Students are required to take Culture and Composition at the School in Germany and three courses at the host university the first semester. Second semester students take five courses at the host university.

Required Course

Culture and Composition: Intensive Writing for First Semester Students focuses on Hausarbeiten—academic writing for the German speaking classroom at university level—while it likewise asks students to practice critical reflection and intercultural analysis of both their own and their host culture. The course is offered through Middlebury and starts during the orientation period and is comprised of the following:

  • One week Intensive academic writing course at Language Institute ProfiL at Mainz, 120 min a day, (program participants only)
  • Weekly individual writing workshops throughout the semester (90 min)
  • One individual topic-exploration workshop
  • Pre-semester Diagnostic/Post-semester Diagnostic (one page each)
  • Capstone Project on Deutschland Gestern und Heute (three pages)
  • Capstone Project on Deutschland und Ich (three pages)
  • Pre- and Post-IDI

Additional three courses and Second Semester

Also in their first semester, students take three courses at the host university—either Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz or the University of Potsdam—and five mainstream courses in their second semester. A credit-bearing internship in their second semester, which can replace one university course, is optional. For a list of courses, see the handbook.