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Comment by auggierose | Hacker News Reader

In the technical sciences Germany has arguably very competitive universities, but there is no University fetishism like in the US. Nobody really cares in Germany about what University you went to. So basically, thats where the American / UK system will be headed as well.

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I'd say University fetishism is localized to certain areas of the US, too. I've lived on both the west coast (Seattle, San Diego, Colorado) and east coast (Boston). In Boston, where you go to school matters....a lot, likely due to Harvard and MIT being here, along with several other universities. When I lived on the west coast, it didn't matter nearly as much and I felt that I had an easier time getting hired at certain types of jobs.

I second that. From first-hand experience, Massachusetts is the only place where people look down on a CS degree from UMass Amherst, for instance.

German universities aren't very good at attracting foreign students and they tend to underperform in international rankings (in large part due to the previous point). I don't think German universoties are an example anyone wants to follow.

With regards to attracting international students, the effect of English being the language of academia cannot be overstated. If you compare Germany with countries like France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Japan or South-Korea, I would rather doubt that it attracts significantly less foreign students.

I don't doubt that German Universities are very very good. But learning German is a very big added cost for most prospective students in the world.

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