I did a semester abroad at UCR with my boyfriend and my experience was generally very positive.
Regarding the application, I would like to say that MicroEDU was usually helpful. However, I would like to criticize the apartment offers and the associated implementation. We had chosen a host family, but we were told that a few would be difficult to accommodate with host families. We then clearly stated on the forms that we would only like to live together, on the other hand would prefer another option. Very late we received offers that did not meet our needs. Since a lot of time had passed by now, we had hardly any room for maneuver. In addition, the student residences offered are disproportionately expensive! Fortunately, we found an optimal apartment about 10 minutes away from the university via rommates.com and paid approx. $ 600 per month. For students who already have to pay a lot of money for tuition fees, I find the room rates extremely high.
Check topschoolsintheusa for more about University of California Riverside Graduate School of Education.
The first day at the university was unfortunately not very successful either, because neither my friend nor I had received an email that the introduction of the foreign students was taking place in a different room than was first communicated by email. Since the campus is very large, we wandered around the area for about 1 hour, because no one knew about the room change and the plan that was sent was also difficult to understand. When they finally arrived there, only the English test was taken, but no tour or similar that one could find one’s way around the huge campus. However, I find the fact that we pay much higher fees than the locals is absolutely outrageous. However, we only get a chance after all the local students have chosen their lectures. As you can very well imagine By then, all interesting courses had already been taken. We were only allowed to attend the desired lectures after several discussions with the director of studies and our supervisors. However, only two of the marketing directions. If I’m paying so much money for studying abroad, I would also like to take the courses I want, or at least have the opportunity to register for it with everyone else! I also find it strange that we were not given the opportunity to print anything on campus. We were told that we could send it to the supervisor by email and then pick it up in another office and pay 10 cents per sheet for it. In addition, the Extension Center is so far away from the campus center that the effort is not worth it!
However, Mr. Kindschy always tried hard and was always friendly. If you had problems you could always come to him and ask for help. Since we flew on to New York soon after the end of the semester, we filled out a form at the Student Service and paid fees so that our official certificates would be sent to Germany. To date we have not received any mail from the UCR! Upon further inquiries, we were informed that there must have been an error, but they will send the certificates again. Here, too, nothing has arrived to this day.
That being said, we had a wonderful time in California. We made great friends very quickly, both at university and in private! The campus is fantastically beautiful and also offers very interesting lectures. I also think it’s great that you can get extra credits through test studies. However, this was only possible for us externals thanks to a great professor who worked there.
The lectures were all very understandable and we found the exams to be relatively easy. It is impressive how warmly you are welcomed and welcomed by everyone there, and professors are usually very hard-working and helpful! However, you have to get used to the way Americans work, because many things are more sluggish than some Germans would like.
In any case, I always think back to the time with great joy and regret not having done this semester at all.
I can recommend, if possible, to go on a tour before or after your studies and explore the beautiful cities and landscapes. Thanks to its good location, Riverside offers a great opportunity to do this.
We rented a car through National Cars for the entire time and were very happy with it. A fellow student had bought an old car on site. She had to do various examinations with the car, buy license plates, register, insurance, etc. In total, she paid around € 1,500 less. However, since she had a rear-end collision and her car was then a total write-off, she didn’t have one in the middle of the semester. When buying a car, you should also note that you have to supply the car again when you leave. In general, we were very satisfied with the decision to rent a car, as we were on tours a lot and an old small car is not very suitable for this. It also gave us full protection and would have got a new car in the event of an accident.
At this point I would like to thank Aline Meyer again, who provided us with information and was always friendly, helpful and made this unique experience possible for us!
