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Author Sellin with a university logo T-shirt: A village with 10,000 people, called a campus
Photo: Ina Berner
It was also and above all fear that I felt when I got on the plane in September 2023. I had never been to the USA and was supposed to study at the University of Denver in Colorado for ten months. Aside from a few clichés from movies like Pitch Perfect, I had little idea what my life would be like there.
I've been living in Denver for almost seven months now, I have my everyday life, my friends - simply: my American university life. As I write these sentences, I am sitting in a coffee shop with fellow students, the snow is melting outside. The fear is gone, now there is excitement, but above all satisfaction. The decision to study in the USA for ten months will forever be one of the bravest and best of my life.
And yet every day and in every conversation I still notice new differences from what I was used to and am still used to. A lot of things take some getting used to, some are strange, others are just different. Here are ten things I experienced and learned during my time in the USA.
1. Are you studying? Give me your money!
At US universities, money is taken out of your pocket faster than you can say "broke." Life in the USA is generally very expensive, especially in big cities like Denver. But money has to be particularly loose on campus. For a shared room, I pay just under $1,400 per month. Snoring roommate included.
However, rent is not the biggest cost for many of my fellow students. I'm lucky enough to be here as part of an exchange program; I'm actually studying for a master's degree at the University of Tübingen. That means I don't pay any tuition fees - unlike most others. A year of study at the University of Denver costs almost exactly $60,000. That's a lot even for a private university.
Both parents and students in the USA often take out loans for education. According to Forbes magazine, more than half of all students are in debt at the end of their studies - with an average of almost $30,000.
2. Campus Cosmos
After little Tübingen, I was looking forward to big Denver. But things turned out differently: Instead of moving to the big city, I moved to a village with 10,000 people, called Campus.
There are many days when I don’t leave campus. I can get everything I need here - even if it's sometimes overpriced. In the university fan shop I can buy muesli bars, baby onesies, yoga pants, ice hockey sticks – everything with the university logo, of course.
The cafeteria also has a lot to offer. So for those who eat meat. As a vegetarian, I can also pay $13 for a meal and make do with side dishes.
3rd orientation week… for parents?!
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Author Sellin on campus: Are you studying? Give me your money!
Photo: Ina Berner
“First-year weeks” – in Germany I associate this primarily with pub crawls and the desperate attempt not to sit alone in the cafeteria or lecture. Getting to know people was certainly one of the goals of the orientation week that I experienced at the University of Denver. However, it had another target group: parents. They walked across campus in droves and were just as entertained as their offspring.
There are probably two reasons for this: In the USA, college in most cases follows directly on from high school. According to the latest OECD report on the education systems of the member states, young adults in the USA are on average 20 years old when they start so-called tertiary education, i.e. a university degree - three years younger than in Germany.
Many first-year students (called “freshmen” in the USA) move to another country to study, meaning they now live several hours by plane from their hometown. It's hardly surprising that her parents want to accompany her on this big step.
They would also like to see what they or their child are getting into debt for. In the university shop they can then buy a sweatshirt with the University of Denver logo and the addition “Mom” or “Dad”.
4. Sex education
In the first year of study, universities in the USA are responsible for education, which in Germany is more the responsibility of secondary schools or parents. During my orientation week, I sat in on a play that dealt with sexual assault and the use of alcohol at a party. There were workshops on everything related to sex, alcohol and drugs - required for anyone who wants to get their degree.
5. Are you an athlete? Then relax in your classes!
If you want to get a free education in the USA, you have to play for a university's sports team. Whether football, basketball or, as in the winter sports city of Denver, ice hockey: being an athlete at a university is not just financially convenient. Studying also sometimes takes on a different significance.
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Athletes are allowed to miss training or away games more often and submit essays or exams later. The university seems to make a real effort to bother the athletes as little as possible with their actual studies - at least that's my impression. You should be able to concentrate on training and, above all, on winning. In addition to prestige, this brings the university one thing above all: advertising revenue.
6. Speaking of courses
The names of the courses at my German university follow a simple rule: they get to the heart of the topic. In the second bachelor's semester I had the obligatory "speaking exercise" in which we practiced public speaking and giving speeches. The public speaking course at the University of Denver had very similar content, but the course program featured the title “Speaking on Ideas that Matter.” That feels so much more earth-shattering.
And not only that: in some courses I learned things that I could only dream of in Germany. After a course on “Indigenous Feminisms” with a professor who herself belongs to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians community, I am now prepared for any Winnetou discussion. By the way, no one here has heard of Karl May and Winnetou. But why should they also know colonial fantasy characters?
7. You're doing great!
It's true: Americans are warm. In my first two weeks here, I was called “Honey” in the supermarket, and every second person wanted to go for coffee with me. I have now understood that a lot of things are not meant to be as binding as I understand them. Nevertheless, I will miss this friendliness very much when I am back in Germany.
But sometimes cordiality also has disadvantages. The feedback culture at my university is as “sugarcoated” as everyday life in the USA. In the public speaking course mentioned above, speeches were read out in a hunched position, looking at the piece of paper and with the mouth half closed. The professor’s reaction: enthusiastic clapping and “Great job!” So I often have to guess whether “You're doing great!” in the honest version is “That was shit, but I wouldn't tell you that.”
8. Let me give you a good grade!
It was an absurd moment: Before a multiple-choice test in one of my courses, the professor went through every single question with us. Everyone took out their pens to write down each answer. Afterwards we had an hour to answer the questions exactly as the professor had told us.
In fact, some exams or "written assignments" were announced in the same way as essays: "I want you all to get an A!" Not always, of course, there are also demanding professors who are really not interested in giving everyone the top grade give. And yet it seems to be in the interest of many that the students have very good grades - a university with good final grades attracts more paying students.
9. Awareness
Even before I arrived in the United States, I was in email contact with staff and faculty at the University of Denver. I noticed two things in their email signatures: First, everyone included their pronouns to communicate what gender identity they were and how they wanted to be addressed within it. And second, it almost always contained the same sentence: "I recognize and honor the Cheyenne and Arapaho people as the original custodians of the land on which the University of Denver is located."
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Whether gender identities or the confrontation with the colonial history of the USA and the indigenous peoples who have lived in the area for thousands of years - the “culture war”, as many US Republicans proclaim it, seems decided here, at least on the surface. Being politically correct and “woke” is part of good manners. But this facade also crumbles when you actually talk to indigenous students or professors.
John Evans, one of the founders of the University of Denver, was politically responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre, in which around 230 Native Americans were murdered in 1864. This was dealt with in a report, but there is little evidence of the university's real distance from its founder. The same applies to the names of the university’s athletes. They are the “Pioneers” – a military rank and, for critics, a symbol of violence against Native Americans.
10. I feel old
While I was always one of the youngest at the University of Tübingen, in the USA I have the experience of being one of the oldest for the first time. This is not only because first-year students here are much younger than in Germany (see point 3), but also because students here usually (have to) study within the standard period of study. They simply cannot afford to extend their studies (see point 1).
But it's not just the first time I've felt old. For the first time I am living in a place that shows me my own origins, my own foreignness and Germanness. So many things are still strange, new and sometimes even absurd for me. No matter how much I live my everyday life here, I will never perceive it as everyday.
I didn't end up in my own version of "Pitch Perfect." But in my own reality show, which couldn't have been written better for me as a protagonist and viewer.