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> German universities are still much more selective …than US schools? https://giphy.com/gifs/nWn6ko2ygIeEU https://giphy.com/gifs/nWn6ko2ygIeEU What are you b

> German universities are still much more selective …than US schools? https://giphy.com/gifs/nWn6ko2ygIeEU https://giphy.com/gifs/nWn6ko2ygIeEU What are you basing this on?

barry-cotter 4y ago
Public universities in Germany will take anyone who they believe could pass the course if they worked hard enough. For practical purposes this means you got the school leaving certificate, the Abitur. If you went to a less academic school (Realschule) rather than a Gymnasium, a grammar school you need to take an extra year but you can still go to a university of applied sciences which offer Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees as well. The only complications to open admission are for high demand courses that are very expensive to teach, mostly medicine. But if you got an Abitur and didn’t get good enough grades to get in your can just wait. I met someone who did a physiotherapy apprenticeship[1] in the three years of waiting. [1] Yes, what in the rest of Europe is a Bachelor’s degree and in the US a “professional doctorate” is a three year apprenticeship in Germany.
zwieback 4y ago
Sorry, poor wording. What I should have said is that the overall educational system ends up letting a smaller percentage of the population into universities, partially because sorting happens as early as age 10.
- ongy 4y ago
  I'd say that's a feature, and sadly declining. Though I do agree that the early split is questionable at best. The enormous inflation in degree requirements just makes things harder on everyone. Most jobs don't require college education in reality. And there's some benefit in specializing into more practical or more theoretical aspects during secondary ed. Providing different usable levels and styles of education to everyone is better than trying to get everyone into one shoe. Especially if there's people on the top of that education system benefiting directly from the system because they run an investment fund with an attached education institution.

> German universities are still much more selective …than US schools? https://giphy.com/gifs/nWn6ko2ygIeEU https://giphy.com/gifs/nWn6ko2ygIeEU What are you basing this on?

barry-cotter 4y ago

Public universities in Germany will take anyone who they believe could pass the course if they worked hard enough. For practical purposes this means you got the school leaving certificate, the Abitur. If you went to a less academic school (Realschule) rather than a Gymnasium, a grammar school you need to take an extra year but you can still go to a university of applied sciences which offer Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees as well. The only complications to open admission are for high demand courses that are very expensive to teach, mostly medicine. But if you got an Abitur and didn’t get good enough grades to get in your can just wait. I met someone who did a physiotherapy apprenticeship[1] in the three years of waiting. [1] Yes, what in the rest of Europe is a Bachelor’s degree and in the US a “professional doctorate” is a three year apprenticeship in Germany.

zwieback 4y ago

Sorry, poor wording. What I should have said is that the overall educational system ends up letting a smaller percentage of the population into universities, partially because sorting happens as early as age 10.

ongy 4y ago
I'd say that's a feature, and sadly declining. Though I do agree that the early split is questionable at best. The enormous inflation in degree requirements just makes things harder on everyone. Most jobs don't require college education in reality. And there's some benefit in specializing into more practical or more theoretical aspects during secondary ed. Providing different usable levels and styles of education to everyone is better than trying to get everyone into one shoe. Especially if there's people on the top of that education system benefiting directly from the system because they run an investment fund with an attached education institution.