The
following is an informal tip file for students who are about to study
in Darmstadt on the University of Arkansas exchange, written by students
who are returning. Keep in mind that these are student opinions and not endorsed by the university.
General tips for living in Darmstadt (How to get around, things to see, etc.)
"The
main way students get around in Darmstadt is by bus, tram or walking.
Mostly because those are the only modes of transportation available to
you as an international student. I would suggest trying to find a bike,
because it offers a lot more freedom and gets you places as quickly as
the buses do, if you peddle quickly. The main buses you should know are the H bus, and the K/KU bus, and the Tram 9. There are 2 main campuses, the city center campus and Lichtwiese. The K/KU bus and Tram 9 can get you to Lichtwiese from Luisenplatz.
Visit and talk to Christian Tischer
in Karo 5. He's in charge of American exchange students and can help
you with everything. Also, ask your tutor everything. No question is
stupid, and they're there to help you.
When you apply for your visa, go ahead and request a 13-month long visa, just in case. It's the same price.
Get
your international license before coming to Germany, but have it become
valid as late as possible, because you can drive with your regular
American license for your first 6 months with no problem."
--Steven Sonntag, 2017
Taking classes / the uni (Any courses or professors you’d like to recommend?)
"I would suggest taking multiple Deutsch-als-Fremdsprache courses after your month-long intensive course. The courses are taught similarly to the German courses at the U of A. Engineering courses that I would suggest are VerbrennuAgskraftmaschinen taught by Dr. Beidl and perhaps Aerodynamik I with Dr. Tropea. Dr. Beidl will give a summary of the previous lecture in English, at the beginning of the lecture. You can take both final exams in English.
Lectures
will be once a week for 3 hours. They are hard to pay attention to,
especially if they are only in German. Your first couple months will be
hard regarding following along and understand what the professor's
talking about, if you take engineering classes that regular German
students take. Just stay calm and google translate like crazy. The
American students from Virginia tech are very good to become friends
with and take classes with. They have a huge database of stuff for
classes, since they've had a partnership with TUD for many years
already. "
--Steven Sonntag, 2017
Shopping /eating tips (Restaurants? Handys? Best super markets?)
"There's the central mall, Luisencenter, which has some cool stores. The entire Luisenplatz area is full of stores, just walk up the hill towards the dome church and to the left, you gotta
explore the city, so I'm not going to tell you everything, but C&A
as well as H&M are very cheap stores with decent clothes. Great
place to get a cheap pair of tennis shoes if you need one.
You
don't have to buy a new cell phone, probably. I just stuck a German SIM
card into my phone and it worked. I got a SIM card from Lebara,
but most of my friends got ALDI Talk, which seemed pretty good as well.
You normally buy the SIM card and the buy your package of data online.
Have your tutor help you set that up.
Regarding food, there are lots of options. To save money, buy groceries and learn to cook. The main grocery stores are called Rewe and ALDI; you'll probably shop at Rewe a lot more if you live in Karlshof. Aldi is the cheaper of the two, but there's always Penny and Lidl, but they're not as good. If you buy at Rewe, you save a lot of money if you buy everything JA brand. JA is like Walmart's GreatValue, but cheaper. The
Mensa (Cafeteria) at TUD is pretty good for the price. I ate there
almost every day for lunch (a plate of food is about 2.50 to 4 Euros,
depending on what you get. For restaurants, you also have a ton of
options.
- There's a Turkish Döner place you can eat every street corner in Darmstadt. The best one is a small hole in the wall, close to the Roßdörfer Platz stop on Tram 9.
- Vapiano is a good Italian restaurant.
- There are tons of good asian places and burger places. For a huge plate of Asian noodles for super cheap, go to Asia Express.
- For pizza, go to the Hobbit. The Hobbit and Hotzenplotz are two bars that serve pizza; the pizza at Hobbit is better, but I preffered Hotzenplotz because it was a lot more comfortable, spacious, and more size options for drinks. Those two places are also the only place you can order a Laternchen in Darmstadt, a famous drink with Apfelwein, the regional drink of Hessen. "
--Steven Sonntag, 2017
Bloß nicht (Things to avoid)
"Avoid paying more than 5 euros for Döner. Avoid going overboard with drinking, especially when you first get here; moderation is always a good thing. " --Steven Sonntag, 2017
Random other tips
- "Travel as much as you can during your first couple months, on the weekends, because it's the best and easiest time. Oktoberfest starts on the 16th of September. Use goeuro.com and busradar.com. Also, Ryanair has random super cheap flights, so keep an eye on that.
- Go to all the events during the X-weeks, if possible; you'll make your closest friends in your first month through the x-weeks.
- Make friends with Brazilians. I'm somewhat biased, but they were the best people to hang out with. And the Spanish, they know how to party, but it's a little hard to infiltrate their group.
- Explore all the cities around Hessen with castles, when you're not travelling to other countries and partying with the other international students. Your student pass allows you to travel all around Hessen for free, excluding ICE trains. Always carry a photo ID along with your student pass.
- If you go to the sauna, know that they do full nude, mixed gender saunas in Europe. If you go to one with a group of friends without knowing, it could be a weird experience.
- Soak up the sun at the Hochschulstadion and the Woog, before the weather gets cold.
- The weather gets cold late September and doesn't warm up until the mid April or so. In Darmstadt, the temperature during winter is constantly around –3C, and it drizzles a lot, so bring a good rain coat that you can wear over your sweaters and such.
- Go to a Darmstadt 98 game. They'll be in the 2nd division, unfortunately, but they'll still be fun to watch.
- Go to all the little festivals around the town. This year is going to be the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, so there will be a lot of festivals at the end of October.
- Go to the Landesmuseum next to Karo 5.
- Germans tend to be a little harder to become close friends with, so if you make a small handful of German friends, that aren't involved with the international student groups, you're doing pretty well.
- There are a lot of sports and extra-curricular activities that you can get involved in. You just have to really pay attention to when you can sign up for teams and groups, because they tend to fill up pretty quickly.
There's
so much to tell you, but it's better that your find out the rest for
yourself. Darmstadt is a great city, despite what all the German people
say about it, and it'll become comfortable after a short time."
--Steven Sonntag, 2017
Students with an interest in expanding their international career options can enroll in the International Engineering Program — a multidisciplinary initiative between the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, through a partnership between the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures and the College of Engineering. The International Engineering Program allows students to earn both a German and an engineering or computer science degree in five years including a year spent in Germany.
Interested? Read more about the dual degree program.
For more information about the exchange year in Germany, visit http://studyabroad.uark.edu/exchange/darmstadt
