I have lived the last 10 months in the university town of Tübingen, Germany, and during my time abroad I’ve noticed plenty of cultural differences between Germany and the US. One of the areas I've noticed this the most university system. So here are 10 ways German and American universities differ!
1. Registration
In the US, registration for classes tends to be very structured: you’re assigned a timeslot, during which you can go online and register for courses. In Germany, things aren’t so cut and dry. You may have a timeslot in which to register for courses online-- but this slot may be a month long. Some classes may only have registration by emailing the professor and asking to be let in the course, and some may have registration on the first day, where the professor will pass around a sheet of paper to put your student information on. As an American, registration in Germany feels like a big mess, and it certainly isn’t as quick or simple of a process.
2. Forget Freshman
Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior. These are very American words. In Germany, you’d typically identify yourself by which semester you’re in-- for example, I’m at the end of my third year of college, so I’d say I’m in my 6th semester. What gets confusing is when you’re in different semesters of different subjects. So I could be in my sixth semester studying German, but if I only added a Political Science major a year ago, I’d be a second semester Polisci student! Additionally, what semester you’re in is more of an academic identifier than a social one-- especially when people may be in different semesters for each subject and can finish some subjects quickly, or take many semesters for others.
3. No Dorms
American-style dormitories are just that - American. Some German universities may help place students in housing, and certain housing may be reserved for students, but they’ll resemble apartments far more than typical dorm rooms. Goodbye hall bathrooms, communal showers, and lack of a kitchen!
4. Academic Diversity
In almost any class I took at my American university, there would be a great diversity of majors. Of course, an English course was mostly English majors and so on, but I don’t think I ever took a course where absolutely everyone had the exact same major. Especially when taking minors and double-majors into account, the amount of academic diversity in American classrooms is quite large! Not so in Germany! Here students stick to fairly structured course plans (more on this later) and so most courses are overwhelmingly full of people who study said subject. My politics course was probably 99% students who studied Political Science, and I had a similar experience with Literature, American Studies, and German Studies courses. Whether introduction lecture or specialized seminar, most students in a particular course will be studying that major.
5. Very Structured Programs
As I mentioned before, course plans in Germany tend to be quite structured. Some perspective: for my German major in the US, I had a few “required” courses, and after that I could basically take anything I wanted, as long as I met the overall credit requirement. My English major, though more structured, was still fairly loose: take a certain number of credits from broad categories, and a certain number of electives. I think American universities tend to have a wide variety of options for courses to take, especially among the humanities. In Germany, though options still exist, they are often limited, and major requirements can be quite strict. Of course, more upper level courses offer more interesting, specialized topics, but the lower level of a program of study can be quite strict, even among humanities departments.
6. Frequency Of Classes
Most courses in the US meet twice a week, maybe even three times. Some types of courses (such as beginner-level language courses) may even meet every day! Not so in Germany. Classes will typically meet once a week. This, of course, frees students up to take more classes per semester, but it also can make staying on top of assignments difficult.
7. Final Exams
During an abroad preparation session in America, the speaker asked how many of us present had ever had our entire final grade for a course determined by one assignment or test. Very few people raised their hands. In Germany however, this is quite common. There are fewer small assignments, and more big ones. I have had entire classes graded on one or two assignments, including the final. Some classes are only graded on the final! This certainly happens in the US, but it isn’t as common!
8. Grading System
This one seems obvious-- the grading system! Germany doesn’t use the A through F grading scale like America does. Instead, your grade is a number! 1,0 through 5,0 are the grades, with 1,0 being the best possible, and 5,0 being basically failing. It can be weird going from one system to the other and trying to convert your grades back to what you’re used to!
9. Start Time
Courses at my US university began on the hour, and then ended 10 before. For example, a class would begin at 10 am and then end at 11:50. This gave students at 10 minute window to get to their next class if it was directly afterwards. In Germany, most classes start 15 minutes after the hour and end 15 before. So a class would begin at 10:15 and end at 11:45. Students may have a full half hour before their next class! Of course, some German classes do begin exactly on the hour-- the trick is to look at the course listing and see if the class is said to begin at 10:00 c.t. or 10:00 s.t. 10:00 c.t. is code for 10:15, while a time with s.t. after means that it begins at 10:00 sharp!
10. Culture
Of course the American and German cultures are different-- this could fill an entire article independently. I'll share a short anecdote from last semester. Disclaimer: I don’t think Germans necessarily party any more or less than Americans. Similar to the US, there are students who never drink and/or party, students who go out every weekend, and everything in between. One thing I have noticed though, is that Germans do give a deeper significance to studying and finals compared to most Americans. My (German) roommates were throwing a large and loud party on a Thursday night last semester. As much as I wanted to join, I was curled up in bed with a book and my notes because I had an oral exam at 8:00 the following morning. One of my roommates knocked on my door to see if I wanted to join the revelry and I barely had begun to say the phrase “I have an exam tomorrow” before he held his hands up, made a sympathetic face, and backed out of my doorway. Of course American students, for the most part, will respect someone who can’t go out because they have to study, but in this case there was no needling, no “oh, that sucks!” or, “I wish you could come so bad!” I said the word exam and he left without another sound. There’s a kind of reverence for exams that isn’t always shared by American students, for better or worse.
These have been the 10 main differences between the German and American university systems that I've noticed during my time abroad. Sometimes I prefer the US, sometimes Germany, sometimes both are terrible, but analyzing the differences is always an interesting look into understanding a country's culture.
