German School > American School?

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I'm looking into doing the master's degree at my university, and I've been looking at the mandatory classes and prerequisites, and it looks to me as if I learned a lot of stuff in undergraduate German courses while I was on an exchange that I would learn in the masters degree at my own university. For instance, I have to learn things like how to solve the time-independent schroedinger equation, to do fourier analysis, and stuff like this. I don't know if there is some higher form to the fourier transform, but I already know how to set up the schroedinger equation and fourier analysis, and I can solve them most of the time so long as the math isn't too difficult or it's not one of those things that can't be expressed as elementary functions.

Also, I noticed while taking a first-year physics course on the exchange that the students were expected to know how to use differential equations, meaning that they must have learned how to do that in high school. You don't even have to know what a derivative is to pass American High school! Also the class I was taking it for was a 3rd year class in my major (mechanics 1), but that might be because my major is "Engineering Physics," for which I also have to know some computer science and mechanical engineering. Maybe the american physics majors take it in their first or second years instead of their 3rd, but anyway it seemed to me when I was taking that course that the German students were 2 years ahead of American students.

Also I took "Schaltungstechnik 1 & 2" classes in German, which translates to Circuits 1 & 2. I failed the exams, although I understood a lot of topics and I passed the pre-exams (they make you take an exam that isn't worth anything before they let you take the graded exam). Anyway I'm taking Circuits 1 in my university now and it looks like "Schaltungstechnik 1" expects you to know almost the entirety of "Circuits 1" as a prerequisite, so it's not any wonder that I failed because I was nearly a full semester behind the German students when the class started (I was also taking the classes in German, which is hard).

Does anyone else have the impression that foreign schools are higher quality than American schools? I know my experience is probably not enough to make such a broad generalization, and that the majority of the people on Wrong Planet have probably not had as much experience with this as myself.

German schools are certainly a better value than American schools, as they are so much cheaper. My company's intern from India says she would have studied in Germany. Alas, she doesn't speak German.

I think what you may be noticing is how fragmented American higher education is. The federal government doesn't run any schools outside the service academies, but every state runs schools. There are 50 different public systems, and some states do a better job than others. Private schools are more numerous, and can exist for any reason. There is no one accrediting body for each school, and each body has its own standards. There are certainly many great public and private schools in America, but there are many crapy ones as well.

There's almost universal consensus that American secondary education is some of the worst in the developed world, although that, too is fragmented, and there are pockets of excellence. I know nothing about German secondary education, other than that they use a radically different model.

European universities (not just German ones) are more specialized and have a higher entry level. In Germany a student needs a "Arbitur" to get into university. It all begins with a different secondary education system. Instead of a general 'highschool', the European secondary school system is differentiated. In Germany, there are 4 different secondary school types: Hauptschule, Realschule, Gymnasium and Gesamtschule. The Gymnasium is traditionally the school that will get a student the "Arbitur", in other words, it's a prep school for university.

When I look at American universities, even Ivy League colleges, the Freshman year seems to me to be a kind of general education that European students have already had in secondary school. For instance: MIT has an undergraduate course in single variable calculus. In Europe a student is assumed to be familiar with single variable calculus if he or she wants to study science or technology.

US schools are more comprehensive in their education than those that come through the European system. The entry assumes a lower level of knowledge in every subject area but encourages more cross-discipline work. For example, my masters was in the European system and I was taught only my own area of specialisation. Whereas at the PhD level at my American university the study involves my own specialisation, economics, statistics, formal modelling and game theory. The masters level topics in at the same university involve a similar level of understanding in the main area but also a fair degree of familiarity with things like economics and game theory and straight out quant. I have not come to a conclusion as to which is better but US grad students in my area are very well rounded whereas in the European system, I had more room to think.

If I was going to make a recommendation, it would depend on where you wanted to work. German schools are not really all that well known outside of Germany, French Universities are considered just plain weird. If you want to do physics, then there are lots of good options everywhere but remember that good US universities almost always have more research money.

My roommate took physics at Cambridge and seemed to enjoy it. At undergrad you can be a bit more flexible. I did not go to a top undergrad school, instead I took an Australian cheaper option for that and my masters, only then did I move into a top school. Students at top US schools in undergrad are basically, in my view, there as a money making machine to pay for my research at the PhD level. You certainly get a decent education at the undergrad top schools but you get the same stuff at the next level down and its cheaper. You only really get to work with the top professors in grad school. If you are good you will still be able to move into the top level later, on a fellowship and save yourself a bucket of money. If you go there as a Masters student and not as a PhD, then financial aid is an option but as a warning, even top schools are lazy when it comes to organising this.

Also remember tuition is probably cheaper in Europe, it certainly is for Europeans but if you are an American you have to pay to live there. The reason I chose the US was because the cost of living is lower for me, my Australian dollars by more USD than they do pounds or Euros. Financial aid across continents for students in a country where they are not a citizen is very difficult to organise.

If you have your heart set on studying in Germany there are US universities that allow undergrads to take a semester at a partner school. I was at UVA (a pretty cheap school compared to the upper level ones) last week and undergrads in my field there can take a semester at the University of Edinburgh for the cost of the UVA semester tuition. Most US schools have some sort of similar program you could explore. My friend in the Business school did a semester at Mannheim.