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by eulenteufel 2261 days ago
> You will need at least 1k-1.5k EUR net per month, which means earning 2k or more gross.

I am currently living as a student with ~ 500 EUR per month from working a student job in Berlin. This is not the most comfortable life, but is certainly is doable. On top of that we have BAföG which, if your parents don't earn very much, can be enough to study or at least be a good support. While BAföG is still some kind of loan, you only have to pay back half of it and the rest has no interest.

From what I found [1] about 41% of children are eligible for studying at a university. While I don't think this is ideal and the unfortunately the early tracking still does it's part to keep people from less privileged backgrounds out of uni, I do think that a system where access to higher education is tied to formal graduation sounds fairer than a system where you have to be well off or very gifted to make it to uni.

[1] https://www.welt.de/print/die_welt/politik/article156291438/...
2 comments
fastball 2261 days ago
> I do think that a system where access to higher education is tied to formal graduation sounds fairer than a system where you have to be well off or very gifted to make it to uni.

Seems like a false dichotomy.

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eulenteufel 2261 days ago
You can have both success in school and wealth as a filter if that is what you mean, but I don't think that is very desirable outcome.

The other answer mentioned state scholarships, which are offered to gifted and poor students. The options to go to uni are now: - Have parents who can pay for your studies - Be gifted/hard working enough to get a scholarship (I don't know how easy that is.) - Be lucky to get a state scholarship for poor people - Take massive student debt

This still doesn't look very nice in my eyes. Of course I am heavily influenced by my own perspective. I most probably wouldn't have been able to study in the US system. My teenage self was way to inexperienced to even consider taking a massive student loan.

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DeathArrow 2261 days ago
In our country we have state scholarships, awarded to both top students and poor students. While not much, that can help.
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