Correction: The original version of this article contained an error. Ute Karneth’s name was misspelled.
Three weeks into physics classes at Humboldt University here in Berlin, I’ve noticed a few things about German students:
1. They somehow manage to do all their work drinking cups of coffee that are about one-third the size of Bruin Café’s smallest option.
2. Their favorite sport, contrary to popular belief, is not soccer ““ it’s foosball.
3. They study a lot.
The first one has caused me the most trouble. The only place you can find a decent-sized cup of coffee in this city is Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks ““ American companies, go figure. There are none near my campus, so I’m stuck with at least four of the campus cafe’s four-ounce “cups” per day.
Despite this lack of caffeine, German students still manage to make it through university in three years.
After high school, you apply directly to a major at a couple of (public) universities. Your acceptance is based almost solely on GPA ““ there are no essays, SAT scores or exceptions made but for the severest of special circumstances.
This three-year-long bachelor program is relatively new to Germany. In 1998, 30 European countries convened to standardize their higher education programs.
In the last 10 years, Germany has made the transition from the “Diplom,” a four- to six-year program equivalent to a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, to the “modern” system of splitting undergraduate and graduate work into three and two years, respectively.
However, many students and professors remain unhappy with the results.
“The transition from old to new didn’t work that well because (university officials) didn’t realize that it was … an entirely new system,” said Ute Karneth, a second-year physics student at Humboldt.
Ted Masselink, an American scientist who has taught at Humboldt University for the last 15 years, helped Humboldt make its transition. Physics students now have “modules,” or sets of classes like analysis and Newtonian mechanics, that keep students on course throughout their three years.
Students follow these modules closely, and the classes often refer to one another.
“It’s a kind of hybrid between the old and the new,” Masselink said. “But it doesn’t work very well.”
Students are required to learn too much too quickly in the new system, he said, and often only encounter complicated subjects once.
On the other hand, American education is often cyclical, so that students continuously learn and review topics, Masselink said. The first time is often a general overview, whereas the second digs deeper. For example, the UCLA physics curriculum actually teaches electrostatics three times: in the second two lower-division classes, and in a more specific, math-heavy upper-division class.
Also, American universities often have general education requirements, which gives students a break from the rigor of their majors, Masselink said.
This may contribute to the higher German drop-out rate. Karneth said about 50 percent of her entering class dropped out of Humboldt’s physics program in the first three semesters.
Other than semester fees, between 50 to 250 euros (about 69 to 345 dollars), German higher education is free in most states. In contrast, UCLA’s per year tuition is $11,220.
Karneth said she feels lucky to have such an opportunity, but had she known she was going into physics earlier, might have been willing to pay for a Canadian or American education.
German universities tend to offer almost no extracurricular activities or student life outside of academics. But while there may be no official competitive sports, the unofficial sport on campus is foosball ““ there are three tables in the physics building alone.
The Germans all seem to have an innate talent for the game. The only time I played, I lost 10-2.
Still, students mostly get to know each other through their major classes. A class goes through its three years taking almost identical courses, and students are encouraged to form study groups early on.
“It would be impossible to do the homework without working with other people,” said Tim Schulze, a first-year physics student at Humboldt.
At UCLA, my professors asked our classes to work individually on homework, as they count for a grade. Here, students have to complete a certain number of exercises in order to take the final exam, so there isn’t any worry about plagiarism.
There are also no set pass-fail or grade percentages for the final exam, and the physics program’s notoriety for difficult finals means that students depend on each other to survive. Sixty percent of students failed and had to retake their exams for the electrostatics class last semester, Karneth said.
Professors showed students these numbers from last year’s class as a way to motivate them to study more, Schulze said. However, learning is your own responsibility. In other words, you study or you fail.
I asked Schulze, who moved to Berlin from his home state of Sachsen-Anhalt for school, whether he had any time to experience the city.
“Not really,” he said. “I study a lot, every day. I haven’t really gone out a lot.”
But is it worth it?
“Yes. I want to become a physicist. This is what I have to do.”
Bruin reporter Elizabeth Case is living in Berlin, Germany, reporting on life abroad while taking classes at Humboldt-Universität. This biweekly column is a collection of tips and insights from a student traveler. Email Case at ecase@media.ucla.edu and follow her on Twitter, @elizabeth_case.