University: San Diego State University
City: San Diego
Country: United States
Continent: North America
Field of study: business administration
Study type: semester abroad
San Diego, Hollywood, LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon… it was really a great time! Met a lot of nice people, and what’s best: sun every day!!! : ) See liuxers for vocational training in Australia.
But now in detail:
1. Studies
The courses crashing at the beginning is a bit annoying, but if you are persistent enough, you will get the courses you want. Also go to the courses that are said to have “0” free places. My courses were “Labor Economics”, “Organizational Design & Change”, “Investments” and “International Business Finance”.
You have to do a lot during the semester… homework, exams etc. (even for attending there were points in some courses : ) but in the end it was really easy to get good grades there. I even had time for a surf course, and besides, we were out every other weekend to visit some other metropolis : )
I heard from a local American that San Diego was ranked as the No.1 party university in Playboy a few years ago… I can only agree. There was always something going on, and if you couldn’t find anything on campus, you could always go to Pacific Beach or downtown, but don’t forget: Minimum age 21 : )
- car
It is essential to have a set of wheels. You’re really in a fix there without it, since the buses take an eternity (e.g.) to the beach. At the time, we were looking for cars on Craigslist and the two of us bought a Mazda 626 in top condition, and we hardly made a loss on the sale.
- Housing
I stayed at the Piedra Del Sol apartments. Was really great there! Others looked for Ami-WGs locally and all found some and again a few lived on the beach. Since we had compulsory attendance for most of the courses, I was very happy that I lived on campus.
- Life
A dream to wake up to the sun almost every day… I was even on the beach on December 24, 2004 and celebrated Christmas there, although it was only 22°C that day;-)
- Live the second
The only thing that bothered me a little bit about San Diego was that there were a lot of Germans there because San Diego is really popular. You still come into contact with Americans or other Europeans, but you mainly have to do with Germans, which shouldn’t really be the point if you’re studying abroad. That’s why there was only a “1.0” and no “0.7” in the life category : )
All in all, I have to be honest… it was a really great time there!!!
California, here we come!!!