Studying in Germany as a STEM student

Norwegian fag here. I'm a physics undergraduate at the top STEM school in the country but I'm looking to take my masters in applied physics some other place in Europe because research options here in the north are somewhat limited and they don't particularly pertain to my biggest interests. My understanding is that England and/or Germany have some of the best STEM universities in Europe, and of the two I feel more drawn towards Germany because I've already lived in England for a small portion of my life and I want something that feels a bit more "exotic".

Also I've been to Germany three times (Berlin twice, road trip from Frankfurt to Munich once) and I really loved everything about the country: The people, the culture, the nature, the big cities etc. Also I'm somewhat proficient in german albeit nowhere near fluent, but at least I wouldn't be going there without knowing a single word so that's another reason for why I'd wanna go to Germany and not, say, France.

Anyways, my questions are, what are some of the pros and cons of studying/living in Germany nowadays, and in particular, what is it like to be a STEM student there?

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendelstein_7-X
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forschungsreaktor_München_II
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Live in Germany is pretty comfy ask something when you want

It kind of depends where u want to go desu. For example a big con in munich is that flats are really expensive. In Greifswald on the other hand, they are really cheap.

>Live in Germany
>When you want

At least learn English you shitskin

Stemstudents get worshipped because they rake in money for the Uni.

Also you will fit right in.

>This
Apartments can be really expensive

>Munich

when? :3

>Mixed up when and if
>read it myself
>a virgin on the internet calls me Ahmed

I've actually been thinking about Greifswald because I hear they have a good plasma physics department at the uni there. Can you confirm?

>Stemstudents get worshipped because they rake in money for the Uni.
nice
>Also you will fit right in.
In what sense?

Btw my only reservation against travelling to Germany is the impression I've gotten of there being some significant political unrest down there lately. In particular I'm not very fond of the seemingly ever-decreasing rights of free speech, nor am I very fond of the country's import of millions of people holding views that are entirely anti-democratic. Is it really that bad or is it just hype?

Also what is the general public opinion of Norwegians?

Also Life and Live was something I nearly always fucked up during exams

I'm finishing up my BSc in Physics spring 2018 so ideally I would arrive in Germany in the fall of that year.

I mean when did you go to Munich

oh, 3 years ago.

1. Decreasing freedom of speech?
2. Some are nice some are not like most folks
3. Norway=Sweden for most people so nothing negative

so close, I was there 4 years ago studying the language

Ist was hängen geblieben?

Naja

Meistens von meine Freunde haben alles fast vergessen, aber Ich kann auf Deutsch sprechen, natürlich habe ich nicht alles gelernt, mein Deutsch ist auf B1 Niveau

>1. Decreasing freedom of speech?
I hear people have been harassed by police for voicing unpopular opinions, in particular on the migrant/refugee crisis going on. Personally I'm mixed on the issue but whenever one side of the argument is being shut down simply because the other side disagree, that's a problem.
>3. Norway=Sweden for most people so nothing negative
Nice
Nice, German is tricky to learn but it sounds cool as fuck once you got it

>some significant political unrest
There is a general sense of disillusion with politics but no unrest to speak of. In fact due to history extremist views of any disposition have a hard standing here, unlike much of the rest of Europe.
>the seemingly ever-decreasing rights of free speech
I think free speech is in a good place still. Yes, there are occasional incidents like a recent police raid for internet hate speech, but unless you want to post nazi stuff on facebook it doesn't concern you.
In public you can pretty much say whatever you want. Political correctness is slowly seeping in but in no way is it pronounced, and since it disagrees with the mentality I don't think it will ever be.
>nor am I very fond of the country's import of millions of people holding views that are entirely anti-democratic. Is it really that bad or is it just hype?
Neither are half of the people here. But no it's not at all as bad or even noticeable as some foaming fractions will have you believe. You regularly see brown people now which you hardly ever did before but I've never had any problems with them, and unless you go to the bad parts of a few select cities or are incredibly unlucky neither will you.
>Also what is the general public opinion of Norwegians?
Very positive; we're all Scandiboos.

thanks for the informative post broski

Harassed by police ? What kind of people, any sources ? There is no problem with that unless you go full nazi Heil Hitler, all X are rapist etc.

>I've actually been thinking about Greifswald because I hear they have a good plasma physics department at the uni there. Can you confirm?
N-no sorry, I am not into physics. But I once read about their reserach reactor called Wendelstein-X
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendelstein_7-X
Funnily, Munich also has its own research reactor:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forschungsreaktor_München_II
>Also what is the general public opinion of Norwegians?
Such a thing does not exist desu.
> In particular I'm not very fond of the seemingly ever-decreasing rights of free speech
People here like to exagerate, but yeah it is a thing, and it is getting worse.
>import of millions of people holding views that are entirely anti-democratic.
Come on, dont be so mean. Most refugees are decent lads.

That's so cool that the universities actually have experimental fusion reactors, that's too good to hope for here in Norway I'm afraid.
>People here like to exagerate, but yeah it is a thing, and it is getting worse.
Yeah this is what I assumed; there is some truth to the whole censorship/PC thing getting worse but overall it's been hyped up quite a bit
>Come on, dont be so mean. Most refugees are decent lads.
Well I'm not being mean, I'm being accurate. Most refugees are muslims, and a true muslim, i.e. one who follows the Quran, the Hadith and follows Muhammad's example, must by definition hold anti-democratic views or he/she wouldn't be a real muslim. Someone who believes women are second class citizens, thinks gays should be killed and opposes free speech is not a "decent lad" in my view. Now I'm sure there are refugees who are decent lads, precisely because of the fact that they don't abide by all muslim doctrine and this aren't true muslims.

I studied physics in Heidelberg.
I recommend smaller city - big city like Berlin has too many "distractions".
Heidelberg apartments are very expensive though, but shared apartments are very common.
Medium sized city is better, but make sure you don't pick one with too few females ;-)
Göttingen would be a good choice.
Munich: too expensive
Berlin: too big and anonymous

I've visited beautiful Heidelberg once on my road trip from Frankfurt to Munich and I absolutely loved it. Such a gorgeous, quaint little town.

Do you know any Muslims ?

I have three very good friends (one from Chechnya and two from Somalia) who would themselves identify as muslims, but they're only muslims in the spiritual sense, and they don't agree with Sharia law. I also have a good friend from Turkey who's now an atheist but used to be muslim. Because they all hold secular, democratic views I have no problem being friends with them.

Now one could very well make the point that none of them are "true" muslims because they don't subscribe to all of muslim doctrine, but whatever.

Can confirm that Greifswald is big in plasma physics. Will be a very small physics department though (~20 students/year).

Wendelstein 7-X is a fusion reactor, operated by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, not the Greifswald university.
Garching has a fission reactor, not fusion, optimized for neutron flux (i.e. is a neutron source). Part of the Max Planck Inst for PP moved from Munich to Greifswald many years ago.

Is plasma physics the main field you want to aim for or is it fusion specifically?

Ah ok thanks for clearing that up.

>Is plasma physics the main field you want to aim for or is it fusion specifically?
I'm aiming for plasma physics in general because the two most interesting fields in physics to me is nuclear fusion and spacecraft propulsion.