I want to study abroad in Germany this spring at either University of Mannheim, Frankfurt or Hamburg. I am going to be a Senior and hopefully will get an investment banking full time offer lined up before I have to leave in February. I will have almost no classes to complete so want to basically meet some people, travel, party, and study a little before I have to go to work full time in the summer.
My questions for you:
- Which University would you recommend?
- Will I have an issue getting a job lined up before I leave?
- Where have you studied abroad?
The reputation of the universities in Frankfurt and especially Mannheim is very good in Germany. The city of Hamburg is great but the university is not as excellent as in Mannheim or Frankfurt - still good though. If you want to meet people and party I would recommend Hamburg or Frankfurt. Both have airports with low-cost carriers nearby (Bremen and Frankfurt-Hahn) that will take you around Europe low priced and convenient. You also can get from Hamburg to Berlin in short time. But if you study in Frankfurt you could eventually look out for a part-time job at an investment bank or in the banking sector, Frankfurt is the center of banking in Germany.
If it's about the reputation of the university, Mannheim (and WHU) is the best by far in Germany. But as you are looking to travel and party I would recommend Hamburg. It's an awesome city, with the best nightlife out of this three. Also Frankfurt is great, but Mannheim is far behind the two others. Mannheim is great to study, but nothing special to party, or have a great time.
It always depends on what you study. Economics (Volkswirtschaftslehre) is not Business Administration (BWL).
If you study BWL, Frankfurt and Mannheim will be your best picks in Germany. If you study VWL, then you should try Bonn and Mannheim.
WHU is a privat university. If you have cash and a solid GPA, WHU will be no problem, however if you want to travel, then you should get rid of Mannheim and WHU from your list.
Frankfurt is an ugly city, but it is cool to celebrate. But you should be a bit careful, because you have nothing around Frankfurt.
If travelling and clubbing are more important to you, then I will def. go to Hamburg, because Hamburg is one of the most beautiful cities in Germany I have ever been. You can also go to Kiel and learn how to sail.
The university of Bonn has no business department, but it is a classical economics school. Selten, the Nobleprize winner, comes from Bonn. Bonn is a small city, but you have lots of great opportunities to travel, because Cologne, Duesseldorf, Essen and more cities are really in the near from Bonn.
But if you don´t like too much mathematics, then Bonn will not be your choice and you will not be satisfied.
Honestly, don´t care about the name of universities. Most Americans don´t know what Mannheim is and what this school is good for.
Just enjoy your life in Germany.
I love how this guy asks for a good place to party and all the germans tell him which schools have the best rep and have great bank placement.
Asking germans on how to have fun is a bad idea.
Just go to hamburg, awesome city(and given no1 above mentions it as great school its prolly pretty chilled out work load wise)
Dude, if you plan on already having a FT position in the bag, just go to Hamburg. Fuck the prestige bullshit and have a good time.
i would recommend Austria over Germany, personally.
can't you go to berlin? that would be even better for an international than hamburg, although hamburg is great as well. and as it is your study abroad semester, university reputation does not matter anyhow. so dump frankfurt and especially mannheim.
and very good advice up there for frankfurt: work somewhere part time during study abroad semester - rly? wtf are you people thinking?
yeah part time M&A banking is where its at lol
part time work during your studies is very common in Germany. Not in M&A obviously. Nevertheless a good example is JPM who are looking for final year students to support the IM team over the year.
Dude, you could go to Wacken Open Air Festival. WACKEN OPEN AIR.
Hamburg University - party hard, work not.
/thread
Wow had no idea there were so many German nationals on this site, thanks for the great info. Some background; I go a non-target and am currently a summer intern at a regionally respected west coast boutique. I'm pretty confident I should be able to get a job this fall recruiting cycle (correct me if I'm wrong) and figure given my experience, if I can't land a job by February, then I should probably regroup and try something new anyway.
That being said, I'm definitely not looking to get a part time job in banking - I'm going with my girlfriend and I just want to see europe and party. From what i've read it seems like my choices should go Hamburg, Frankfurt, then Mannheim?
Also, the reason I am limited to those options is because of the limitations of my school's study abroad department. I need very specific courses to graduate that semester, and those are the only schools that support what I need.
I grew up in Germany, but went to school in US.. That´s the reason why I am in Massachusetts.
Germans don´t care about the reputation of universities too much in contrast to Americans.
Go to Hamburg. You will never regret it.
thread hijack!
not true - the differences between universities just aren't as big here, considering they're (almost) all state-funded, it's simply a much more even playing field! There's no Ivy League, no well-defined target schools,...
there's this saying about the US: it has the 50 best universities in the world - and the 1000 worst. def some truth to that...
There are some target schools indeed: WHU and Mannheim for example, but some others where banks recruit, too. But it's true. In Germany there's nothing like a Ivy League or something comparable to it.
B2T: For travelling, party and having a good time, you should definetly pick Hamburg. Though Frankfurt isn't that bad either. But obviously, you should erase Mannheim of your list.
If you're in Hamburg, you can easily travel to Amsterdam (awesome city ;), or the northern countries like denmark or sweden etc.). However, you should consider to travel to Bavaria for a week or two (even it's a pretty long journey from Hamburg to Munich/Bavaria. It's worth the way).
Hmm, I just looked up the classes I need and the only university that offers everything is Mannheim. While I was looking I also saw that Paris has everything I need, anyone have any thoughts about studying abroad there??
go to paris if you have the cash! paris is great
Paris>Germany, espesh with the GF.
Could you elaborate? I'll make sure she reads your post. I know little to nothing about Europe so any of your experiences would be helpful to hear about.
Ok so I have flushed out all the information: studying in Hamburg, I will have to take 19 units (15 units = full time), leave March 1st, will not get back until July 15th, and will not officially be able to transfer the units and graduate until September.
Will I not be able to get a job during fall recruiting because I will be back so late and can't officially graduate until the end of summer???
Go for Paris. Classes end latest beginning of June. Germany's public universities always end really late.
Germany Study Abroad (Originally Posted: 05/23/2013)
Hey I'm going to be studying abroad in Stuttgart, Germany this summer (Universitat Hohenheim); and was wondering if anyone knew of any good connections to make or things to do while I'm over there? Anybody know of any IBanks, PE firms, or hedge funds giving a try to reach out to?
On a separate note, how good does it look on a resume to either study or get an internship abroad?
Try DB. They have a pretty good IBD.
Are you fluent in German? If not, you will have trouble getting an internship at a German IB.
Their office is in Frankfurt, which is hours away from Stuttgart.
All the major banks and elite boutiques have offices in Frankfurt, which is roughly 90 mins (by train) away from Stuttgart. However, as KKS mentioned, you need to be fluent in German to secure an internship unless you have an extremely strong profile (near perfect grades, nice home university, stellar internships, strong network, etc.).
There aren't many HFs in Germany, you need to look to Switzerland (Pfäffikon) for HFs. PE will be pretty hard as well unless you are near fluent in German and have IB (internship) experience.
Btw, stop focusing on your resume while studying abroad and try to enjoy your time. My study abroad months were one of the best months in my life.
I'd forget about making banking connections etc (that is unless you are German-speaking). Focus on having fun and learning the language. If you ever want to work in Europe being fluent in German (doable in a year abroad if you fully immerse yourself) along with English will be a massive plus, worth more than an extra internship i'd say.
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