University: California State University Fullerton
Country: United States
Continent: North America
Field of study: Business
Study type: semester abroad
The planning
I decided very early on to go to California State University in Fullerton (CSUF for short). As soon as I was able to apply through MicroEdu, I started gathering the required documents and forwarding them to CoCo. Everything worked very well and I was able to get in touch with the contacts at CoCo if I had any questions. See educationvv for Universitat Autonoma De Barcelona Exchange Program.
The fact that I planned the semester abroad with a friend and a friend from my studies also took away my fear of doing something wrong or overlooking something. Since we also received a precise schedule from CoCo, when we have to take care of which points (e.g. the visa, choosing the course at the CSUF, etc.), we had good guidelines at hand.
The accommodation
We decided to live in the University Village because the accommodation should be close to the university, have a cafeteria and also accommodate many foreign students. In the end it was the right decision for me, especially because of the cafeteria. The Meal Plan includes two meals a day during the week, and you can choose whether to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner. All in all the food was ok. I liked it sometimes better and sometimes worse, but actually there was always something I liked.
In addition, the apartments and rooms were big enough. I could see the pool from my apartment, a view that made me happy every day. The pool was often a meeting point when the weather was nice. Then the semester abroad almost felt like vacation.
As for the distribution of nationalities, I would say that there were mostly Germans, Brazilians, Koreans, Japanese and Americans. Everyone is very friendly and open and interested in getting in touch with other nationalities.
The University
But of course I was mainly there to study. And the course was definitely more work-intensive than expected. In the courses I had chosen, the main thing was to learn a lot of material in a short time. In America I did my sixth semester of my bachelor’s degree, but only had courses from the second year of study, so the requirements were not as high as in Germany. However, there was more material to memorize and with 2-3 exams per subject plus presentations and homework, the workload was still higher than at my home university.
I had the following subjects
BUAD 201 Understanding Business (with Prof. Dafaallah): An introductory course in business administration. Ultimately, I should have tried harder here, because even though I was almost completely familiar with the content, the requirements were not to be underestimated.
ECON 362 Environmental Economics (with Prof. Livy): As the name suggests, the course deals with environmental economics. We had a lot of material, but the exams were fair and the lecturer mainly asked for examples from class or homework. However, I also learned a lot for the exams.
ECON 333 Economic Development (with Prof. Tobing): The course dealt with the question of why some countries are developed and others are not. I found the course on the topic really exciting and with a little work I got a very good gradehere.
MGMT 350 International Business & Management (with Prof. Nguyen): Also an interesting course, especially because the professor had a lot of practical experience. The exams were very easy if you studied well beforehand.
In general, I found the campus really American, just like I always imagined it from the movies. On the way from University Vollage to the business buildings, you walk across the campus. You first pass the sports fields and then various other buildings (such as the engineering faculty or the library).
Leisure
Even if there was a lot to do for the university, there was still enough time to go to the beach, go on excursions or go partying. I’ve decided that I’ll probably only do a semester abroad like this once and therefore want to take full advantage of it. For that I can say that the beaches in California are really worth it and it was always nice to lie there, take a walk or just look at the sea. In February or March, when the temperatures in Germany were still below zero, the beach was something very special. But even so, Fullerton is in a good location for touring. To San Diego It’s one and a half to two hours, to LA (here you always have to pay attention to the traffic and avoid rush hour during the week) it’s half an hour to one and a half hours.
I was only in Las Vegas and San Diego during the semester because my father came to visit me after the semester and I then took the tour north through the national parks (Zion, Sequoia, Yosemite) to San Francisco with him.
All in all, I would definitely do a semester abroad like this again, it was definitely the highlight of my studies. I also didn’t expect that everything would go so smoothly from the planning, through life in America, to the departure.
If you have any questions, please feel free to write to me.