# My situation

Age : 16

School I want to go : English university (Bachelor’s degree)

Thing I want to learn : Computer science

Country of origin : Japan (I’m not an EU citizen)

My money : not much

# Question

1 . I got a high school diploma from a test in Japan

This certificate is valid if I try to enroll in university in Japan, but I am not sure if it is valid in Germany.

Do you know how to check this?

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2 Is this correct?

If this is correct , I want to study computer science from these free schools, but is it difficult to get admission? (Blogs as description are also welcome)

https://preview.redd.it/hs9kbm3hb9681.png?width=739&format=png&auto=webp&s=77155bc0ea4023199ebb37c822444b7dba3aee76

3 Are Germans negative about Japanese?

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I apologize for the bad English sentences.

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# Edit

My opinion is often selfish or may be wrong

If so, I’m sorry

I was surprised that there were many wise Germans

It was very useful to me because everyone was sharing different information.

Thank you very much.

EU people are good and often kind to me

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# Already solved. Thanks for teaching me Many good people of Germany 😸

40 comments

  1. I don‘t think Germans hold negative views on Japanese per se. I‘m personally white in ethnicity so cannot comment on if you will encounter racism or not. Japanese(-style) manga and anime are popular here.

    If you want to check the validity of your degrees/diplomas, you can use the ANABIN database by the Kultusministerkonferenz. 🙂 About the English language university courses, I wouldn‘t know. Didn‘t go to uni here. However, check the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) for some scholarships for foreign students.

  3. >About 220 universities in Germany offer programs in English

    Careful, I believe the _vast_ majority of those courses would be for a _master_, not a bachelor.

  4. Check here if you have the entrance qualification that allows you to study at a German university: https://www2.daad.de/deutschland/nach-deutschland/voraussetzungen/en/57293-database-on-admission-requirements/

    More than 280 Bachelor programs in Germany are taught in English: https://www.daad.de/deutschland/studienangebote/studiengang/en/?a=result&q=&degree=24&courselanguage=2&locations=&admissionsemester=&sort=name&page=1

    You can either study at a private university or at a public one, public ones are tuition-free other than in the state of Baden-Württemberg where you have to pay 1,500 euro per semester.

    To get a student visa you need an admission letter from a university and you need to prove that your livelihood is secured, which is the case if you have 10,332 euro for your first year in Germany on your bank account. https://www.make-it-in-germany.com/en/visa/kinds-of-visa/studying/

    After your Bachelor you can either do a Master degree or you start to work. The requirement is that you find a job that is connected to your degree within 18 months: https://www.make-it-in-germany.com/en/study-training/studies-in-germany/prospects-after

    Computer Science is a great choice, you will have no problem to find a job with that.

  6. There is a big Japanese community in Düsseldorf, so I recommend you to choose a university in the Rhein-Ruhr area (for example Düsseldorf of course, Cologne, Bonn, Wuppertal, Duisburg-Essen).
    I think most universities offer programmes in English. Your next steps would be to check if you get a visa and to compare the programmes. Good luck!

  7. You need a bank account which holds at least 10.332 €. Otherwise you won‘t get a residence permit. This is a special bank account were each month you are only allowed to withdraw around 850€. This is a special account called „blocked account“ and needs to be opened by a special provided. It is to assure that you have enough money for your first year in Germany

    Here is the offical list of everything you need:

    https://japan.diplo.de/ja-ja/service/study/908722

    Heres more:

    https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/sperrkonto/388600

    https://www.studying-in-germany.org/financing-your-studies-in-germany/

    https://www.studying-in-germany.org/germany-blocked-account-foreign-students/

  8. If you are coming to work and live in Germany, you actually should be extremely fluent in German. This is just the way it is here and also remember that Europe has over 100 million native German speakers, we are by far the largest language group.

    Have you considered studying in the UK instead? Yes, they left with Brexit, but if you get your degree there, you should be able to use the UK as an easy stepping stone into Europe.

    You could spend the holidays travelling Europe and getting to know us a little better.

    Once you have tasted the food in France and Italy and experienced their beautiful and warm countryside – maybe you want to move there instead?

    The other country to consider is the Netherlands. I don‘t know about the universities, but they have a lot of companies where you can work with English only. In Germany that is very rare.

    In Germany usually everything is in German.

    Also the university culture is extremely hard, many exams have to written several times to pass, an 80% failure rate can be totally normal for some exams in math for instance. There is also nobody helping you along with your courses or degreee, unlike US universities.

