[khabaal]

As a german who works for a german university, i would like to point out that studying is actually not totally free.

Here at the University of applied sciences in Münster, you would have to pay a total 235€ every six month, consisting of a social contribution of 85.44€ and a student body contribution of 145.75€, for which you will get a ticket for free travel by bus or by train inside North Rhine-Westphalia for the whole six month. Some people in here just register because of that ticket. :D

To study in germany, you normally just need to prove that you have a specific amount of money to survive, pay for a flat, food and health insurance. And thats it.

As the website stated, we need skilled immigrants, because with a birth rate of just 1.3 childs per woman, the germans are slowly dying out, not to mention that our society is getting older and older like the one in japan. Attracting foreign students with a nearly free college is a great and very cheap way of getting highly skilled workers, its makes perfect sense.

[bpires]

It is not about it being completely free. The whole point is how 235€ or even 1000€ per semester is nothing compared to tens of thousands americans pay in tuiton. Top universities in the US like MIT and Stanford charge over $40000 per year. With half of that you could comfortably live as a student in Germany for a year with all expenses paid. I live as a student in Germany on 650€/mo. That's less than $10000 a year.

[k__]

The professors always told us, that the US is much more expensive with their education, but the people know this and have many options to save this money till the children are old enough to study, so it shouldn't be so bad...

[wyclif]

Is that supposed to make Americans feel better about going into crushing educational debt? Articles like this make me think I should be packing up and heading to Germany ;-)

[MaximillianII]

German comma detected above.

[k__]

lol

I don't even know how to set commas right in German, let alone in English...

[mhurron]

Funny guy.

[legulere]

Until recently we paid 500€ in Bavaria per semester additionally to the around 50€ we still have to pay and abolishing it made quite the difference, especially to people whose parents don't earn that much.

[fnordfnordfnord]

May I ask how much a student should expect to pay for housing and food per semester?

[lorenzhs]

Depends a lot on where and how you live, but 400-600€ should suffice easily if you're on a budget.

[eru]

To clarify: the 400-600 Euro is per month, not per semester. Bavaria is one of the more expensive ('cause rich) states. If you are willing to live in the East (hey, Berlin!), you can get by on less.

[maxlybbert]

> As the website stated, we need skilled immigrants, because with a birth rate of just 1.3 childs per woman, the germans are slowly dying out

I had wondered why the German taxpayers would be so generous to American students. Perhaps this will last longer than I expected, especially if some of the students hang around after graduation. I can't imagine it being official policy, but the obvious way to hook people into staying would be to get them married to Germans before graduation.

[mkaziz]

There's a greater chance of that happening if you live there for 4 years!

[aswanson]

I wish I would have known these things on graduation from high school. Limiting one's options to US schools can be hazardous to your financial health. Our system is terrible.

[pwenzel]

That's pretty fair, considering many schools in the US now cost $25,000 USD a year. How much is health insurance?

[nebody]

For most students it's free (included in their parent's insurance who pay ~8% of their income). The other's pay 80€ (or 160€ for students over 30 or studying longer than seven years).

[netrus]

For Germans it's free until the 25th birthday (that is, you are in your parent's insurance at no extra cost), afterwards about 70 Euro/month (until you start to earn ~10k $/a).

[cabinpark]

I pay 40 euro a month for my health insurance.