Complete information about studying in Germany?

Information on studying in Germany for my BA

• Hello, My name is Natasha. I’m 23 years old and I graduated High School in 2007 with excellent grades. I’m an American citizen born and raised but graduated HS in Cairo,Egypt. I wasn’t able to enroll into college due to personal reasons but since I graduated HS, I have been working on tons of cultural events and currently work in a International school. I decided to go to Berlin this past month because I have a strong German background. My mom is German (revoked because she got married years and year ago). When I visited Berlin I fell in love with it and I said to myself what a wonderful opportunity it would be to study there. I read on here and other places how cheap the universities are. Now here comes my long drawn out question. Where do I start first? The more I research the more confused I get. I read on some places that I would need to enroll into Uni-assist first which makes me have to attend a prep college class (for a year) then I would be able to enroll into Uni . Some other sites I read since my schooling was done abroad that I would need to do the TOEFL exam (does that apply to me being born and raised in the States?)  I found a couple of colleges that I found with the Major I want and the English but this whole process has left me confused and maybe thinking this isn’t as easy as people said it might be. Also, I heard that I would need a German Certificate to enroll into any college from the current country I’m located at. Then I heard that is false and all I would have to do is take German language courses while attending Uni. The fact I graduated a while back ago, does that have any effect on me wanting to enroll and would it be easier to do this while being in Germany or being abroad? Could you please just push me in the right direction in this. I'm just scared to spend so much time on this when it will be a dead end for me. Any advice/tips/links would be extremely much appreciated.

• Answer:

  Hello Natasha, congratulations on your decision! I won't really be able to answer your question very well because it depends on the university and the degree. You would need to apply - as the German students do - individually with every university at which you want to study. If you are considering several degrees at one university as alternatives, you sometimes need to apply individually for these as well. Sometimes, one application is enough (especially if the degrees are very similar, like Business and Management or Graphic Design and Communication Design). The best website is http://www.daad.de/en/ , especially this part http://www.daad.de/deutschland/nach-deutschland/voraussetzungen/en/6017-university-admission-and-requirements/ where you can go through the specific requirements for applicants for each country, in your case Egypt. It will tell you the specific requirements for your High School diploma and the required language skills. If the degree will be taught in German, you will have to do the Studienkolleg first for one year. I would highly recommend that. I know some people who have done that and their German became really well within one year. They meanwhile speak it fluently without any foreign accent. Alternatively, you could take the exam that the other students take at the end of the Studienkolleg year without going to the Studienkolleg if your German is already quite good. If a degree taught in English will require the TOEFL, you may be able to have that waived as you are a US citizen, but then this will confuse everybody because your HS diploma will be from Egypt. I would recommend to just take the TOEFL. It doesn't cost that much, it's absolutely easy, you need no preparation time at all and you'll score close to the maximum result. I wish you all the best and hope that you will enjoy Germany! Andreas Moser www.andreasmoser.wordpress.com www.mosereien.wordpress.com