University: California State University Fullerton
City: Fullerton
Country: United States
Continent: North America
Field of study: business administration
Study type: semester abroad
Application process
With the help of MicroEdu you fill out some application forms. I clarified in advance with my university of applied sciences whether the courses would be generally recognized by the university before I applied. Since you also pay a fee for the application (Editor’s note: to the CSUF). After you have filled out the documents, you send them to MicroEdu and they will be checked again there. And then sent on. You will receive your confirmation in the mail. See existingcountries for California State University Long Beach Review 2.
You should also apply for your visa in good time and plan time for the appointment at the embassy. Because it can take different amounts of time.
Class crashing
Since I only chose management courses, this was a bit more difficult. First you go to the courses and ask the professors politely if there is still space in the courses, if so they give you a signature.
This was because the management department could only give us signatures after a week and you were not enrolled in a course until you had this signature. Most got the courses they wanted.
Recognition is different at every university. You should discuss this with your university beforehand.
During the lecture period, the professors always think it’s good if you have questions and also go to the consultation hours. Overall, the lecture is different. You get points if you participate and give a lot of presentations and also have to do a lot of group work.
The exams are written throughout the semester. So you usually have one or two midterms and then the final exam at the end of the semester. Overall, you should do a lot, as this can quickly improve the grade.
I have taken the courses Quality Management, Project Management, Purchasing & Supply Management and Operational Planning and Controlling. In each course you had to do group work and sometimes homework, for which you got a grade. You either had to upload them to the relevant course page on the Internet, send them by email or print them out and bring them with you, since every professor wanted it differently. That means always asking how the professor would like to receive the task.
Overall it was easier to get into the later classes as most try to get into the daytime classes.
The support for the students is very good, if you have any questions you can go to the International Office at any time and write an e-mail there. Even if you need other proof for the university in Germany, you can order it there.
You can order the Transcript of Records via a special website, but the university will send you the information in good time. You can have these sent directly to your university or to your home address.
Accommodation
I found my accommodation on craigslist. I made appointments on site and looked at various apartments and also found a room. But pay attention to how the ads are written, as some didn’t sound serious in the first place.
If you want to go on excursions you should rent a car or what you can do is order an uber and split the cost. In the vicinity are various beaches such as Laguna Beach, Huntington, Newport Beach. Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara are also good day trips. When in San Diego, you definitely have to go to The Baked Bear. There is ice cream and you choose 2 cookies and eat them as a sandwich. Joshua Tree National Park is also a good day trip. There is also a mall nearby in Brea and on Wednesdays many people go to Brians (bar) and on the weekends you can also go partying in Fullerton downtown.
It’s good to go away over the holidays, if you want to go to Canada or Mexico you have to do it during the semester as you can’t travel back to the US after the semester on the F1 visa. For example, we had been to Vancouver and from there we drove on to Seattle.
If you visit many national parks, get the pass, it is a lot cheaper.
At the end of the semester we were still traveling and mostly didn’t book the motels until the morning.
We rented the car through Alamo. We booked this with ISIC (international student card) as it was a lot cheaper. All you have to do is isic.de and from there you will be redirected to the Alamo website.
I would do the semester abroad again and again because it was a great time and you got to know a lot of people.