Honest Question About "Free" College

[Supafly]

And universities in Germany welcome international students, too.

As I see it, that is a greatz way to tie future potential to our country.

 

[Rey C.]

And universities in Germany welcome international students, too.

As I see it, that is a greatz way to tie future potential to our country.

Especially at our larger universities, we tend to have relatively large international student populations too. When I was in school, there were quite a few Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese students, especially in the engineering programs, but not so many Indians or Chinese, and only a sprinkling of Europeans and kids from Latin American countries. I think it's just the opposite at the universities that I'm sort of familiar with now: lots of Chinese and Indian students, not as many kids from the other Asian countries. It's not something I'm really tied to, so I could be totally wrong. But just going by what I see when I happen to be on a campus.

Because foreign students have to pay the same as "out of state" students in the U.S. (almost double), plus they have to get visas and can't work but so many hours, going to college here is far from cheap for them (unless they're on scholarship). So it amazes me how much higher education is valued by those kids and their families (especially those who come from poorer countries), as opposed to what I sense about a lot of American kids and their families.

One other thing. From what you've seen over the years, do you sense that German kids are pretty motivated to either get into a university or some sort of trade or apprenticeship program immediately after what we'd call high school?