Details

• Germany
• BBE-18
• Undergraduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 6 months

1. Preparation

Collecting information regarding specific courses and professors beforehand is essential during your application process. Also, targeting courses that are popular/stand out due to the professor or course content, as free electives, is a great idea even if they are not apart of your study program at TU Berlin.

2. Accommodation

Studierendenwerk (STW) Dorms are a great choice for Erasmus Students. I shared my student dorm flat with 2 other students in STW Sewanstraße. The location was about 45 minutes distance to TU Berlin, and with public transport, I spent about 30 minutes to get to the city center. I haven't experienced any safety problems inside my flat and in the district of the dorm. The rooms are fairly large, and sharing the kitchen and the bathroom with 2 other people is manageable. Therefore I would strongly recommend applying for an STW as early as possible during the summer, as Exchange students are more likely to land spots compared to full time students in Berlin.

3. Academic life at host university

TU Berlin's main campus offers a very grand academic environment. With its very large Mensa, Gym, Library and other facilities, it offers everything a student can need on the daily in a campus. Its location is also very beautiful, between Tiergarten and Zoologischer Garten. The biggest difference between the academic cultures of TU Berlin and WU Vienna to me, was that in TU Berlin, attendance in even the tutorial lectures were not required, leaving the responsibility completely to the student. In many courses, the total grade consisted only of the final exam.

5. Every day life in the host country

Although a bigger city than Vienna, Berlin's public transport is perfectly fine for a student with its many S-Bahns, U-Bahns, Trams and Busses. Due to the city's bigger and more complex nature, it may be slightly more dangerous than Vienna, however nothing out of the ordinary for a big city. In the first months, Erasmus Student Network (ESN) Events offer a social environment for the newcomers where it was possible for me to meet many friends. Later with friends, finding social activities becomes the easiest task as Berlin offers much more than Vienna. TU Sport offers many weekly sports programs, and the campus has its own gym. I did not experience these offerings personally, as my program didn't allow me to. However, I can recommend Mcfit as a good gym option.

6. Testimonial

Going to Berlin did not change me overnight but as an overall process, I can point out some concrete social improvements. Meeting as many people as possible during the first 2 months were not something out of the ordinary as I did the same basically in Vienna. However, as an exchange student, I felt that I was responsible to arrange all the meetups and become the person who organizes hangouts, as otherwise it is hard to build concrete relationships in a temporary program. Normally, I used to be the type to wait for invitations, rather than reaching out to people to hang out. In this aspect, Berlin may have given me a much needed realization about how life works.