University: San Diego State University
City: San Diego
Country: United States
Continent: North America
Field of study: business administration
Study type: semester abroad
Preparations
I’ve always wanted to do a semester abroad in the USA. I became aware of MicroEdu through an information event organized by the International Office at my university. See anycountyprivateschools for top 15 tourist attractions in London. MicroEdu helped me to choose the university in the USA and the application went through MicroEdu, where I also found support with all questions.
After I had decided on San Diego State University, I had to put together my application documents, take the Toefl test,…
I got the acceptance from SDSU about 1 month after sending the documents.
I looked for my apartment from Germany. But first I had to decide whether I wanted to live near the beach or near the university. I finally decided on accommodation close to the university. Since you absolutely need a car to live on the beach and I actually wanted to get around it. Since I already had my apartment in Germany, I had the first week in San Diego to settle in and was able to save myself the stress of looking for an apartment. However, I was only able to move into my apartment shortly before the lectures started, so I stayed at the Ocean Beach Hostel for the first week. I met a lot of people here, with whom I later did a lot.
I lived at 63 Blvd, in the college area. The apartment complex was completely new and we were the first residents in our apartment. There was also a modern exercise facility, computer room with printer (caution: bring your own sheets), pool, hot tub, tanning salon, waffles every other Wednesday, and always free coffee and tea. In addition, from Monday to Friday there was always a shuttle to the university every 10 minutes, so that you were at the university within 5 minutes.
Graduated from San Diego State University (SDSU)
SDSU’s campus is huge. Over 30,000 students from all over the world study there on more than 1km². The campus features football, baseball, basketball, and soccer fields, a fitness center, tennis courts, racquetball fields, a rock climbing wall, an outdoor swimming pool, and two food courts. International students can use the outdoor pool and fitness center free of charge.
Actually, I always had something to do for the university, weekly quizzes, presentations or assignments were normal. I took MKTG370 Marketing, MGT358 Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship, FIN323 Fundamentals of Finance and CJ300 Crime, Law and Justice courses. The SDSU offers international students the option of choosing their courses from Germany via the “Special Sessions”. So I already had 3 out of 4 courses for sure and only had to crash one course. That became the “Crime, Law and Justice” course, which was quite an interesting course, there were also many guest speakers and the exams were all online. I also took a surf course.
The big disadvantage of the special sessions for me was that there were almost only Germans (and a few Danes) in the courses and German was actually spoken most of the time. So it wasn’t easy to get in touch with Americans.
Stay in the host country
I really enjoyed living in California. The people in California were all very friendly and helpful and the climate was pleasant throughout the semester. Even in December it was still warm enough to lie by the pool.
In addition to the university, I also found enough time to travel all over California, including Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, San Francisco, a motorcycle tour over Higway 1, an NBA game in Sacramento,…
However, living in the USA is more expensive than in Germany. It’s usually cheaper to eat out than to cook for yourself.
I didn’t have a car during my semester at SDSU, but rented one with friends when we were planning a road trip. I was able to save quite a bit of money that way.
Personal rating
The decision to do a semester abroad was the best I could ever make. I would also choose to spend a semester in the USA again at any time. The many great experiences and adventures were worth every penny. However, I wouldn’t go back to San Diego because I actually spoke far too much German there. And since you had most of the courses with Germans, it was difficult to get in touch with Americans. The city was very beautiful and it was a great time there.