University: California State University Fullerton

City: Fullerton

Country: United States

Continent: North America

Field of study: Business Administration, Economics

Study type: semester abroad

Fullerton is ideally located to drive to the beach (Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Huntington and so on) in about 20 minutes or less than an hour to get to Venice Beach or LA. As a business student, I also have to say that the CSUF has a really good business school, even if the level is generally not comparable to Germany. Of course, you also have to be aware that it is not a cheap venture since you are also in a very expensive place. Whether food, excursions, housing, everything is a bit more expensive. Nevertheless, I don’t regret a cent because it gives you so much personally. Especially at a young age, it is the ideal place to fully enjoy college life, because I too thought a lot of things in movies were exaggerated, but that’s how it is! Check iamaccepted.com to see Sheffield Hallam University study abroad opportunities.

This place is also great for excursions, since the airport (LAX) is only about 40 minutes away, so I was in Hawaii, for example, which I can only recommend to everyone!

Organization

Organizing the study abroad was no problem at all thanks to the excellent help from MicroEdu. In this sense, a big thank you again to the whole team and especially to Annika, who looked after me very well during my stay! MicroEdu takes care of all the important documents and all you really have to do is submit everything by the deadline, apply for your visa, clarify everything with your home university and off you go

Courses

MGMGT 350: International Business & Management (Prof. Tomkoria)

The course was one of the most enjoyable. The somewhat older professor always makes very interesting references to reality, since he himself managed an internationally operating company for a long time. In addition, the course was not really time-consuming, since there were no homeworks / papers, just a group project in which a good grade can be achieved with little effort.

MGMT 343: Human Resource Management (Prof. Salvador)

All in all an interesting course with a super nice professor. Personally, I didn’t find it very easy to achieve excellent grades in this course, since there are four exams, all of which are multiple choice and there can be language problems with some of the questions. Nevertheless, I can only recommend the course, since these exams are also easy to do and there are no homeworks, only attendance and participation are included in the grade.

FIN 444: Options and Futures (Prof. Jolley)

A course that is highly recommended for people with a focus on finance ! The only unusual thing is that there is no material available online and only his class notes are relevant for the exams. No questions are asked that he has not worked on in a similar way in class. If you keep at it and practice a bit, it’s really easy to get a good grade, because the professor is also very relaxed and nice to exchange students. In addition, attendance is not included in the grade

ECON 335: The International Economy (Prof. Guannu)

The course I was least satisfied with, although the professor was a really nice and hard-working one. Unfortunately I found the course a bit poorly structured and too much effort for a 300 course. Nevertheless, it is also possible to achieve a really good grade here, since the material is not particularly difficult if you have already attended economics lectures in Germany. You just have to be aware that this can be done with less effort in other courses / with other professors.

Housing

I stayed at University House which I would recommend to anyone! I lived in a 4-person flat share and had my own room and bathroom there. My roommates were two Americans and one Saudi Arabian, who were all very nice and shared a living room and kitchen with me. We also had a washing machine and dryer in the apartment, which was also very practical. There are generally two pools, two gyms, a clubhouse, and several BBQ grills. I thought it was great to live there, because you could get to know a lot of people and there was always something going on.

Another big plus is the location, especially for business students, the location is ideal, since you live right next to the university and the farm building. But you have to be aware that there are only one-year contracts there and that the search for a new tenant can sometimes cause problems. However, I had no problem finding anyone at all.

Another dormitory would be the Oxford North, where many international students live, especially German ones. If you get a semester contract there, that’s also a good option, but you’re a bit away from the campus and some of the rooms aren’t that nice either.

Personally, I would say that University House is the best way to fully enjoy your time there and get the best college experience.

Conclusion

Looking back, I can say that I probably had the best time of my life and can only recommend it to everyone. As long as you start planning everything in good time, it’s not really that bad from an organizational point of view, because you always get quick feedback from CoCo and they have solutions ready for most problems right away. Financially, you should expect around €15,000, which of course can vary depending on your travel plans. I didn’t buy a car, which I didn’t need due to the location of University House. We usually rented one from Enterprise for weekend trips.