Esslingen is perhaps not the most well known city in Germany, which makes it severely underrated in my opinion. The city boasts a history of 1200 years, with its remarkably well preserved old town having building built in the 1100-1200! At only 96 000 residents, it is no means a major city, but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. Being nestled right next to the “Autohauptstadt” of Germany, Stuttgart with its more impressive 613 000 residents also provided a great deal to see and experience.
As mentioned, I continued my studies in automotive engineering at Hochschule Esslingen. The school has an excellent reputation in this field, and I now can see why. The laboratory spaces clearly have serious investment put into them, and the lecturers are extremely knowledgeable in the things they teach. Many have decades of experience working in the automotive field at of the many companies that are involved in the field and have facilities in or around the Stuttgart region. Companies like Mercedes-Benz, Porsche or Bosch, that are household names. This helped to create a sense of genuine respect for the professors, as you knew the things they taught were the “real thing” and based on real world experience and not just reading straight from a textbook.
My spare time was mostly spent exploring the in and around Esslingen. The old town, the castle and the old town hall built in 1422 were particularly interesting. The city’s location in south-west Germany meant it was a great starting off point for travels further away. Munich with it’s BWM museum, the scenic old university town of Heidelberg, Neuschwanstein Castle and Vienna were only some of the places I saw. Even neighbouring countries like Switzerland or France (that I unfortunately didn’t have time to visit) weren’t too far for a daytrip. Of course another thing I spent a lot of time was getting to know the other exchange students. I can happily say that the inborn introversion that Finns seem to be born with did not hinder me in this regard.
Studying in Germany was surprisingly enough both stricter and looser than I expected. I was prepared to “Mr. Professor” all the lecturers and that there would be strict attendance requirements, no eating or drinking in class and so on. As it turned out, the professors didn’t get mad if you didn’t address them properly, attendance was for the most part voluntary and you could even sip beer during a lecture. The biggest and most definitely stressful difference was that there were no retries on exams, unlike the two you get at TAMK. You got one chance, and if you didn’t pass the only option would be to retake the class the next semester. As one can imagine, this was a very potent motivator to study.
Overall it was an extremely memorable, life changing experience. If you have even the slightest interest in going, and are able to then I strongly, strongly recommend you go! It really is a once in a lifetime experience!
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