When I started studying at my home university, it was clear that I would be able to complete a semester abroad at the beginning of 2015, as required . After much deliberation among universities in the United States , San Diego State University ultimately won and I began applying to college. It should be emphasized the potential fantastic job, Topschoolsoflaw.com within the application period has made – it was a full information about the university, the city, VISA provides determinations, etc., and all application documents checked through before they went to the SDSU. I was also always given further help in personal conversations on site or on the phone . Such a satisfactory and reliable service (free for me!) Is unfortunately far too seldom experienced these days.
After I had received the confirmation from SDSU that I would be able to do my semester abroad there, I immediately booked both outward and return flights . I can only advise everyone to book the one-way flight first, so that they can travel for a few more weeks after the semester is over. I booked my return flight 7 days after the official end of the semester and would have liked to have 2-3 weeks longer to visit things and places I hadn’t seen before.
Studying at the SDSU
At the beginning of the semester, you first have to decide on which courses to take. In the run-up to my trip, I had fixed two of four Special Sessions ( Marketing & Investments) – I had fixed the other two Special Sessions ( Human Resource Management & Management of Organizational Behavior ) on site, which was very straightforward . However, it must also be mentioned here that I do not “ crash ” any courses with the professors“Had to (these are courses that are primarily reserved for Americans, have a very limited number of participants, are sometimes extremely popular with students and where you have to personally go to the lecturer after a lecture, with the request that the course to be allowed to join) to get into the course.
The overall grade for the courses is made up of many different things . In addition to the usual exams (for me there were three exams per lecture), the SDSU attaches great importance to online tests, online assignments, essays and presentations. Even for the simple presence you get a few percent “free”. In three of the four courses (with the exception of investments), all exams were written in “multiple choice” mode, which can be very helpful under certain circumstances.
Negative to mention are the incredibly high prices for literature. You can easily pay up to $ 200 for textbooks for the respective events – fortunately, I had the advantage of being there with two fellow students who had taken the same courses 1: 1 and we were therefore able to share the costs.
The grounds of the SDSU are beautiful and offer an incredible amount of program . In your free time or in your free hours you can use things like gym, swimming pool, whirlpool, soccer field, basketball court, tennis court, bowling alley, etc. The SDSU also has its own medical center with specialists in all directions, where you can always get an appointment quickly if you have problems (also free of charge).
Life in San Diego
Housing theme
When I arrived in San Diego on January 2nd, 2015, my two colleagues and I first moved into a hotel near the airport, which we had provisionally booked for 10 days in advance ($ 22 (!!) per night for all three together, hotel was absolutely clean , with pool and breakfast, TOP). From there we drove every morning with an Uber for the first few days (best ride, be sure to install and set it up on your smartphone before leaving for the USA!) To the Mission / Pacific Beach area, because we wanted to look around for apartments there. Fortunately, we found an apartment in Mission Beach 4 days later, between sea, bay and palm trees, 30 seconds to walk to the bay and 90 seconds to the sea. It has to be said that the prices in Pacific and Mission Beach are quite ambitious, as this area is of course very popular (also with students). We had an apartment with four boys and only two beds, which we had to share, and paid the high price of $ 800 a person (!) – this is (especially considering the fact that you can get a bed for ½ year had to share) a lot of money, but it was absolutely worth it due to the location (after all, who can say that at the age of 23, he lived on the beach for six months in California to have?! ;-)). On the subject of “living” it can be said that some of the students lived in Mission / Pacific Beach, while the other part lived in the college area, which was about 25 minutes away by car.
Advantages of living in Mission / Pacific Beach: close to the beach, close to good bars and clubs
Advantage of living in a college area: proximity to the university and thus to the gym, swimming pool, etc.
Car theme
As soon as you get to San Diego, make sure you get a car as soon as possible! Because without a car you are simply not mobile in San Diego and it is much more difficult to visit apartments, drive to shopping malls or do simple things like shopping or get to university. You have to think about whether you want to rent or buy a car . Both are certainly attractive – the three of us borrowed a car and paid $ 2,000 for it (January 7th to April 30th) (recommendation: DirtCheapCar-Rental; very popular with students with fair prices – we have everything from smaller Toyotas to new Mustangs everything included).
Advantage of renting a car: no expense in terms of insurance; no effort to register a car; you save yourself the stress of having to sell the car after the semester; no effort in terms of possible repairs
The advantage of buying a car: you can even make a profit after the sale – but this did not occur in our circle of friends and acquaintances, the “margin of loss” after the sale at the end of the semester was $ 200 (which is cheaper than getting away with yourself rented a car) up to $ 3,000 (of course that hurts a lot),
Disadvantage of buying a car: Almost all of our friends who have bought a car (usually worth $ 2,000 – $ 4,000) have had to struggle with defects and high repair costs over time – you should definitely be aware of this!
Travel theme
The distances in the USA are gigantic and not to be compared with ours in Germany – so it is easy to make a mistake if you look at the map and think “Oh, you can go to San Francisco for two days” – there are some things that you can do well on a weekend (e.g. Potato Chip Rock, Salton Sea or LA), for longer distances such as SF, Las Vegas, Yosemite Park, Death Valley etc. you should plan a few days – of course, the challenge here is whether you can do all of this during the Makes lecture time (also depends on how you lay out the courses) or has to postpone it until after the semester. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do all the things I would have liked to see during my stay in the USA because there was simply not enough time or
From what I have experienced, however, I can definitely recommend Las Vegas, San Francisco (especially Alcatraz (book tickets in advance!)) And Hawaii!
Conclusion:
I went to San Diego with very high expectations and I was aware that it was dangerous because it made you more vulnerable to disappointment. This time, however, it was the case that my high expectations were clearly exceeded . San Diego is absolutely awesome, the city is beautiful and extremely diverse, the people are incredibly friendly and you get to know a lot of new people and friends all over the world. For me – and for almost all people that I was allowed to meet there – was this half-year, the time of their lives . My advice to everyone who is thinking of spending their semester abroad in San Diego: If you have one or the other euro / dollar, do it! You will have so much fun and have an amazing time there.
