Darmstadt is a lovely little fun, hip town and they have a reputable engineering school at TU:
https://www.tu-darmstadt.de/studieren/abschluesse/bachelor/e...
There is a lot of scholarship money to fund your living expenses here: https://www.tu-darmstadt.de/international/home/funding/index...
But the actual costs are very low. A few hundred dollars a semester. I can't find the one for EE bachelors but here are some ballpark figures for comparative programs:
https://www.tu-darmstadt.de/studieren/beratung_hilfe/details...
https://www.trophee.tu-darmstadt.de/course/coursefees/index....
Especially: https://www.teilzeitstudium.tu-darmstadt.de/media/dezernat_i...
[0]: http://www.militaryspot.com/national-guard/pay-for-school
This is a ranking vs cost issue somewhat. Ga tech is a good school in the top 5 but not as cheap as the Wyoming state schools for cost[0].
[0]: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/04/10-states-with-the-cheapest-...
~2 years of Community college, I got 60 credits over the 3.5 years I was in school.
I also worked a full time midnight shift job.
Both were huge. The job gave me a heck of a story for my future interviews and the community college was cheap.
You can see prices(~200$/term -- thanks to value drop in Turkish Lira) here: http://oidb.metu.edu.tr/en/tuition-fee-amounts
The EE department is infamous for being competitive.
Pros: Ankara is very cheap, the campus is huge and very active, the technopolis is also very active with companies such as Siemens, Udemy, OpsGenie etc. English is the main course language. Turkey is beautiful and central for your summer plans. It accepts SAT with minimum 1200 out of 1600, so for a native speaker with good math skills, you should be able to get in easily, it is very competitive for Locals, arguably the best Engineering Uni in Turkey with a huge alumni network in EU/US/CA.
Cons: Ankara is a bit boring, but campus being huge makes up for that, some low-level staff(canteen clerks etc.) don't speak english, students would be happy to help-out. Some Prof decide to teach mixed with Turkish, but this is not very common, exams are always English.
Disclaimer: I have studied as foreign student in CS(CENG) department, I made a really good choice choosing METU and CENG, EE I am not sure. Feel free to reach out if you have questions.
For instance, a bachelor degree is 170 euros per year (+ 90 euros of student life and campus service fees). Housing can be expansive in some cities like Paris...
For instance, the bachelor degree of EE at Sorbonne université (former Pierre et Marie Curie university before it merged with the historical Sorbonne): http://sciences.sorbonne-universite.fr/en/education/diplomas...
Bachelor degrees are typically taught in French though. Master degrees are sometimes taught in English.
Note that many universities don't follow these rules at all, and will let you sign up (paying the normal price) even if you worked more than two years since your last diploma.
I don't really know how it works for foreigners, and many people (including social workers and advisers) are confused by this.
I also know some foreign students in French universities, who went doing masters or PhD and they pay the same as a French student. I doubt it is different for bachelor degrees.
This article from Le Monde implies that they charge foreigners the same price as French students: https://www.lemonde.fr/education/article/2014/11/26/faire-pa...
I think that you speak about "formation continue" in your first paragraph. I think that if you register of your own, you actually get the normal fees. It is only if you qualify for "formation continue" which is more restrictive than being out of school for 2 years. It seems that it means you are funded by Pôle Emploi, or a company etc (see here: https://www.univ-paris8.fr/Formation-continue). So someone who is jobless but not registered as jobless in PôleEmploi can do"formation initiale". Also: https://information-documentation.fr/scolarite/regimes-et-mo... For sure, it does not seem to be very clear.
Both my pedagogical (from the university) counseler and the one from Pôle Emploi told me that I was not eligibile to "formation initiale", and that I could only continue studying in "formation continue", since I had already studied, and worked for more than two years. Many people told me the same.
Luckily, I did not listen to them, and still registered, successfully.
I think that many persons (including myself & many public education workers) have a poor understanding of this (admittedly unclear) part of the education code. From my understanding, everyone is eligible to "formation initiale", while some people in a specific situation are eligible to "formation continue", which has been misunderstood as meaning that people that are in this situation are also not eligible to "formation initiale".
And there are 4 ENS (écoles normales supérieures) in France so even more opportunities!
French is one of the most difficult Western languages to master, so keep that in mind. Think a year of formal study.
Even for Germany, the visa office typically gives you a German language test that requires you to speak the language well.
If you're one of those people that thinks "I'll pick up a new language on the airplane", you're in for a rude awakening.
Any language. As long as it's English.
I... I guess?
