Applying To Colleges

[Franzl]

Applied and accepted to Statistics (major) & Insurance and Risk Management (minor) at the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität in Munich.

Personal registration is next Thursday

[Franzl]

Just our of interest: How much time and effort goes into these university applications in the U.S.? It seems incredibly difficult and annoying, from what I've been reading in this thread.

[Franzl]

The German university system doesn't really place significant value on one university over another. Although there are rankings these days and certain universities (e.g. Munich) tend to be at the top usually, most universities in the country are thought to be relatively comparable, and I would say that which one you attended is not very important concerning future job opportunities.

Access to the universities (to simplify a bit...there are some exceptions and "personal interviews" are used in certain circumstances to make borderline determinations) is relatively uniform.

Slightly simplified, there are "access restricted" and "non access restricted" subjects. Each university determines themselves how they want to organize their programs. (Medicine, Dentistry and one or two others are restricted at federal level rather than at university level).

If a subject is not restricted (increasingly seldom with increasing student numbers, budget cuts, etc.), you just state you are going to study that subject at that university. Prove you have health insurance, show ID, provide a copy of your Abitur, and you're all set.

If a subject IS restricted, almost always, "applicants" are admitted to the programs ENTIRELY based on their average Abitur grade. They'll have x slots available, and starting at the top grade, x people will be admitted in the order of their GPAs.

That's pretty much it, I've never heard of anything remotely similar to what people in this thread have described.

[Franzl]

Yeah, US university applications seem a nightmare from Hell.

Not entirely sure, but I think they have to sometimes even pay for the privilege of having their application reviewed.

And then when you even do get into a university their degree requirements seem to also be rather absurd, having a round of basic courses in Math, literature, etc. (although some universities might be different) in the first couple of semesters. Either high schools aren't doing what they need to be doing or the universities, as dependent as they are on tuition fees, are just trying to make a buck.

The whole system is very odd.