What uni for bachelor's? (Germany)

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Seyu
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Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2016 3:14 pm

What uni for bachelor's? (Germany)

Post by Seyu » Thu Nov 03, 2016 3:29 pm

Good evening,

I'm currently trying to decide which (German) university I am going to attend next year (currently pursuing a "Voluntary Social Year"). The course is physics, of course. I've visited a couple of "open days" and lectures by now and am just really fascinated by particle physics (maybe rather theory than experimental), nuclear physics and quantuum physics.

So I can choose between two universities as I absolutely do not want to go any more south even though there are good/better universities - I can't go there due to certain circumstances.

The first possibility is the WWU Münster which is ranked around 120-130 as a whole on average but is quite unknown for physics (rather chemistry, #46 worldwide). An advantage is that it's pretty close to my current home town and a friend of mine studies there. They also have kind of good research, imo.

The second possibility is the University of Hamburg. It's ranked much worse than the WWU (~240) but it's way better for physics (~#48 physiscs worldwide). There's also a physics institute with an particle accelerator in Hamburg, the DESY.

I'd really like to go into research later on, so I defintiely look to pursue an ideally good PhD. A professor told me that the bachelor uni hardly matters as every uni teaches you the same since the removal of diplomas. Now, it's possible and encouraged to switch university for your master's choosing a such that suits your research interests.

Is this true? Could I go for like WWU->Hamburg->PhD (somewhere)? I want to keep my chances at the best places, not ruining them by my choice of university, especially as research jobs are so competetive. I hope that you can help me out. By the way, my motivation behind physics is firstly the interest in certain areas, the incomparable accuracy of physics (relative to other sciences) and the fact that physicists always want to find out why things are like they are - causes. I'd appreciate if you could tell me whether this the right motivation or not.

Thank you very much, I sincerely apologise for any mistakes - I am really tired and exhausted.

Seyu



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