University: San Diego State University
City: San Diego
Country: United States
Continent: North America
Field of study: business administration
Study type: semester abroad
Doing my semester abroad in San Diego, California at San Diego State University was by far one of my best decisions. But before I begin my review, I would like to thank the entire MicroEdu USA team for supporting me from day one to the last. If I should consider a semester abroad again, then only through MicroEdu. See iamaccepted for best 7 nursing schools in Canada.
Preparation
After I received the confirmation from SDSU by post via MicroEdu, I worked through all the relevant points on the check list that MicroEdu made available to me, one after the other. At first I only booked the outward flight to San Diego because I couldn’t decide on a return flight date yet. Then I filled out the DS-160 form via the website https: //ceac.state.gov/genniv/, only then can an appointment with the embassy be made. A tip from me: take care of a visa in good time, because there can be long waiting times. Then I took out international health insurance cared for. For this I opted for the Young Travel Tariff from Hanse Merkur. Since you will need money over there, I can only recommend that you get a credit card. I myself had the DKB Visa credit card, as you can use it to withdraw money from any cash machine/ATM worldwide free of charge.
San Diego “America’s Finest City”
The city of San Diego is located in southern California. San Diego has received the name America’s Finest City because of the beautiful weather, which I think they fully deserve. From August to November we had an average temperature of 25°C and from December to January even around 15-19°C. Not only the weather in San Diego is nice, but also the numerous places. You should definitely visit the following places:
- la jolla
- Pacific Beach
- Mission Beach
- ocean beach
- Sunset Cliffs
- Coronado
- Downtown
- Gaslamp Quarter
- Seaport Village
- Potato Chip Rock
- Cedar Creek Falls
- Little Italy
- Balboa Park
- San Diego Zoo
Unfortunately, the cost of living in the USA, such as rent, groceries and toiletries, is high. However, there are cheap supermarkets such. B. Food 4 Less, where you can go shopping for little money. There are also special offers in the somewhat more expensive supermarkets such as Wal Mart, which are worth checking out. In restaurants and cafes, it should be noted that it is a matter of course to tip 15-20%. In some restaurants or cafés, it sometimes happens that the tip is already on the bill, so you save yourself all the calculations. It also takes some getting used to the fact that the prices on the menu or on the price tags in the supermarkets do not yet include taxes.
Accommodation
As far as accommodation goes, we (my two friends and I) were very lucky as we had the opportunity to live cheaply on campus. At first we couldn’t decide whether we wanted to live off or on campus, as both had their pros and cons. Ultimately we chose the CVA Apartmentsdecided, which we got recommended by word of mouth. We had an apartment with 2 rooms (living room and bedroom), bathroom, kitchen and a storage room. The apartment was furnished, and we also received kitchen utensils. If we were still missing something, we bought these utensils cheaply from IKEA or Wal Mart. I can’t really think of anything particularly negative about the neighbors. Our neighbors were friendly and pretty quiet, meaning there weren’t any wild student parties.
Living on campus meant we weren’t too far from the university, which was nice. When we went out to the beach 1-2 times a week to shop or to relax, we had our rental car. For shopping we needed about 10 minutes by car from our apartment and 20-30 minutes to the beach. The CVA also provides you with a parking space free of charge. The best thing about the apartment was that we had it all to ourselves and didn’t have to share it with strange students. Unfortunately the apartment did not have its own washing machine. The whole apartment complex had only two washing machines and two dryers. A washing unit cost $1.25. It never happened to us that the washing machine was occupied when we wanted to do our laundry. The next, but solvable problem was the internet. When we first moved in, we had no internet. That’s why we went to COX and signed a contract that you could cancel on a monthly basis. We paid $50 a month including taxes for a 16,000 kbit/s line, which was more than enough for us for 6 devices. Unfortunately, we also had to register the electricity ourselves with SDGE, but this went quickly and smoothly. You only paid for what you used, logically. The cost was between $15-20. but this went quickly and smoothly. You only paid for what you used, logically. The cost was between $15-20. but this went quickly and smoothly. You only paid for what you used, logically. The cost was between $15-20.
The total rent for the apartment was $1466 in total, plus internet and electricity costs. Before we moved into the apartment, we paid a $500 deposit. The deposit is returned on the last day when you move out. All in all we were very satisfied with our apartment.
Automobile
We rented our first car from Express – Rent A Cheap Car as all the cars were rented from Dirt Cheap Car Rental. The German driving license is sufficient to conclude the contract. Rent at Express was $400 per month. But since we paid three months in advance, we got the car for $375 a month instead of $400. We were only authorized to drive in San Diego with the car. Either you decide to rent a car from the beginning, with which you can drive to Los Angeles, for example, two hours away, or pay a fee of $35 per day. The only downside with Express – Rent A Cheap Car was that in the event of an accident they have an excess of up to $1500. Dirt Cheap Car works the same way as Express – Rental A Cheap Car. If you want to rent a car,
Public transportation
For those who didn’t want to rent a car, there was still the public transport network, consisting of buses and trolleys. The network is well developed and you can get everywhere. An adult ticket is $2.50 for 2 hours. The day pass costs $5. At SDSU you can get a semester ticket for $150.
San Diego University & Courses
Studying at SDSU begins with an orientation week, where you can find a lot of important information about course selection, the campus, exams and much more. receives. The SDSU campus is very large, you really have everything on the campus. There’s a canteen, the SDSU Bookstore, the Love Library. Then there are many cafes and fast food outlets such as Starbucks, Panda Express, Chipotle, etc. Also, the campus has beautiful and quiet places like Turtle Pond. SDSU also has its own gym, the Aztec Recreation Center, and the Aquaplex outdoor pool.
The examination performance is spread over the whole semester in many tasks. The workload is therefore very high. Almost every week there are quizzes (tests) and homework. In addition, there is a presentation to be held in each course, 1-2 midterms and a final to be written. You can find out which requirements the courses ultimately have in the syllabus (course description). A lot of value is placed on attendance, as it also affects the grades. I have taken the courses Creativity & Innovation (Kevin Popovic); Business Plan Development (Kimberly King); Multinational Business and Comparative Management (Dr. Blue Robbins) and Management and Organizational Behavior (Prof. Tanya Hertz).
Travel
I recommend that you travel before the start of the semester or plan your timetable so that you have a long weekend. For example, I only had university from Tuesday to Thursday, so it was a good idea to travel on Fridays. Of course you can also travel on public holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas, but then you have to expect traffic jams. During my stay I have taken road trips to the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami and Baja California.
Conclusion
As mentioned at the beginning of my experience report, San Diego and SDSU was a great choice for a semester abroad. It’s an amazing city with amazing people. I can promise you one thing, once you’ve been there, you’ll want to go back there a second time. For those who are planning to go to SDSU now, have a great time and enjoy.