There's a nice private engineering-focused school near me that costs $5424 for 8 credits per semester as a "part timer" or $13013 for 12 or more credits per semester. So 50% more credits graduates you 50% sooner but costs a mere 139% more money.
Of course you need to factor in the cost of living to come up with a total cost of taking 8 years vs 4 years.
The math can get extremely weird if you can do scholarships; you might run a moderately large net profit if you join the military in a support role (commo tech?) and take some classes during your enlistment and some CLEP tests, then collect the GI Bill afterward leaving the military while in school if you have some financial self discipline. Or a ROTC scholarship, etc. Reserves will get you less money but go quicker. National Guard service, depending on state, may result in $0 tuition at a state school.
I would recommend against ROTC scholarship in that the military will assign your branch based on stack ranking GPA, and engineering school GPAs tend to be pretty low compared to anything else, not that there's anything inherently wrong with chem corps or air defense. Also officer life is management not technical so if you have an EE degree you're unlikely to get branched commo or cyber you're statistically more likely to manage 50 truck drivers because in the military management is interchangeable cogs. Still, if you're willing to do work unrelated to EE for a couple years the military would provide a negative cost AKA net profit if you want a "cheap degree".
Is that true for foreigners as well?
- TUM Technical University Munich: Pros: Lots of interesting tech companies in the Munich Area (such as Intel, Siemens, BMW etc.), TUM has a good reputation, Munich is a very nice city to live in Cons: Munich is very expensive
- KIT Karlsruhe: Pros: Relatively cheap cost of living, lots of interesting computer science / electrical engineering professors
- TU Dresden: Pros: Cheap cost of living, nice city, Global Foundries lab is located there, allegedly good EE department
- TU Berlin: Pros: It's Berlin.
- TU Darmstadt: Pros: Nice Fraunhofer institutes, but bigger focus on compsci and mechanical engineering
>42 does not grant degrees or diplomas. Our program is based on levels of experience that you earn with a project. We deliver a certificate of completion at the end of our program. The experience and skills that you acquire while studying at 42 are essential for technical job interviews, and 42 has a strong reputation and connections to industry.
https://www.42.us.org/42-admissions-overview-requirements-pr...
The opportunity cost and your time are the actual costs.
So a couple of question to pose first:
- Can you live at home? If so, do you plan on living at home?
- Are you looking for scholarships?
- Are you working while at school?
- Why are you going for absolute cheapest? Why not best value?
I ask these because they are important questions that will shape what you look for.
I hesitate to say "cheapest" because like many other things, you will get what you pay for. If you go to a crappy college that does not have any prospects of getting you a EE job, then you just wasted a lot of money. I think best value is looking into a 2-year community college that will transfer to a state school in state. Make sure the in state school is a decent engineering school, and it has partnerships with engineering companies. Those schools are generally "feeders" into companies, and will offer internships and jobs after college.
Housing is not a negligible cost either. If living at home is an option (understandably, it may not be), that will also save a lot of money as well. If that is not an option, you will likely have to work while in school to keep costs down. I personally worked as a Resident Assistant and I got free room, board, and a food allowance. But you can also find paid internships during the year that are full time in the summer that will defer costs. My brother did that, and was offered a full time job at a major company afterwards.
On the other hand, there are scholarships as well. I know that many government jobs offer full ride scholarships in exchange for working for then for x years afterwards (usually 4 years). ROTC will not only give you a scholarship, but will offer subsidies as well.
If cost is an issue, go to a community college BEFORE going to a 4-year engineering school. Community colleges are a fraction of the price of a university.
Any EE degree is going to require a significant investment in calculus, some diff eq, linear algebra, chemistry, physics, and likely some humanities.
With some clever coursework you can do ~2 years of full time EE coursework at a community college.
If it's an ABET accredited program, there's a limit to how crappy it can be.
Most companies don't care where you went as long as it's ABET accredited. Sure going to a well known school doesn't hurt, but school reputation isn't nearly as big of a problem in engineering as it is for other majors.
You should get an internship though, or better yet do a co-op.
Tuition is absolutely free (regardless of immigration status, you don't even need to prove you are a resident), there are scholarships to cover transport, study materials, and so on and so forth.
The only thing you'd have to pay is for your own living costs. Work is unrestricted, so you could work to earn whatever money you need and, in fact, it is customary for students to work through college.
The down side is that the career is harsh: 5 hours of class (usually 5pm to 10pm) every day + homework + school projects + exams is the norm, for at least 6 years (which is how long it takes to earn the degree), most people actually finish in 7 or 8. And classes are only in Spanish.
https://www.hesc.ny.gov/pay-for-college/financial-aid/types-...