    Our universities are mostly free, yes, but they are mass institutions and you need very strong psychological resilience to „survive“ the degree if you are going into science, math,medicine or IT.

    Nobody cares if you manage it and some degrees have very high dropout rates.

    The city of Düsseldorf, as far as I know, is the city with the largest Japanese community in Germany. They even have some street signs in both German and Japanese in their honour.

    Maybe try to find social media groups of Japanese people living and studying/working here. They can probably give you much better details than we can.

    Good luck in your journey, going abroad is always good for the soul and you will make wonderful friends along the way.

    ETA: also please consider Ireland…in the EU, English language, however Uni is not free, but maybe there is a scholarship or a project you can attach yourself too?

  9. Hello if you like AI you can take bachelor of AI in Johannes Kepler university in Austria, it’s english course with a tuition of 700 Euros per semester and similar living costs as germany.

    I did not find any tuition free bachelor courses in germany for cs. My take is do your bachelor in Japan and you have a lot of options to move for masters. Don’t lose your japan education as it is widely accepted.

  10. I’m currently a Computer Science student here and just want to tell you to carefully look up the programs you are applying to because in my course there were a few foreign students who mistakenly thought that the course was taught in English. Because on the information page it says you need good English. This is just because you’ll need English during the program but the main part of lectures/exams is in German. I think this applies to most Computer Science Courses in Germany and I’m not even sure if fully English Bachelor Programs exist. It will definitely be harder for you to live here too if you don’t speak german, but if you learn at least B2 German you should be fine.
    For your 2nd question most of the time admission is easy in CS. And to your 3rd question definitely not but sadly idiots exist everywhere in the world :/
    Good Luck!

  11. The best course of action might be to look up a few universities, you are considering and contact them directly. You might find an email address of the admission office or a student-body representation.
    They will definitely speak English and know a lot about the requirements.

  14. Something I have not seen mentioned yet:

    Look into doing a Working Holiday or year as Au-Pair in Germany.

    It won’t help you with the money problem (=the 10k in a blocked account), but spending time in Germany on a Working Holiday or as Au-Pair will help you learn German.

    Check the website of the German embassy in Japan for more information on the Working Holiday Visa.

    https://japan.diplo.de/ja-ja/vertretungen/botschaft

  15. You can make it work for sure. If you want to go here, come.

    CS Students are in very high demand. If you search for a University, Fachhochschule or other kind auf education (Ausbildung (apprenticeship) you will eventually find one that fits your profile.

    You should definately start learning German. It will open up opportunities and make live easier. At 16 you have some time to get rather proficient if you are dilligent.

    I wouldn’t worry as much about the financial aspect. There are pathways for foreigners to come without as much money I think.

    I wouldn’t worry people being prejudice. Really. Sure there might be some idiots like in every country but overall Japanese have very, very little problems with that here. I can recommend the Japanese community in Düsseldorf if you need some contacts.

  17. Not sure about 1.& 2. but

    > 3. Are Germans negative about Japanese?

    No way. Sure, there are some rare idiots, you have them everywhere. But in general people are fascinated by Japan and you may be asked a lot about it. There are a lot manga fans and even some people that listen to japanese music.

  18. Try the r/Rwth subreddit. There are many foreign students here especially from Asian countries. Maybe some of them can give you actually good info on what you’re trying to do. Courses are in German though.

  19. AFAIK , there are only very few universities which offer bachelor programs in English (including Computer Science domain).

    However, there are numerous universities which offer their Masters program in English.

  20. I jsut started my first semster here in Germany i can help if you if you have parts that you dont understand

  21. The English bachelors are mostly restricted to humanities iirc. I think LMU Munich has a Math bachelors in English.

  24. You only have to pay administration fees once per semester BUT the biggest money issue for non-EU citizens who want to study in Germany is that they have to deposit ~10 000 Euro yearly in a Sperrkonto. The Sperrkonto is a bank account that transfers ~861 Euro to your Girokonto for your monthly expenses. You have to pay the 10 000 Euro in advance in order to get a Visa

  25. I live near the city mannheim. The university here offers courses in English and they have many foreign students. Maybe search for “university mannheim foreign student” and look at their homepage. I think a German course might be required but I never went to university. Good luck 🙂

  28. OP I know you’ve said in the comments that you want to come to Germany for a Bachelors and not wait till a Masters. But, I would still recommend this as your best option. If you stay in Japan for your bachelors, you will have a few years to spend time learning German. Even if you choose an English masters program, you will need German to get around in Germany. It always helps to know the language beforehand, and if you can reach a good level of German, you might also be able to choose masters programs in German, which means you have more options. In this case, you will also have the option of getting a small job in Germany to add to your savings.

