University: San Diego State University
City: San Diego
Country: United States
Continent: North America
Field of study: business administration
Study type: semester abroad
My semester abroad in the USA – from 08/10/2008 to 12/22/2008
San Diego is the seventh largest city in the United States with a population of 1,316,837 and still has a small town vibe. There is something for every taste in this great city.
Organization for the semester abroad:
If you have to organize the semester abroad yourself, don’t worry, MicroEdu.com works very well. Any question will be helped! In addition, it is very pleasant that MicroEdu.com sends each student an “instruction” on how it will be done now. All you have to do is follow the points, so there is no stress at all. Tips are given on BAföG abroad, cheap flights, visas and much more. See act-test-centers for study in Austria.
A program was created for the international students in the first week, which included a bus tour of San Diego and also an introduction to the courses, exams, campus and much more. The first 2 weeks were very remarkable as flags saying “welcome new students” hung all over the campus. There were also small stands everywhere with students who helped with questions, which was also important and necessary, after all there were around 30,000-35,000 students on campus in the first few weeks.
Important information about the university:
The university homepage is http: //www.sdsu.edu and the courses can be found as follows:
- The “Current Students” button, which can be found under “Information for”;
- then on Class Schedule, this is listed under the title Academics;
- then select a semester and finally click “Browse by Department”
Unfortunately, the courses cannot be selected in advance, as the American students have priority and only then the international students can make their selection. This gives the exchange students 4 weeks to “crash” courses, which means trying to get a place in the course. Many receive the desired lectures in the first week, but unfortunately it took longer for me. I crashed classes from 10am to 9: 40pm one day, but I still didn’t get a class. This is certainly very annoying, since I wasn’t allowed to take any course regarding my chosen focus in Germany. But it’s possible.
At San Diego State University, 4 courses are full-time study and thus 1 unit = 2.5 ECTS. All the courses I chose had 3 units each, so I had the equivalent of 30 ECTS together. Furthermore, it must be noted that each additional unit costs around $197. Of course you can still choose a subject, but as soon as it has 3 units, you have to pay $591 (3 x $197).
I have now chosen these courses and as you can see from the first one, the lectures are not comparable to ours. Because the overall grade is calculated differently in each subject. The multiple choice questions were relatively difficult for me, but it calmed me down again that the native speakers also had to struggle with them.
– Real Estate Finance
• Problemset1 5%
• Problemset2 5%
• Course project 10%
• Midterm1 10%
• Midterm2 20%
• Final Exam 30%
• Class Participation 20%
– International Business Strategy and Integration
• Exams 60% (2 @ 30% each)
CBA Quiz 1%
Experiential Exercises – 4 required (team grade) 4%
Attendance and Class Participation 5%
Team case Analysis & Presentation (team grade) 30%
– Social and Ethical Issues in Business
Individual Ethics Presentation 1 %
Team Issues 6% (2 @ 3% each)
Quizzes 10% (5 @ 2% each)
Team Case Presentation 23%
Midterm 30%; 50 MC questions
• final exam 30%; 50 MC questions
– Financial Institution Management
It is also worth mentioning that the university offers many sports. These can also be found under “Browse by Department”, but under ENS: Exercise and Nutritional Sciences. Any enrolled student may participate in the physical education courses. To give you a little taste, I list a few courses: Weight Training, Soccer, Golf, Volleyball, Bowling, Sailing, Keel Boating, Sea kayaking, Wakeboarding, Surfing and many more. For example, I took 2 courses and had to pay $155 (Beginning Sailing) and $70 (Beginning Golf) for them.
A few IMPORTANT tips:
- Apartment:
• Rent in San Diego is not cheap! I paid $700 which was a pretty good deal since I also live near the university. It’s cheaper, but more difficult.
• Look for the apartment on site, because you can see what the transport connections are like. If you want to live on the beach, a car is an advantage, as it takes a long time by bus and trolley (S-Bahn). I arrived on August 10th, 2008 and already found my apartment on August 11th, 2008. For the first week, however, I had booked a hotel from Germany.
• American SIM card:
Find out beforehand how expensive SMS and calls are, because there you also pay when you are called and also when you receive SMS. So it makes no difference whether you call or receive a call.
• Books:
• I actually paid $423 for 4 books. Books are sold on campus, but don’t think they’re cheaper there! Only afterwards did I find out that you can rent the books at http: //www.chegg.com/ for a semester!!!
• Cars:
If you are over 25 years old, rent cars from http: //www.dollar.com/ or in San Diego directly from http: //www.dirtcheapcarrentals.com/ or http: //holidayautos. en/.
• Not necessary:
• International driver’s license (German is sufficient); International Student Identity Card not required (http: //www.isic.de/); don’t take a hair dryer, curling iron or similar with you, because they don’t work there
• Necessary:
• adapter; since the passport is ALWAYS required, you can also have a California ID made. Would be safer in case you lose your passport or something like that; if you need anything, always check this site first: http: //www.craigslist.org/about/sites, here you can buy cars, furniture, just about anything;
In summary, it can be said that the time in San Diego was the best time of my life and I can only recommend everyone to complete the semester abroad there. The weather is a significant factor, after all you start the day in a good mood and don’t get annoyed immediately if something doesn’t work out.
The university offers students many opportunities to make good use of their time. If you have any questions, you will always be helped and everything that is needed will be done. The professors are also always helpful and friendly.
If you have any questions, I’d be more than happy to answer any questions. So many impressions were gained in the 5 months that I can’t list them all, BUT again: GO TO SAN DIEGO! ! !