You can probably find some institution somewhere in the world which will give you a degree that is legal according to their local laws for $5 and no time. Is that what you want?
But even cheaper than that in terms of money would be free via a full scholarship, which you can get any many institutions if you're good enough. But then that costs you a lot of time.
And go spend a couple of hundred bucks on Horowitz and Hill (2nd or 3rd Ed.) if you want to learn about analog. That's a good bang for the buck.
In the traditional path, your best bet will be spending your last two years at an abet accredited state school that is teaching focused, not research focused.
An example: this morning I was thinking of a model where I need to open and close a door when a sensor is activated. The simplest way would be for it to pivot on a horizontal axis like an old-school garage door. Now, given a certain weight of door, how do I calculate the amount of torque my motor/drive-train needs in order to open that door?
The average graduate with an EE degree should have no trouble getting the answer in a few minutes: it's basic physics and algebra (maybe calculus if you want precision). But the average person who learned EE from watching YouTube channels probably will have difficulty.
If you are still a high school student, and have a knack for tests, then the PSAT might still the most important test you'll ever take.
20 years ago I was a national merit scholar as a result of the PSAT, and that provided me multiple full-ride scholarship options for engineering.
And yes, it is ridiculous that a computer test you take at 17 can have such a disproportionate outcome, but that was the case, and very well may still be.
The school is California State University - Los Angeles (CSULA). It is an ABET accredited school.
If you are just looking at tuition it runs $6,744/ 2 semester year for California residents. Estimates for a non-resident living on campus run $35,638/ 2 semester year.
Here is a link to the Universities cost and financial aid page: http://www.calstatela.edu/financialaid/2018-2019-cost-attend...
Cost of living for a student was around 4000-6000 eur a year, when I was student (~5 years ago), should still be comparable.
But you definitely can live very cheap here if you manage to either get yourself a dorm or find roommates (+ apartment).
(I'm CS student in Prague)
If I was doing it, the first thing I would do is look into CLEP (College Level Examination Program) tests. About $30 a Credit hour I believe. You can knock out 2 years of school with it. To be fair, some are not easy.
Like someone else mentioned look at community colleges. Different states have different nomenclature. But generally public College is the first step, then University to finish.
If you are thinking IT, I would recommend Western Governors. It is online, you pay per 6 months, and you can take as much as you can handle. In theory you could graduate in 6 months, but I doubt that is practical.
Germany is a solid choice. Far better conditions than in some neighbouring countries (cough cough France). Depending on the state (Bundesland), the fees can be very low to none. Again state-dependant, but in many cases foreign students must lock a yearly amount into a bank account and can only withdraw 1/12 or so each month. Quite rightly so: unless you're a monk, you'll need a bit more than they force you to lock up. Bachelor level is almost exclusively in German (exceptions may exist) and I suggest learning German: there are specific avenues granting university access and it's an investment of 6 months to 1 year at least. Living expenses are fairly low from my perspective.
Canada is a good choice because even if most foreign students pay _much_ more than Canadians or provincial residents, it's still several times cheaper than the equivalent in the US. What I've seen in Québec is of very high quality. Language (French or English) depends on the university. Linguistic questions aside, and here I speak specifically of Québec (other provinces may vary), you may be obliged to complete a series of pre-university college classes to bring your maths to level. The university generally offers these. Living expenses are probably a bit higher than Germany but still comparable.
Other things to consider, especially since we're talking about engineering: recognition and professional orders. Recognition: diplomas from countries known as diploma mills are like a stone around the neck whereas diplomas from others are generally well regarded. Professional orders: if engineering jobs in your target work country require membership in a professional order and your diploma is foreign, well, good luck with that -- in the best case, it can take months to join, in the worst case, they make you take corrective classes.
Finally, medium term. When you need a job. Canada vs Germany is a harder question. I changed careers and moved between the two so my perspective is skewed. I know that an EE diploma in Germany will definitely get you a good first job that will teach you a lot. The thing is, unless you're German, you're unlikely to want to stay there (some odd cultural issues, high taxes, relatively low salaries for talented people -- those are the general complaints of, let's say, North American and European foreigners). Canada has a relatively good labour market with better social protection than the southern neighbour. If you work in Canada, flexible people tend to fit in quickly (unless problems with the linguistic divide), but the taxes are also very high in some places, starting salaries are sad, and the brain drain to the US is unfortunately real. The winter in most parts is highly subjective.