California State University East Bay is a normal American university.
After the introduction, during which various organizational conditions were clarified, one was led into the so-called Course Crashing.
As a foreign student is enrolled a little later than the native student, you have to enroll in the courses later.
You attend the first hour of the respective course that you want to have and get a signature from the lecturer, which (mostly) lets you into a course.
Because the number of participants is of course limited and the American students are mostly already enrolled, it can happen that you don’t get to the desired courses.
I have mostly taken business administration and management courses (HR Training and Development, Production and Operations MGMT, Marketing Principles, Marketing Seminar).
With a few exceptions, the content of the courses was interesting, but was mostly already covered in my home university. That made learning, which is more complex, pretty easy.
In addition, many lecturers give you the opportunity to improve your grades by doing extra work.
I would definitely advise to get an evaluation from professors beforehand, e.g. under ratemyprofessor.
Otherwise, in contrast to my home university, the university is very large and above all well-kept. You have a bookstore, a spacious library, subway, Panda Express, a grocery store and many other shopping opportunities.
The ALP (American Language Program) helps you with all questions and also organizes trips to, for example, San Francisco.
Because I read some testimonials about the dormitory, I decided to live off-campus. Here, too, we celebrated with the people who lived in the I-House. Due to the short time that we only stayed, the search for an apartment was relatively difficult and, above all, expensive at the beginning. Many apartment managers set the rent for such a short period of time because of the effort involved.
Thank goodness, the University Village opened at the time, which is an apartment complex 15 minutes’ walk from the university. The apartments were brand new. There was a choice of one room apartment and two room apartment, which still has a living room with a kitchen. The rental prices were compared to the other apartments we had looked at. Due to the fact that many Germans came at the time, this apartment complex consisted almost entirely of Germans at the beginning, which is a welcome framework, especially in the start-up phase.
The manager was okay with a few small things and the bonus is in any case that almost everything is / was unused.
We could either get the furniture from pre-students or buy it cheaply at Ikea.
Which had the advantage for us that in the end we were able to sell everything that significantly increased the holiday budget.
3. Food
Even if many people always say they are getting so fat in America, that is complete nonsense. Especially in stores like Foodsource or Foodmaxx, you can get a variety of fresh foods that are unbelievably cheap that you can’t even get in Germany. We cooked fresh and escaped the greasy, sweet temptations and were even able to lose weight rather than gain. You can also buy a great 4 liter water canister, which you can refill for 23 cents. Read more on Iamaccepted.
4. Sightseeing
I advise everyone to do their studies in California, I will never miss these experiences again. Starting with San Francisco, which is 40 with the so-called BART. The city is wonderful, you can experience and do a lot of tourism, but then you can also look into the smaller corners and discover great shops and sights. In addition, you are within an hour in Santa Cruz and can sunbathe on the beach. Los Angeles and San Diego are not far away.
However, my absolute favorite are the national parks, whether that’s Yosemite, Sequoia, Grand Canyon and so on. They are unbeatable. You drive three hours to Yosemite Park and are surrounded by beautiful nature with huge gray rocks, then you drive 2 hours further and come to red rocks or beautiful lakes.
5. Hayward
Hayward itself isn’t the biggest city and there isn’t really much to experience. If you are there for a while and also stroll around the city, you will discover the good bars and restaurants. Can also go to the cinema. However, there is really not much to see.
Life is then more likely to take place at private parties.
6. Summary
I would definitely recommend the CSUEB. It was the best time of my life.
