I don't remember, if I told all of you people on the forum about the difficult decision I'm currently pondering about. I'm pretty sure I've talked about it with people on Mumble though.
Anyway. As I have graduated at the end of June I'll now start studying Computer Science (Informatik as it's called here) in October. I just have to make up my mind where. I'd like to have a decision as soon as possible, so I can start organising and looking for a place to stay. I have two Universities in mind. One is the University of Lübeck, which is a very small, very modern University focused only on medicine, computer sciences and the stuff in between. I have visited the University already, and liked it very much. Instead of choosing a different topic as minor I could choose between four special topics. Robotics and automation, IT-security and reliability, biological computer science, and media and computing. As it's such a small university the ratio of professors to students is very favourable as well, and I feel more comfortable in smaller groups of people. Additionally it's in northern Germany, still close to the ocean and close enough to my hometown that I could visit for a weekend and keep in contact with friends.
That sounds all very promising. My uncle though, who works at Stanford in a cooperation with Bosch, told me that I should go for a university with a better reputation instead. The thing is, because Lübeck is so small it doesn't have a bad reputation or a good one, it doesn't really have a reputation at all. Surveys show that the students are all happy in Lübeck, but that doesn't say anything about the quality of the courses.
Because of that I'm contemplating going to Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe is a city slightly bigger than my hometown, and the university is rather traditional. It wouldn't cost much more than Lübeck, but the University is much bigger. It has a very good reputation. Surveys tell me that the students there consider it okay. Not overwhelmingly happy though. I would be completely cut off from family and friends. Going home would take 7 hours in a train and 139€ per trip. 278€ for a visit is a bit much imho. My father would probably prefer it if I went to Karlsruhe, my uncle would consider it wiser. I could probably live with it. I'm afraid of resenting it later if I chose Lübeck over Karlsruhe now.
No matter my decision I'm sure that I will always be doubtful whether I wouldn't have been better off with the other option.
I'm not exactly sure what I would like to do after University, so that can't help me here either. My dream would be working in research, but that's difficult and not really paying well. It's especially difficult to work in research in Germany, I've talked about that with two people who do. I'm also dreaming of moving to Scandinavia, I have been for at least 5 years now. In Lübeck I could learn Norse, but the reputation of Karlsruhe might help me more. I'm thinking of maybe going to Scandinavia for my Master's degree already, but that's something I'm absolutely not sure about.
I feel like I want to go to Lübeck while I should go to Karlsruhe. But I also feel like I'd be happier in Lübeck. Having to defend my decision before my father doesn't make it easier, he is the one who would have to pay for it (also by law, but I don't want it to come that far).
