Studying at Freiburg or Heidelberg university

Thanks so much for additional comments and info. I did discover by random google searches (New Zealander who spent last yr in Heidelberg) that Heidelberg U hosts a 4 wk language intensive course in an affiliated program called the Max Weber Haus. So that sounds like money well spent- to arrive a month early, get acclimated to the general scene and hopefully make some friends. Freiburg also offers a similar program according to the internet (?).
The New Zealander had a fabulous time and extended her stay to a full yr.

We visited the resource room at the study abroad office a few days ago and found a brochure for the exchange in Baden-Wurttemberg which also mentions a 4 wk intensive pre-program, but bizarrely, it might be a central orientation site in Mannheim. One student who studied at Tubingen wrote on his evaluation that it was a bummer because following the 4 wk language intensive/orientation in Mannheim, he had to make friends all over again in Tubingen.
Hopefully she would be allowed to pick her pre-program.

She's required to list three university choices and rank them in order of preference. I'm getting the sense many of you would make Tubingen #2 and Freiburg #3? Konstanz sounds too small, Mannheim noted for business which isn't her field etc. For some reason, Tubingen requires junior yr status so she might not be eligible anyway..

In case you're interested, here's a link to the language center at U Freiburg:
http://www.sli.uni-freiburg.de/index_html-...set_language=en

@Kato, I'm not sure whether the term is inflationary, considering the fact that there are only nine such universities among the 103 universities in Germany. When you take into account, that the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg spends 4% of its GDP on R&D, well above the German average of 2.5% and the European average of 1.9%, this is not really a surprising result. (And just as a note, the state has nine "comprehensive" universities.)

Ulm and Hohenheim are both highly specialized. Technically - according to the Ministry of Education - there are three "classic" universities (with a comprehensive canon - Heidelberg, Freiburg, Tübingen) and six universities that specialize into certain fields.

Well, then that might indeed look lopsided, to have 4 elite universities among so few Though I am curious as to how they define comprehensive, seeing as those three barely offer any technical courses. Are you an American studying in Heidelberg?

A "classic" university (Volluniversität) does not need to offer anything technical, since that's not classic university business - there have always been technical colleges for that. A Volluniversität offers at least Liberal Arts, Medicine, Science/Math, Business, Theology and Law in both study and research.

A stricter definition would also encompass engineering, but only five universities in Germany and none in Austria fill that.

RKU - Heidelberg - Theology, Law, Liberal Arts, Business, Medicine, Science/Math
ALU - Freiburg - Theology, Law, Liberal Arts, Business, Medicine, Science/Math
EKU - Tübingen - Theology, Law, Liberal Arts, Business, Medicine, Science/Math
THK - Karlsruhe - Science/Math, Engineering, (Liberal Arts, Business)
UK - Konstanz - Science/Math, Law, Business, (Liberal Arts)
UM - Mannheim - Business, Law, Social Studies, (Computer Science, Math)
UH - Hohenheim - Science/Math, Agriculture, Business, Social Studies
US - Stuttgart - Engineering, Science/Math, (Liberal Arts, Business)
UU - Ulm - Science/Math, Business, Medicine, (Engineering)

Fields in () minimal only.