While Erika Roberts was a high school student growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, she participated in a two-week exchange program that took her to Munich, Germany. She didn’t know it at the time, but that experience would shape the rest of her life.
Fast forward to 2016, when Roberts was a freshman in college, studying biochemistry with a pre-med focus in Massachusetts. Even as she worked towards earning her Bachelor’s degree and attending medical school, she was feeling unfulfilled.
“I was a young adult who wanted to experience the world and all that came with it,” she tells CNBC Make It. “All the places I toured in high school promised diversity, community and personal growth but the reality felt different. I decided I needed to seek out my own challenges if I wanted to truly experience this. I just didn’t feel like I was working towards a future that I was excited about.”
Roberts moved to Germany to attend medical school.
Erika Roberts
At the same time, Roberts started to think about what life would really be like if she transferred to a different school, specifically one back in Germany.
Unlike the United States, in Germany, you don’t need a Bachelor’s degree to attend medical school. Instead, students enroll in a six-year program that is divided into three stages, with exams administered after each one.
Most public universities in Germany are either free or offer lower costs compared to those in other countries.
All of these factors continued to influence Roberts’ thinking. She considered this move to be her best option because she could become a dermatologist without more lengthy schooling.
Roberts started to pick up the German language again after briefly taking classes in high school.
“I set out to challenge myself and to meet people from all over the world. That’s definitely not something that you necessarily get in the States unless you’re in a major city,” she says. “I feel like Europe does a better job of treating young adults in a way that gives you the responsibility so you’re exposed at a younger age, and you know what to do versus in the States it’s more waiting until you’re 21 and then all of a sudden all hell breaks loose.”
Roberts attempted to discuss attending medical school in Germany with her dad, but he dismissed the idea. He wanted her to finish her education in the United States. But when Roberts ended her freshman year with a 3.9 GPA, her dad changed his mind and gave her the green light to continue her studies in Germany.
“My dad was like, ‘Okay, if that’s what you think is really the right direction. You gave the typical route a try and if it still feels like you need to go and figure that out, then sure you can try it out’,” she says.
Roberts lived in this apartment with two roommates for five years.
Erika Roberts
Roberts completed her freshman year of college in 2017 and registered at a language school where she also planned to live while getting settled in Germany.
Just a few weeks after registering, Roberts got on a plane and headed to Germany. She lived in a dorm at the language school for less than a year before moving in with her boyfriend at the time’s family. That living arrangement ended when the two broke up. She moved into a shared apartment with two other people where she lived for about a year.
Eventually, Roberts landed in an apartment with roommates and lived there for five years. When she first moved in, she paid 565 euros or $648 a month. By the time she moved out, her rent was 659 euros a month or $751.
Today, Roberts lives on her own but isn’t comfortable disclosing what she pays in rent. Instead, she shared that her total expenses outside of rent are 749 euros or $859 a month.
According to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It, those monthly expenses include 230 euros for groceries, 144 euros for health insurance, 24 euros for a gym membership, 28 euros for her cellphone bill and 38 euros for transportation. She also pays 85 euros for medical school tuition and typically spends 200 euros going out to eat or hanging with friends.
“Taxpayers make it possible to keep the fees of public universities so low, so I’ll have the chance to properly pay back my share once I am working here,” Roberts says.
Roberts is studying to be a dermatologist.
Erika Roberts
Roberts has noticed that since living in Germany, she structures her days differently, has healthier eating habits, and overthinks things a lot less.
“I think coming from my Philadelphia experience of wanting to be really individualistic and seeing how people exist here in that universe of not trying to do that has been balancing me out,” she says.
“[It’s] making me confront who I genuinely am outside of what the world around me is telling me I’m supposed to be.”
Roberts has been in Germany for almost eight years now, she says she loves the sense of safety, access to good food and accessibility. Being there has also forced her to learn how to adapt.
“Recognizing the environment that you’re in and the rules that dictate that environment is really essential for understanding how to succeed,” she says.
“What I have definitely noticed is how slowly over the years, I’ve adapted the German culture more. I’ve grown up here in so many ways. I’ve grown into the person that I am now.”
Roberts says she doesn’t see herself moving back to the U.S. permanently anytime soon.
Erika Roberts
Roberts’ family is mostly all in U.S., so moving back there will always be a possibility, she says. But for now, she can see herself in Europe for a long time to come.
“I would not have thought 10 years ago that I would be living in Germany for as long as I have and how everything’s turned out the way it has. I wouldn’t have been able to predict where I am now 10 years ago,” she says.
“I don’t try to strictly predict where I’m going to be 10 years from today but right now I feel really happy over here and I could see myself staying here.”
Conversions from euros to USD were done using the OANDA conversion rate of 1 euro to 1.14 USD on April 23, 2025. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.
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