Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Academic Differences-TU Dortmund

One of the biggest differences in academics in Germany is the school calendar. Most universities have a winter semester that goes from October to March and a summer semester from mid April until mid July.  Classes are mainly lectures (Vorlesungen) with accompanying seminars/small group discussions (ubungen). Seminars are led by professors and require students to participate, often through oral presentations. Students should take between two and four seminars per semester. Professors do not often explicitly assign specific pages to be read by a certain class period. Students are responsible for reading and independent study. Classes are less demanding in terms of day to day assignments and homework, but for the semester as a whole, the independent study part can be difficult and rigorous.

TU Dortmund uses ECTS to compare credits at the university. Completing the 4 week intensive German Language course before the beginning of the semester will get me 7 ECTS credits. Full time students take 30 ECTS credits per semester.

Grade Conversion from World Education Services
ScaleGrade DescriptionU.S. Grade Equiv.
1-1.5Sehr Gut (Very Good)A
1.6-2.5Gut (Good)A
2.6-3.5Befriedigend (Satisfactory)B
3.6-4.0Ausreichend (Sufficient)C
4.1-6Nicht Ausreichend (Insufficient)F

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