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Note: While we encourage you to consider staying in Germany for more than the required six months, we acknowledge the time pressures that might prevent this. In the past some students have scheduled their stay abroad in a way that allowed them to be away from UConn for only one semester but still do an internship and a semester of study abroad in Germany! It works like this: If you leave right after the fall semester in late December, you will arrive in Germany with about four months time before the so-called Sommersemester (= the regular second semester of the German academic year) which starts in late April/early May. So during these months you can do your internship. Afterwards you can start the Sommersemester which runs until mid - late July, so you will be back here in time for the next fall semester. The University of Connecticut is very fortunate to have several exchange programs with German and Austrian universities. Studying at any of those universities allows you to spend time abroad, improve your language skills tremendously, and earn University of Connecticut credit for the courses you take there. No matter how diligent you are in your German studies and how much you engage in personal communication practices with German students and faculty on campus, there is nothing that can rival full immersion in the target culture and language. The German major requires at least one semester of study abroad that in the case of EUROTECH students is replaced by the work abroad period. But we encourage you to expand your stay in Germany and take courses abroad either before, during or after your work period. At this point, engineering students can take advantage of the nine universities in the state of Baden-Württemberg and the Fachhochschule Regensburg. UConn has contractual agreements with all of them and their academic offerings can count as University of Connecticut courses/credits. The best combination is to study and work abroad, all of which you can do without spending more money on your education or without delaying your graduation! Both the Regensburg program and the Baden-Württemberg program allow you first to take intensive language courses, then study engineering for a semester, and finally explore German corporate culture and technical know-how for another six months. There is also scholarship money available in conjunction with the Baden-Württemberg program. Several students have already taken advantage of these opportunities. It is important if you wish to take engineering courses abroad that you begin planning early to obtain prior approval from the appropriate engineering department. Please discuss your plans as early as possible with your engineering major advisor. |