Germany Student Guide 2026

The academic landscape includes a wide range of universities across the country, from large public institutions to applied schools such as CODE University of Applied Sciences Berlin. Students commonly look at cities like Munich, Heidelberg, Aachen, and Berlin when choosing where to live and study.

For housing, students usually focus on university cities rather than the capital alone, because Berlin is only one of several major options. The most useful first step is to connect your housing plans to your chosen city and university early in the process.

German and English are both part of daily life, so a new international student can expect to use English in some settings and German in others. That mix matters in the first term, especially for everyday tasks outside class and for settling into a new city.

Germany uses the euro, and the German Student Visa is the visa name to plan for before arrival. In 2023, price levels were 84% of those in the US, which helps set expectations for day-to-day costs as you prepare for the first term.