University: San Diego State University
City: San Diego
Country: United States
Continent: North America
Field of study: business administration
Study type: semester abroad
My preparation:
- About 4 months before beginning preparation
- Applying to SDSU through MicroEdu. This was very easy as MicroEdu staff guided applicants step by step through the application stages. See liuxers for Romania higher education.
- Visa applied for
- (You should read the internet beforehand or watch videos, which explain exactly what to prepare and what to bring. If you forget something, you can easily run into problems!!!!!)
- Hanse Merkur insurance taken out
- Talked to my bank about credit card payment, withdrawing money, bank account in America etc.
- I chose 3 special courses in advance, so that I already had 10 units through these courses
- I recommend you to put your mobile phone contract (if possible) on hold
- Looking for a flat (if you haven’t organized one in advance)
- Mobile phone contract (you can also keep the German number for What’s App in the new contract) from T-mobile (monthly 50$ + one-time SIM card payment)
- Apply for American ID (this takes about 4 weeks, so you don’t always have to take your passport with you)
Accommodation
- Found via the consulting company Nevan (German company, consulting fee 200€)
- 5 room house
- 5 minutes walk from campus, 20 minutes drive from the beach
- $700 per month (which was unfortunately a “bargain” for a well-maintained home in this location)
University
- Before I arrived I had already chosen 3 courses and thus came up with 10 units
- However, the SDSU requires 12 units and the courses (which can be credited by my university in Germany) have at least 3 units
- SDSU charges a fee for each additional unit (beyond the 12 required units).
- ask your university and the SDSU beforehand so that you can avoid this fee if necessary
Courses (with personal grading school grades 1-6)
- Marketing with Prof. Lois Olson — 3 (due to study effort that did not affect the result of the tests)
- Every week “Learn Smarts” and all other online quizzes in addition to the 3 multiple choice tests
- I learned quite a lot, although the questions in the quizzes had almost nothing to do with the book, the lecture or the online quizzes and learn smarts
- I wasn’t required to attend the lecture
- Multinational Business with Prof. Blue Robbins — 2 (it’s relatively easy to get good grades, but I found the professor’s teaching method questionable)
- Compulsory attendance (grading)
- 2 multiple choice tests (content exclusively from the professor’s slides, book was superfluous)
- A creative group presentation about a country
- Organizational Behavior with Prof. Tanya Hertz — 2 (very easy to get good grades, subject relatively easy, but lasting attendance and participation)
- Compulsory attendance (grading)
- 3 multiple choice tests (questions from the lecture and slides, I didn’t need the book)
- 1 presentation
- Weekly Assignments
- Consumer and Buyer Behavior with Dr. Lisa Haddock – 2 (very easy to get very good grades, easy topic, no effort)
- 2 small group presentations
- 3 multiple choice tests (questions from the book, topic is precisely defined in the last lecture before the exam)
Leisure
SDSU offers free activities such as the gym, pool, team sports, orienteering (within the first few weeks) etc. You will also receive discounts if you book services such as Seaworld etc. through SDSU. You will receive weekly information about the SDSU offers.
You should take your time and explore America. You should plan your courses in advance so that you have a lot of free time at a time. I had my courses from Monday to Wednesday, so I could travel from Thursday. If you can make it I recommend Cabo (for the spring break, it’s cheaper than Cancun and was a great spring break experience), Las Vegas, Tijuana and then San Diego up to San Francisco.
Otherwise, you can also have a great time in San Diego with parties 7 days a week.
Conclusion
For me personally, San Diego was absolutely worth it. However, for someone who wants to try to immerse themselves in a completely new culture, it may not be the right thing to do. The people in SD are incredibly friendly and helpful, but unfortunately (and this was something that got on my nerves at some point) also very materialistic. I was still able to travel after my studies and did a road trip on the east coast from Key West to New York. That was absolutely recommendable.
All in all, I would fly back to San Diego right now and pick up where I left off.