Posted by Lindenblüte on November 14, 2006, at 23:53:51
In reply to Re: What exactly is a Grad student?, posted by Meri-Tuuli on November 12, 2006, at 3:17:24
Hi Meri,
After I graduated from USA high school, I went to school in Germany for a year. I was in the Abitur-level there, in their college prep school "Gymnasium".We had to pick major and minor subjects, and write exams on them after 2 years (12th and 13th grade) the exam is called Abitur. I didn't do the 13th grade, and sure as heck didn't do any Abitur exams!) My major was Chem and Music, Minor was English and Bio. I thought that American AP courses (the ones that prepared me to do well on the Adv. Placement exams) were actually more challenging than the coursework at the Gymnasium.
but there's a lot of individual variation.
In college, I took half of my courses in my major, and the rest of my courses were either related to my major (i.e. another science class) or counted towards one of my minors (violin and german studies). So, most semesters I had 1 or 2 small classes "fun classes" about books, or literature, and a large science lecture+ lab and maybe a smaller science seminar. Violin lessons, and orchestra. disgustingly well-rounded.
Used to work with a european post-doc. he was not very sophisticated. not used to thinking about stuff OTHER than his work.
One advantage of studying in Germany is that there is abundant supply of gingerbread and Marzipan Stollen. that would help me focus a lot.
-Li
p.s. my brainpower died about 4 lines into this post. i should have gone to bed a LONG time ago.
(grin)
poster:Lindenblüte
thread:702575
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/studs/20060709/msgs/703567.html