Looking for the Right School in europe

Hi all,
I'm reaching a point in my career where I feel the need to return to school. I've worked for years cooking in kitchens and love the atmosphere and food, and now I'm trying to find how to expand my knowledge. I'm looking for the right school/program where I can study chemistry, biology and food sciences. I'd like to find a 4 year program that could also push me towards a medical field if I choose to go to grad school. I have german dual citizenship from my mother.
Any advice, other forums I should look at, links to schools, people I can contact would be much appreciated. I just wanted to put something out there.

Thank you!

Skyler

Hi Skyler,

hello from Germany! First, there are a couple of points to be clarified. I am not exactly sure if I understand correctly what you are looking for. "School" is, to us Germans, something that children and teenagers attend. Are you looking for university studies? In addition to universities there are the various Fachhochschulen (universities of applied sciences). Do you hold the necessary qualification (high school grade) to enrol at a university?
Studying three different subjects at the same time also won't work. You'll have to pick one main subject.

Is this about Europe in general (which consists of 47 different countries) or just Germany?

How good are your language skills? Are you able to study in German? Or does it have to be in English, which would drastically limit the number of your choices?

Universities that do oecotrophology are only Kiel and Gießen, on FH level there are also Köthen, Hochschule Hamburg, and Osnabrück.

You may find this portal useful: https://studieren.de/study-in-germany.0.html

Hello Kathrin,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. By school I do mean University and for a specific field I would be looking at Biochemistry. I'll do some research on oecotrophology, I've never heard of it before. I would like to be studying in Germany since I have some family there. I would need to start with classes in english as my german is communicational at best and take german language classes alongside my other studies. I'm still needing to checkout the link you sent me.

Skyler

You mentioned "food sciences", that's why I thoght of oecotrophology. Biochemistry is of course more widespread.

Have you already found https://www.toytowngermany.com/ which is portal and forum for English-speaking expats in Germany. You may get more and better answers there.

Undergrad / grad school in Germany does not exist, at least not how you know it from the USA.

If you are going to study medicine you start right after the German Abitur. You get Abitur after 12-13 years of school and graduating from a preperatory highschool with what would be AP classes in the US. FYI, the German Abitur is considered equivalent to a 2-year general education degree from a community college.

People who have graduated from US highschool need a certain number and combination subjects plus a certain SAT score in order to have their highschool diploma considered to be equivalent to the Abitur.

Exact requirements can be found on anabin.kmk.org.

What you are looking for (learning chemistry, biology, food sciences in preperation for further studies) is commonly taught either in highschool or in professional schools in Germany.

The degree in oecotrophology is the closest academic degree for somebody seeking a career in the food industry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotrophology

However when it comes down to it, ecotrophology is still cooking/food prep and chances are you will still end up behind the stove with this degree.

If you want a complete change of career, you might want to look into studying chemistry, biology or medicine from the ground up.

Note that almost all bachelor's degrees are taught in German, there are very few degrees in English. The German government pays for the universities with German taxpayer's money, so it is natural that they want German students educated in their native language. Only master's degrees are readily available in English. See daad.de for more info.

So if you are serious about studying in Germany, you will need to learn German.

Since you are a German citizen, you could move to Germany, work as a cook here, learn the language, save up some money and then attend university. If you are broke, the German government will pay for your language classes and you can get social welfare benefits until you get on your feet and find a job.

Maria H., thanks for the insight. Very informative. It's one of the best responses I've read on this forum.