Freshmen-Info
Are you planning to start your studies at the Faculty of Chemistry in Göttingen in the upcoming winter semester 23/24? We will keep you informed about everything via this website and Instagram.
Dear freshmen,
The beginning of your studies is always a bit confusing and messy. Therefore, we try to provide a broad program for you at the beginning, so that you can quickly find your way around.
After you have decided to study chemistry and you are about to start your studies, the Faculty of Chemistry offers you a three-week propaedeutic course, which begins about four weeks before the actual start of your studies. Here all the basics you will need for the further course of your studies will be explained. We will also offer you some meetings in the evening.
After the propaedeutic course, the orientation phase will take place in the week before the start of lectures. In this phase, we will introduce you to the North Campus, the city centre and the pub life in Göttingen. There will also be information sessions, which we ask you all to attend.
In addition, there will probably be an enrollment ceremony for all freshmen from the university in the Central Lecture Hall Building (ZHG) at the Platz der Göttinger Sieben (Lecture Hall 011). There, the president of the university and the Asta chairperson will introduce themselves.
In addition, we will go on a weekend trip to Stolle with you. We are looking forward to all of you coming along. This will allow you to get to know each other and us from the student council better.
We hope that this will give you a good start to your studies. And of course, we are always available to answer your questions. You are always welcome to contact us personally.
Good luck and have fun during your studies
Your Student Council
About Göttingen
Extra Gottingam non est vita, et si est vita, non est ita.
– Outside of Göttingen there is no life, and if there is, it is not so.
Göttingen is a small and fine city. It is influenced through and through by the university and its students. Göttingen University was founded in 1737 and can look back on a successful historical development. Chemistry in Göttingen has been a world-renowned site of research and teaching since Woehler (urea synthesis, 1828).
Culturally, Göttingen has much to offer. If you are interested in theatre (DT, JT), music, art and literature, you will always find something.
Perhaps the biggest plus for Göttingen is the fact that every place can be reached quickly by bicycle. Göttingen is a bicycle city par excellence. Car drivers get to feel this through hefty parking fees. So, let the fresh breeze blow around your nose!
Göttingen offers the best opportunities for nocturnal tours. In the following some student pubs are mentioned: Nautibar, Trou, Thanners, Irish Pub, Mr. Jones, Villa Cuba, ZAK, etc.
Discos in Göttingen are: Alpenmax, JT Keller, einsB/Freihafen and of course the Savoy.
Who should study chemistry?
An exact “profile” of a chemistry student cannot and should not be given here. To study a natural science, you should bring along curiosity. One should like to question things and also subject seemingly familiar things to scrutiny. For example, everyone knows that salt is spread on ice in winter. But what is the reason that the ice then melts and prevents it from forming again?
A tip for those who want to know the solution: Freezing point decrease – boiling point increase.
The next question would be, if and how this problem can be described mathematically/physically/chemically. This example is typical for the natural sciences: One makes an observation or experiment and now tries to explain the results of the experiment either with known or new theories.
Now this sounds very abstract, but it is an important task of the natural sciences to analyze and systematize complex problems.
A great advantage of chemistry is the fact that it also offers a lot of room for practical work. Chemistry has a lot to offer for the “theoretician” as well as for the “practitioner”.
No one who had little mathematics in school or no physics or chemistry in high school should, if they want to study chemistry, give up on this endeavour. It may get a little harder, but it can be done. Nevertheless, it is recommended to take math and physics in high school.
However, science also means quite a large time commitment, especially chemistry, with its numerous lab courses. All those who want to study chemistry should have a certain tenacity and perseverance. One should not be directly discouraged by a “failure”. Enthusiasm and enjoyment of the subject help to overcome many a low point.
It is worthwhile to study chemistry because the German chemical industry is a large branch of industry and an important economic factor in Germany.
