Americans studying in Germany ... for 85 Euros per semester. Also full health care.

[Millman]

Some ideals are loose, cumbersome, or whatever. There's always a catch to whatever you do even travel.

[Quintillus]

Originally Posted by Verbose

Go to Norway. Sweden just recently implemented restrictions on non-EU students, Americans included. Fees are set individually by universities, but typically you will need to pay minimum 15000 USD/year and up. That would be something in the arts or humanities. A science education is more like 60000 USD/year.

Since the new regulations were implemented in 2011 the figure for non-EU students in Sweden collapsed from 16000 to 1200 in a year.

Yup... no more very cheap education in Sweden if you aren't in the EU. You beat me to it. It might still be an option in Denmark.

Originally Posted by Mango Elephant

Thank you! That was very insightful! I'm assuming what you did was move to Sweden, and then learn Swedish, right? It's unfortunate you can't do that as easily in Spain. It's very smart of Norway and Sweden to offer languages in English. If I learn a language like Norwegian that has very few uses outside of Norway I might just be forced to stay. As if that's a bad thing! I'm sure you had reasons to stay. I dabbled very briefly in the language and it seems very easy to learn, certainly easier than French and Spanish!

I'm inclined to disagree on the ease of the language. Of the languages I've studied, I'd put them in this order, easiest to hardest, from starting with English: Spanish->French->Swedish->Russian. The challenges in each of the languages do vary, however, so depending on your background I could see Swedish being easier than French, and it's likely easier than even Spanish if you're coming from Danish or Norwegian. Perhaps if I studied both French and Swedish to the point of fluency, I'd even decide Swedish was slightly easier than French.

[Verbose]

Originally Posted by Quintillus

Yup... no more very cheap education in Sweden if you aren't in the EU. You beat me to it. It might still be an option in Denmark.

I rate the recent Swedish move as daft and long-term counterproductive.

Originally Posted by Quintillus

I'm inclined to disagree on the ease of the language. Of the languages I've studied, I'd put them in this order, easiest to hardest, from starting with English: Spanish->French->Swedish->Russian. The challenges in each of the languages do vary, however, so depending on your background I could see Swedish being easier than French, and it's likely easier than even Spanish if you're coming from Danish or Norwegian. Perhaps if I studied both French and Swedish to the point of fluency, I'd even decide Swedish was slightly easier than French.

I'd say it very much depends on what language you start with. French to Spanish is easier than French to German. German to Swedish is easier than German to French. Russian to Polish should be less tricky than Russian to German. Etc., etc.

Funnily enough for some reason I have no idea how English stacks up in this respect? Not Germanic enough yet not Latin enough either to give clear advantages? Or to both?

And once you've learned a second language, the investment cost to pick up a new one in its vicinity goes down. If you know French already, picking up a reasonable amount of Italian gets easier. Keeping them separate might become tricky. (In a multilingual group I've found myself able to juggle Swedish, English and French simultaneously. Brain turned to goo when one of the blokes started speaking German as well, which I do know, but apprently my limit is keeping conversation going in three languages at the same time.)

[Camikaze]

Given I need to spend a couple of semesters there (or somewhere else German speaking) beginning halfway through next year, I like this. DAAD seems to pretty heavily promote themselves, trying to draw in as many students as possible, so it's certainly cheap for international students by design, not due to rorting. The cost has plummeted in the last couple of years, which is amazing (for me), given it's not ridiculously more expensive to go over and study, even considering accommodation and travel costs (i.e. at least $1500 just to get there and back).

[Mango Elephant]

Originally Posted by Quintillus

I'm inclined to disagree on the ease of the language. Of the languages I've studied, I'd put them in this order, easiest to hardest, from starting with English: Spanish->French->Swedish->Russian. The challenges in each of the languages do vary, however, so depending on your background I could see Swedish being easier than French, and it's likely easier than even Spanish if you're coming from Danish or Norwegian. Perhaps if I studied both French and Swedish to the point of fluency, I'd even decide Swedish was slightly easier than French.

Russian is terrible to learn. Norwegian seemed easy to learn because of its present-tense conjugation - you add an 'r' to the end of the infinitive regardless of the pronoun. As someone who's studied French and Spanish it's very nice. But of course my dabbling was very brief, so the intricacies of the language I didn't really delve into.

I think I assumed it would be an easy language to learn because Norway is such a small country that I didn't think complexities that plague other languages would have enough opportunity to develop, but I guess I was wrong.

Originally Posted by Verbose

Funnily enough for some reason I have no idea how English stacks up in this respect? Not Germanic enough yet not Latin enough either to give clear advantages? Or to both?

I found many French words to be very easy to memorize because so many of them are can be found in English.

Adore, comarade, rose, somnolent, crayon, basket-ball, l'equitation are just a few (I probably spelled a lot of them wrong). I'm sure if I learned German I'd find similarities, too.

So I guess English is a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none kind of thing. I've read somewhere that around a quarter of our words come from French.

And once you've learned a second language, the investment cost to pick up a new one in its vicinity goes down. If you know French already, picking up a reasonable amount of Italian gets easier. Keeping them separate might become tricky. (In a multilingual group I've found myself able to juggle Swedish, English and French simultaneously. Brain turned to goo when one of the blokes started speaking German as well, which I do know, but apprently my limit is keeping conversation going in three languages at the same time.)

Haha yeah, it's worse enough that all these languages have nouns with genders, but they're all different, too. I'm great at remembering French genders, but I'm not sure I'd be able to keep them straight if I was to learn German.

[NovaKart]

That might be a good idea for me since I didn't get the chance to complete an undergrad degree, but I was also wondering like imperial if they have an upper age limit to get a student visa since I'm already 31. I'd also hate to study there and then have them suddenly change the rules like Sweden did. Are there any signs in that direction?

[Aroddo]

Originally Posted by NovaKart

That might be a good idea for me since I didn't get the chance to complete an undergrad degree, but I was also wondering like imperial if they have an upper age limit to get a student visa since I'm already 31. I'd also hate to study there and then have them suddenly change the rules like Sweden did. Are there any signs in that direction?

there is a very extensive stipend database for interested foreigners to check out (german, of course): http://www.daad.de/deutschland/foerd.../00462.de.html

and yes, there are signs of change: most states already got rid of tuition fees again and others are following. foreign student programs don't appear to be attacked by anyone, so the signs are good.
i am not aware of an upper age limit. during my time i met sponsored foreign students from the middle east who were even older than you. i honestly have no idea what criteria they use in deciding who to admit and who not. usually it's academic credentials i'd assume.