(OT) - Graduate degree abroad

Not sure how relevant, but my girlfriend did and she's a bit conflicted about it now mainly because of the cost. She needed to get away for various reasons and had an opportunity at a prestigious school, but isn't in a field that pays well at all. I suspect she would have done things a bit different with hindsight, but for her the value of the experience, being completely on her own, and being able to travel all over Europe was worth it. She didn't have a home, etc. to worry about leaving behind.

Do it for the whole experience and make the most of it. If you're just doing it for the degree it's not worth it.

Dennis.  The big question is do you want to stay and work in Germany or come back to the US?  If its the later, then there could be some challenges that you may face when trying to get a job.  Not to say that its insurmountable, but outside of a few very niche fields/colleges, degrees outside the US don't typically get the cache they do in the US compared to US degrees. 

Anecdotal example.  My wife's best friend decided she wanted to get her graduate degree in Germany.  She did so because she wasn't scoring well on the entrance example to get into her graduate program in the US, so she went to Germany because they didn't need an entrance exam.  IMO, it was not a well thought our decision because she didn't know the German language at all, so getting a job in Germany was going to be basically impossible, and she thought she could just come back to the US with a degree from Germany.  Well, both didn't work out and she was out of work for some time.  The good news is that she met her now husband in Germany, got married there and recently had a baby.  Still can't get a job there, but it's not all bad.

I seriously considered this, though I eventually decided against it for reasons that may be unique to my field. So I can't tell you what it's like, but I can think of a few issues that would need to handled:

1) Getting a visa - I don't know enough about Germany and the EU's systems to know how complicated a process this would be for an American.

2) Language - Do you speak German or do you have an English language program in mind?

3) Finances - You might not be able to work on the visa you are using to live in Germany. Do you have enough saved up to live otherwise? Can you get student loans?

4) Licensure - This is why I eventually decided against it. Turns out my field makes it hard for people with foreign credentials to get licensed to practice in the US, so going to an American university was a better idea for me. I know this is not true for all fields. I would just make sure that the degree you plan on getting will be as useful to you as an American one if/when you move back to the US.

I know someone that went to Veterinary school in St. Kitts.    

I got all my degrees in 'Murica but I knew a couple of people who went overseas for degrees.  One thing I noticed is that a lot of times US schools will have agreements or relationships with universities in other countries that can help smooth over some of the rougher edges translating over the credentials in the event you want to work here in the US.  That might not be an issue for you in your particular field (for example I'm in the computer tech space and there isn't a need for licensing or anything, while in my previous life as an attorney there are a number of restrictions/hoops you have to overcome in order to sit for the bar exam and practice if you're degree isn't from an accredited institution).

Anyway, good luck.

I’m wrapping up a master’s from University College London (dissertation due next week and then I’m done), 12 years after my BA. Glad I waited. Others have pointed out the probable difficulty of getting work in Germany after you finish due to the language barrier, and I have a friend whose experience was similar. He, too, ended up marrying a German and eventually got a job. But he said to work there you have to be fully fluent in German, even though everyone speaks English. Something to consider. 
 

Anyway, I loved my grad program. UCL is prominent in my field, which is global, so there’s no penalty for doing a degree outside the US. The program was only a year and even as an international student I was able to do it without taking out any loans (I’d saved a bunch over the previous few years) and only gave up one year’s earnings rather than the two required by most US programs. The professors and curriculum were excellent and I liked living in London. 
 

Now I’m back in the US because of covid, but had been planning to stick around and try to find a job over there. The student visa allows up to 20 hours per week of work and runs for at least six months after the completion of classes. Technically I could move back there now and try to find consulting gigs while I looked for someone to sponsor a full-time work visa. Pandemic says no, but that’s not UCL’s fault. 
 

TLDR, my n=1 is that grad school abroad is great. A lot depends on context, obviously, as others said. 

Do it. You will save a shitload of money

I did, but in reverse: four-year B.A. at a (Northern) Irish university, one-year M.A. at UM, way back in the distant past. 

I mention this otherwise irrelevant experience for two reasons. First to support Bronxblue's observation that study abroad is easier if your university has a relationship with another in the country you are moving to. Both institutions help to ease the way. Second, it can prove to be a great experience. As some have commented, it might not be as beneficial to career advancement in the US as attending a US university, but there is more to life than the workplace. I too met my spouse, albeit in Canada where I went after my year in Ann Arbor. But that was study in another country too, and of course language has not been a problem in my particular case.

I suspect the language thing is not as important as it used to be. In much of Europe, graduate education from the master's level on is in English. Of course you'll want to learn the local language if you stay there, but you'll be able to make time to do that as you complete the degree, if it's something you're committed to.

That said, in lots of fields you shouldn't do any graduate degrees unless you get paid to do it. I'm not sure about Germany, but funding could be a problem insofar as lots of potential funding streams may be tied to EU citizenship.

This is also field-dependent, but if you are old enough to own a home in the US, you may be significantly older than your colleagues at the master's level. 

If you want actually applicable advice, you're going to have to say what field you're thinking about.