are in the 5-7k a year range, so estimated 11-14k year including school/living/food.

Does any one know any good language/business study abroad programs?

That gives you two months, you could do the Berlitz course (Geman in 30 Days) twice (www.berlitz.us; dammit, my instant link function doesn't work). Just to get used to the language.

byrdbrain,
From your experience, is it any effective?

Hello,

My name is Renat, I am living in New Jersey, USA, I study and hold an associates degree at a local college. I would like to find out more info about studying
International Business and Finance. If you can provide me info about
cost for out-of-the-country students and accommodation possiblities, and any
other info that might be helpful for me to possibly start school for next
semester (the spring session of the year). I would also like to know if I will be able to
transfer the credits that I will earn at a German school to my US based
University.
Basic info about me.
- I will be starting the 3rd year of school.
- Interested to major in International Business and Finance
- 3.7/B+/95 average in school.
- I am not proficient in German (I cannot speak it at all).
- Very interested in the German culture, politics, and the European
business/life structure.
- Fluent in Russian and Hebrew languages.
- I want to start as a 3rd year student, and take business oriented classes as well as German.
- From my research I understand that studying in Germany is either free or a very small charge, I would like to confirm if this applies to international students as well.

I would like to find out any info about schools in or around Berlin

Thank you for your help

Renat

Topics merged by admin

You asked the exact same questions two months ago on this thread and got some useful information from a number of people. I don't see why anyone should go on trying to help you since it seems that you haven't followed up on any advice and are unwilling to do anything yourself.

Tuition fees for German Universities were until last year regulated by the federal government and indeed very low. Now there is no more federal regulation and each state decides what should be charge. According to that a number of states have decided to increase their tuition fees to Euro 500 per semester. This is still being discussed for Berlin universities. So at the moment the basic charge that you will pay each semester is Euro 85. However in each university there are some additional charges that include, among others, a semester-long transportation ticket, fees for access to libraries and a number of additional charges. For example in the case of TU Berlin the fees could sum up to ca. Euro 280. In any case these fees are still very low compare to the US or the UK. Here you can find some info about tuition fees in different parts of Germany.

Edit: note to self, search before answering queries that take too long.

You won't find many courses starting in spring, so looks like you'll have to push back your plans by another 6 months. At least that will give you the time to do some research yourself. The DAAD would be a good starting point.


How on earth are we supposed to know this? Just go and ask at your university

thanks for the answers guys, the reason i posted again was because i could not find my original post. i was not able to make the september deadline since the applications were due way before that.
ok well once again, thanks for the answers

Since I happen to be in a more forgiving mood than this morning I am going to explain how to find your (or any other TTer's) posts: go to your profile page (to do this just click on your username) and then click on Profile Options (top right corner). From the menu select and click on "Find member's posts" if you want to see all your posts (they'll be displayed in reverse chronological order) or "Find member's topics" to see any topics that you started.

A search on your own username works too.

Thanks Kay. As far as my research goes, i found that there are only a few universities in Berlin, and all of them require knowing German. I was thinking of maybe going to a German language school for the spring time and then continue studying in the fall. How are the semesters there? In US we have school from Sept - Dec which is the 1st semester, and Jan- May which is the 2nd semester. The summer semester in school is optional if one want to finish classes faster or needs to catch up. Is this a similar scenario in Germany?