    More importantly for you though, the DAAD offers a scholarship for STEM masters students who are Japanese nationals. Many of my Japanese classmates had this scholarship, and it basically covers all your monthly expenses, so this ~11,000 euros you need to put away for each year, are already covered by the scholarship.

    I know you are also concerned about the state of computer science education in Japan, but honestly in my experience, most German universities really don’t check the “level” of the bachelors courses of all the applicants. They will be interested in the courses you took, the credits you earned, and your GPA. You can always go above and beyond the requirements of your university in Japan to make sure you are the same level as your German colleagues when you start your masters.

  32. You are 16 yo and have a high school degree. To enroll at a German university, you need an “Abitur”. That equals at least 12 years of school. Are you sure you have the formal prerequisites to be accepted?

    And I don’t want to burst your bubble, but at my uni, you would pay tuition fees as a non-EU citizen and you need C1 level German for a BA in Computer Science.

  33. English universities are in England, not in Germany.

    I’m partly joking and partly serious. Yes, there are courses and lectures in English if you choose your uni carefully enough, but there are a lot of things to consider if you study in Germany without speaking German: Your prof speaks English, but what about the countless university offices you have to interact with? What about the public offices? (There’s a shit ton of bureaucracy in Germany.) What about your landlord? What about various contracts you might want to sign? What about your insurances? What about your doctors? What about random people you might want to ask when the train arrives? How do you buy items of daily use if they look differently than in Japan, if you can’t read the text, and no employee speaks English?

    Long story short: You’ll often find people who speak English good enough to communicate with you. And often you won’t. More often than most people would assume, including younger German natives who think it’s normal to speak English. It’s not normal for a lot of middle aged and older Germans at all.

    If you intend to stay several years in Germany, you should absolutely bring some basic German skills with you and the intention to work on them when you’re here. Or else your life will be significantly harder in many ways you may not even think about right now.

  35. 1. To get into a German university, you need to get your HS Diploma recognized and send a notarized copy. Check with the International Admissions office of the Uni you want to apply to. At best, apply at several. You need some German to study here (even if the courses are taught in English) but there is the Studienkollege.
    2. If you have good grades in STEM, it should be easy to get admission. There are three types of such courses: regular Uni, technical Uni and Dual Study.
    3. I can’t tell you whether Germans are negative about Japanese people, but I was in an international German language program, and there were also Japanese people. Everyone seemed to get along fine, although it seems like the Japanese students hung out mostly with each other.

    Computer science and IT are really big here! I think you would have a great chance here to find a great uni program, and learn German and have a great time! I have a Vlog with info about studying abroad in Germany, and I talk about admissions, housing, etc. Check out the links in the description: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU6QcuDMBOc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU6QcuDMBOc)

  37. Bakabakashi! Some Germans will give you VIP access to their homes when they know you’re Japanese. Also Düsseldorf is known as the Japanese capital in Europe.

    For studying in Germany, check out a website called DAAD.

  38. It’s probably easier to do your Bachelors in Japan, take courses in German for 3 years and then do your Masters in Germany.

    Apart from that. It might be a lot easier to not apply for Computer Science but for Mathematics. You can study Maths as major and CS as minor and the difference is very little compared to just CS. The thing is that Math often has unrestricted admission and you can easily switch your minor (CS) to major after some semesters.

  39. As many people already answered the study related questions i would like to give my oppinion on the third question.

    “In general” germans that are racist are “less racist” to Asians, especially when you LOOK like you come from a 1. world country like Japan or South Korea. Most comments will be about food and weird tv shows.

  40. Just as a side note, you might want to look if you can qualify for studying in Düsseldorf, as it has the largest Japanese community in Germany. It is difficult to move to a new place, so having something like that might help you reduce the culture shock and makes it easier to get into the new surrounding.

    In General, a degree you get normally with 16 might not be enough to qualify just yet for German university. There is Studienkolleg that allows you to get the additional qualifications to qualify for German university though. From what I heard, you might want to plan in an additional year for that, as you need to finish this first before you can go to German University.

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