[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.