I will base my experience report on the individual evaluation points. Therefore, I start with the course content. My degree is business administration, but in Germany I also have to take quite a few exams in economics. Unfortunately, I can only tell you about my experiences with the content of economics studies, as I haven’t attended any business administration courses.
All contents (2 x undergraduate and 1 x graduate) were easy to understand and the exams were, despite the foreign language, much easier than in Germany. Attendance is an important factor in every course – it took some getting used to for me, as I hardly ever go to university at home. In terms of language, of course, that helped me further. The individual courses distributed exams over the entire semester; in addition to exams, there were homework, problems to be solved or seminar papers. But don’t worry, it’s all very easy to manage.
You have 12 credits for courses and since each course needs an average of 3, I had 3 left. I opted for the wide range of sports on offer and used 2 of the remaining credits for “rock climbing” and “beginning golf”. It was a good decision because it was great fun and I learned a lot.
The study conditions cannot be compared with my German university. The entire campus is well maintained and beautifully laid out. The library is huge and well equipped and the range of food is varied. My professors were very nice and helpful and were always happy that foreigners were interested in your cause.
In the list above, the study conditions came off worst for me with the costs. This is due to the beginning of the study period and the system of allocation of places in the individual courses. The Americans can register as normal, so they have clear and open priority. Then come the students “2. Class “namely the American crashers (students from other American universities) who study a few semesters in San Diego, and then the rest comes, that’s us, international crashers. Crashing means that you have to run to the professors immediately at the beginning of the lecture period and sometimes beg them to let you into the course. Then they check whether there are not too many students in the course and decide whether or not you can graciously attend the course. For a tuition fee of almost 5000 dollars, an absolute and indescribable outrage! I was lucky because in the end I came across nice professors and they were happy to accept me. But at least 6-10 turned me away because the course was already full or because they weren’t taking crashers. You definitely have to consider this fact when you choose San Diego. Check iamaccepted to see more reviews from current students.
Life on the south west coast was great. The almost rainless summer lasted until the end of December, so you could have driven to the beach almost every day.
I had a room in a shared apartment with Americans near the university. My roommates were very open-minded, nice, and enterprising. For example, we went bowling or racketball more often (both free with student ID). In addition to these sports, you can use many other offers at the university for free. The university’s fitness studio is not free, but it is great and open around the clock.
The night scene is unfortunately just okay. That is not because of San Diego, but because of the USA, because here you have to leave the club at half past one and the evening is over. The range of discos is very good.
The Piedra del Sol facility also looked very clean and nice.
I won’t go into the fun in particular, because you will definitely notice, apart from the point of criticism regarding the study conditions, that I really liked it.
The experience that you gain with the foreign language or simply by living in a foreign country, of course, has enormous benefits, both privately and professionally.
The individual courses didn’t really help me and unfortunately I (a student at RWTH Aachen University) didn’t have the opportunity to have my grades recognized.
I would definitely advise you to do a semester abroad and can generally recommend San Diego for it.
I was lucky enough to be a student loan recipient, so my costs were still limited. The Bafög office (Hamburg is responsible for America) has paid the complete study fees plus a monthly America surcharge of 120 euros on top of the monthly inlandsbafög rate. So if you only have the slightest chance, apply for student loan !!!!
The tuition for one semester was $ 4,990, which is a pretty big chunk of money. But all of life in San Diego is also relatively expensive. My girlfriend and I shared a fairly large room with a private bathroom and we have 80.
