4 ms·
To spare people the click after that dumb clickbait title: Germany only requires tuition fees of ~30-100€ per semester* from any student, regardless country of
by Mithaldu 11y ago
To spare people the click after that dumb clickbait title:
Germany only requires tuition fees of ~30-100€ per semester* from any student, regardless country of origin.
* For administrative stuff and often includes public transit tickets.
Also, previously (today even): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9656905 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9656905
- Dewie3 11y agoOh man. 30-100€ per semester and not literally 0€ per semester? I feel so misled and cheated by that clickbait title. Do people have no shame?
- shkkmo 11y agoBut it includes a public transit pass as well :)
- kaybe 11y agoAnd an even better insurance against accidents for when you actually are at the university. It also covers travel to and from anything you do there. Oh, and we're funding the student council with a few euros as well.
- flippant 11y agoI pay that much for bus passes per semester.
- billforsternz 11y agoI don't think Mithaldu was simply being pedantic about the word "free".
- Florin_Andrei 11y agoIf you're a computer, then that's correct. If you're a human being and you understand that 100 euro is essentially free, especially when compared to the tuition in the US, then the conclusion is a bit different.
- billforsternz 11y agoExactly, you are agreeing with Mithaldu (and me).
- Mithaldu 11y agoThank you for being the only one to understand that the word free was not what i was complaining about. The replies to my post have been both amusing and horrifying, and you are a shining light in a sea of shortsightedness. :)
- billforsternz 11y agoYou're welcome, thanks.
- coldtea 11y agoNotice how both his, your initial and your second comment don't say anything else besides that the title is linkbait and that it says free where in fact you pay a very very small amount? You might have been complaining about something else besides free, but information about what would that be is totally absent from your comments.
- Mithaldu 11y agoFrankly, given the prevalence of clickbait on the internet in general, and the general savviness of the HM crowd, i did not even consider in the least that the nature of this clickbait could not be obvious to everyone. A bit of a mistake of mine. I've explained that nature in a comment a little further up. :)
- billforsternz 11y agoPossibly by "his" you mean me, so I perhaps owe an explanation. I thought the point Mithaldu was making was sufficiently obvious. Instead of a title signaling the contents of the article in a straightforward manner, a more sensational sounding title was chosen. A step along the path to "Click here to learn the one amazing simple free education trick expensive US universities don't want you to know about". But the responses to Mithaldu seemed to think he was quibbling about whether a trivial amount of money was the same as free or not. I didn't think he was, something he has subsequently confirmed. Hope that helps.
- Dewie3 11y ago
- realityking 11y agoWhile you're obligated to pay it, none of that money actually goes to the university. It all goes to the student union and student services which are two legal bodies distinct from the university. So the education is free, you're just paying for some of the services (transportation, meals, housing, etc.) around it.
- aswanson 11y agoyou're just paying for some of the services (transportation, meals, housing, etc.) around it Heh, that's just a vague line item in a typical US college bill...(university activity fee, computer fee...). The system here is so extortionist on students. Sickening. Go Germany!
- tmalsburg2 11y agoThere is a lot more interesting stuff in the article than what you list. The title is central point of the article, I don't see why it's dumb.
- Mithaldu 11y agoBy shaping it in the form of a question asking "how?", the author makes it seems as if there is anything of any substance to the how. The reader who does not know that it's simply free will assume that there is something special about the students, or something special they might need to do and clicks on the link to find out what that special thing is. The bait is accepted, and the trap is sprung, ad impressions are achieved and the reader learns the banal truth: There is nothing special to do or be beyond being human beings and educated enough to be accepted by a german school. Stating outright in the title "All students get a university degree for free in Germany" would be honest and forthright, saving someone maybe a few minutes if they don't need to know anything more. But it is not used because it would result in less clicks for the author and less ad impressions. It is clickbait.
- tmalsburg2 11y agoI think you didn't read the article carefully enough. There is a precise list of things you have to do in order to get into a German university in the middle of the article. It's titled "How to apply in Germany." Also there is a lot of useful information about typical rents, expenses for groceries, etc. and there are a number of links to very rich resources with more details. I think this article is an excellent starting point for anyone who is considering to study in Germany.