At age 18, Alex Daily deferred his enrollment at a U.S. university, packed his bags and left his home in New Jersey to spend a year in Germany as part of a youth exchange program. As a Congress-Bundestag scholar, Daily lived with a German host family, attended a local high school and beefed up his German language skills.
"I enjoyed my experience in the country," he says. "I liked it a lot, and I could certainly have imagined myself just living there."
He went home after the exchange, but after convincing his parents, Daily soon ended up back in Germany. He enrolled at the Free Unviersity of Berlin, earned a bachelor's degree in political science and is now working toward a master's at the same institution.
[Discover countries in Europe where it's not too late to apply for a bachelor's degree program.]
And he isn't alone: In the 2013-2014 academic year, 301,350 international students studied in Germany, according to the Institute of International Education's Project Atlas.
For prospective international students interested in earning an undergraduate degree in Deutschland, here are six facts to know.
1. A foreign high school diploma alone might not qualify a student to study in Germany.
For instance, students from the U.S. who want to head to Germany after high school need a GPA of 3.0 or higher, among other prerequesites, according to the German Academic Exchange Service, often called DAAD. The organization has a tool to help students from different countries determine if their high school education qualifies them to study in Germany.
"You can’t just come over with any high school diploma," says Jay Malone, founder of Eight Hours and Change, an advising service for American and Canadian students interested in studying in Germany. "It’s a pretty high bar."
Additionally, U.S. students who earned a GED diploma or were home-schooled cannot enroll in German universities, says Malone.
Daily says his SAT score was "so-so," but his Advanced Placement course credits paved his way to a German school. "I’d taken enough tests and done well enough on them that they qualified me," he says.
2. Entry to some, but not all, degree programs is restricted.
Admissions limits, called "numerus clausus" or NCs, cap enrollment in popular degree programs. Students can check university websites to see the average GPA cutoff for applicants who were accepted into a restricted program the previous year. Students with GPAs below but close to last year's cutoff for a program might still have a shot at getting in, according to theEight Hours and Change website.
Some restrictions are national, while others are instituted by specific universities. Experts say it's a good idea to contact a university's international office to get information about which of the institution's programs are restricted.
The Study in Germany website, sponsored by the German Education ministry, offers resources for prospective students including some that discuss these restrictions.
3. Public universities generally don't charge udergraduates for tuition.
But there are still costs. Students have to pay a fee each semester that ranges from around $113 to $281, depending on the university, according to the exchange service's website.
Private universities in the country often have tuition costs for their undergraduate programs.
[Read about the hidden costs of earning a degree overseas.]
4. There are English-taught programs available.
While most bachelor's programs in Germany are taught in German, the exchange service has a database of international programs offered in Germany that lists more than 100 fully or partially English-taught programs.
Even if courses are given in English, experts say some knowledge of German will help students make the most of their international experience.
5. International students can hold jobs. However, students from non-European Union or European Economic Area countries have restrictions on the number of days they can work – 120 full days or 240 half days per year, according to the exchange service's website.
An exception: International students who work as a research assistant at their universities don't face those limits.
[Learn about the four types of students who should consider international universities.]
6. Students need to be independent.
"You get less homework," says Daily. "You’re more self-sufficient, and you're supposed to basically just do well on your own.”
Malone agrees: "The German university system basically throws the kids into the deep end."
Grades for many undergraduate courses at German universities are based almost entirely on an end-of-semester exam or project. Students need to establish good study habits early on in a course to ensure they are prepared for the final, say students and experts.
After prospective students do some initial research, they should reach out to the international offices at the universities they are interested in, says Irmintraud Jost, executive director of the Heidelberg University Association.
"Only if you talk to these people directly and ask them directly: 'I want to study A, B, C. What do I have to do?' Then you really get the 100 percent correct answer," she says. "There is no general answer to most questions related to studying in Germany."
