The costs involved for studying at Polish Universities. Is education in Poland free?

While comparing Polish Universities I have a few question to inquire about. First off how much is the average cost per year of a university? I noticed that many say they provide housing for international students how much is the average cost of this in the dorms? Also would it be advised for me to apply for duel citizenship if I do choose Poland to study within, would it make it cheaper? Can international students take out any loans for school? or are the school cheap enough that you shouldn't need any loans, but maybe just apply for a scholarship or so.

Also I understand that Polish schools have many programs in English, are these programs good?? and if you don't speak polish will it still be hard to get around in other aspects? such as just going around town and such, or getting like a part time job.

I'm just looking for really an overall cost for a year of school in Poland, as it seems that many things you must pay for separately unlike here everything is all a packaged deal, you get room board, tuition and food is all included into one price.

One last question if you were to obtain a degree in Poland would it then be hard to get into a U.S school for law school or for your M.B.A?

No, unless you find a bank willing to loan you the cash on a commercial basis. There won't be any scholarships available for these courses.


In general, no.


Very. English language courses at Polish universities are poor.

Well I already know English, but really the classes are of highly worse quality if they are taught in English?


Really not even from the school itself?? Don't Polish schools want to be able to say that they have students from the U.S studying within their campus? In the U.S foreign students get scholarships so the school can say they have students from over 25 countries attending.

From the timeshighereducation.co.uk
The Jagellonion University here ranks between 351-400. I'm not talking about comparing these Polish schools to schools like Yale and Harvard but just average schools within the U.S. State schools and such, nothing great for those schools. Would going to the Best school in Poland really be worse than just going to an alright school in the U.S?

It would be not fair if they supported foreign students, but not Polish. Anyway they don't have cash for that.


Curses in English are to earn more money. They don't require so much on exams from foreign students as on equivalent studies taught in Polish. because they don't want to loose their tuition. They don't care about foreign students so much, because they'll live the country in the and, so will not spread opinion about the university in Polish market. And of course there must be exceptions.

Considerably so. They are a cash cow for the university, nothing more.


Why would they give scholarships to students who are studying in English and paying for it? It wouldn't make any sense.


Why would they care less, as long as people like you keep attending?


Means nothing here. Polish students couldn't care less if there are people from all over the world attending or not. In fact, in most universities, they hate those on English language programmes because the English language programmes are notoriously easy compared to the Polish ones.


Yes. Jagellonian is 351-400th for the Polish programmes, not the English ones.

English language studies are mostly a complete joke in Poland, existing solely so that foreigners can buy a degree at a low cost.

Well i'm not saying support them more, i'm just saying a partial scholarship but clearly you both say that it is not an option for this.


Alright so then NEW question. If you were to lets say take one year of polish classes before going to Poland learn the basics then start with the English Program for the first year, by the second and or third year would you be able to move up and take Polish classes?? Thus you would then be taking the harder classes??

Plus I mean classes like math, well math is universally basically the same, I mean other than some forms of measurement the equations and such are the same so I wouldn't think it to be to hard to just take a math class in Poland that you have already taken in English and just repeat it and still be able to get a good grade. Is this assumption wrong?


Ahhhh yes true I did not factor that part in.

No, the courses are often completely different, and it's unlikely that most Polish professors would accept the English courses as being equal, especially at the same university.

So then how many years or semesters of Polish would you have to take to understand enough within the class room would you say? So then you could go for a year again having taken a year of Polish back home already knowing the basics, first semester take a Polish language course, and take like 2 math classes. And then second semester I dont know take either some more math classes or something else that isnt to hard with basic Polish then work on learning Polish all summer, by that second year would you know enough to then just take the normal Polish classes. Every college has its easy classes and then the hard classes, so just take the easy ones first, maybe even get like a tutor for help if need be.

The Polish system doesn't work like that. You can't pick and choose classes - you have to do what they decide for you. Perhaps you might have a limited choice, but in general, everyone studies the same. And in the Polish way of doing things, the most difficult classes are often in the first year of studies.

I partially disagree on that. I think that most of professors wouldn't mind accepting courses passed in the same university, but English. Problem is that in Poland you have limited choice of courses, and usually on the 1st year no choice at all. You choose in each semester courses only available in this semester, so you cannot attend 1st semester course on 3rd semester (except if you failed an exam and repeat it). Because of that changing faculty can be problematic because of program differences. During my studies I took 1 year break. After I came back the program has changed and I had to study half a year longer in order to pass courses which were in new program, but not in old my program (they warned me about it when I was applying for the break). That required quite a lot of logistic work, creating not overlapping schedule, finding courses, getting dean permit. I don't recommend that. It's much simpler just to follow plan like everybody.

I think that Polish language is not so simple to learn in 2 years for university level. Probably it's possible, but requires 20h per week studying just the language.

In the end I don't think that it's worth changing to Polish language course. They teach the same, employee will not know if you studied in Polish or English. Only difference are colleagues. If you plan to stay and work later in Poland then it's better to have Polish classmates who can be part of your network of contact after graduation (while foreigners will simply leave Poland so knowing them will not be so useful). Also courses in Polish in top universities are more competitive, so average Polish student will be smarter there than in English equivalent :).

Regarding another discussion:

Is study in University free or paid in Poland? Who can afford going to college?


It's free in case of full time students at the public university level schools...