Ludwig Maximilians Universität München (LMU)

I would choose to live in a different hall of residence (probably Klinikum Großhadern in south Munich) because it was hard to get in contact with other students where I lived (they were all a lot older and even some families were living in my hall).

As the university is so large it is also very impersonnel. Lectures often have 300 students attending (although half of them tend to leave after 30 mins). Seminars can also be quite hard as some of the lecturers treat you as if you are a German student regardless of whether you understanding of German is good enough.

More consideration for Erasmus students (if you are treated like a German student then the expectations are too high and it is very hard to pass the exams at the end of the course). The translation classes I attended were good in this respect and the tutors gave the Erasmus students some leeway when marking work.

That you have to pay to register for courses (not a lot - about 10-15DM per course) and you also have to pay for the photocopies from the lectures (which cost anything from 5 to 50 DM). This put me off some courses as I didn't think it was worth paying for the lectures.

Nightlife is excellent. The university itself is probably a bit too big and impersonnel and I found it quite hard to get a lot out of lectures. There are probably too many English/Irish/American students there (i.e. I spent a lot of my time with them as it was hard to meet other German students and my German suffered as a result).

I used my English phone when I got there for a few months which was a huge mistake and got a huge bill (German mobile phones aren't very reliable but they are quite cheap so I now have one of those). My accomodation was about 100 pounds per month which was very cheap. Travel is also very inexpensive if you travel in groups (5 people can travel on a Bayern Ticket or Schönes Wockenende Ticket which costs 40DM). I also got a Bahnkarte which cost 135DM for students and makes all train fares half price (this is because I now travel mostly alone as I no longer live in Munich). The U-Bahn is also fairly cheap (about 20DM per month for the Innenstadt in Munich - this also includes busses and trams).