Nowhere else in Bavaria is the choice as wide as at Ludwig Maximilian University. Its 18 faculties offer a total of around 150 subjects. You can study almost anything here, from Egyptology to dentistry. However, there are no engineering courses, since those are taken care of at the Technical University of Munich, which has 20,000 students alone.

Depending on your choice of degree, studying in Munich poses a varying amount of physical challenges: long distances, overcrowded lecture halls, competing for in-demand library books or just plain orientation difficulties. Concentrating on your studies is not always easy.

100 locations - not just in Munich

Before you can do anything, you have to be able to find your way around. This can be a challenge, since the university does not have one central campus, as is the norm in the United States. Ludwig Maximilian University alone is scattered over some 100 different locations, and not all of these are within Munich.

30 kilometers to the north of Munich in a town called Freising-Weihenstephan, on the Life and Food Sciences Campus of the Technical University, is the Weihenstephan Science Center for Food Sciences, Land Use and Environment. Meanwhile, the campus in Garching is 15 kilometers away from Munich. Even the German Armed Forces or Bundeswehr University, where foreign students can study for one or two semesters, is not located in Munich anymore, but on the outskirts of the town Neubiberg.

Welcome service

Even eating is done in many different locations. The Munich student union lists 17 different canteens and cafeterias. This can make it hard to strike up acquaintances, since you're unlikely to bump into the same people on a regular basis.

But there's no need to worry. All the universities offer their students assistance and supervision. The Technical University even has a special "Welcome Office" within its International Office. This is where the supervision of international students, PhD students and humanities students is coordinated. Ludwig Maximilian University also offers its international students a broad scale of support. The local student union even has a special "complete service package" for foreign students who are not part of an exchange program. This includes finding accommodation for the student and special supervision from tutors.

Enough of German?

The common goal of all these activities is to help new students make a good start and to familiarize them with Germany and its people and culture. But what if you get a bit fed up with being surrounded by German order and punctuality? Lucky for you, the university's various national groups offer the possibility to meet students from other countries, such as China, Poland, Ukraine, Turkey and Bulgaria.

Author: Marcus Boesch