University: California State University Fullerton

Country: United States

Continent: North America

Field of study: business administration

Study type: semester abroad

Apartment Search

“Find your apartment first on site” I heard from all sides. A tip that I would not necessarily pass on. In fact, you may be better off checking out the individual apartments locally and then deciding on one. But you should always remember that the work ethic is different abroad than at home. So it can happen that an apartment that you have already reserved and paid for in Germany is suddenly no longer available when you arrive, or that the date for your new apartment is pushed back further and further and after you have adjusted to this, you will be offered alternative accommodation for 2 weeks to search, you get a call the next day and find out that you can suddenly move into your apartment with immediate effect. I would do a targeted search for housing beforehand and maybe call ahead, because I never got a reply to my e-mails. Check jibin123.com to see Semester Abroad In California State University San Marcos.

My initial difficulties finding an apartment could also be due to the fact that I only arrived in America a week before the start of the semester and far too many people were looking for apartments at that time. My friends, some of whom had already arrived 2-3 weeks earlier, had no problems at all.

The long wait and the big back and forth was worth it. I was more than satisfied with our apartment at Homestead Apartments. We were only 5 minutes by bike from the university and directly across from the complex there was a Target and many other small shops that made shopping a lot easier without a car.

The apartment complex was equipped with four pool and whirlpool areas, a gym, several barbecue areas and two clubhouses. I would move into the Homestead Apartments again and again and can heartily recommend them.

University

Located in Orange County, California, California State University Fullerton is in the perfect location. But more on that later.

I chose this university because it offers a wide range of courses for economic subjects, which I could easily get credited for at my home university.

Being able to be a Titan for a semester was super nice! There was always something going on on campus. There was almost always free food distributed somewhere. There was a huge range of sports clubs, social clubs and also completely alternative clubs, such as a Harry Potter Club.

The most interesting club for me was the Adventure Club. The Adventure Club organized weekly outings in the form of hikes, camping trips, and days at the beach, all of which were free to join other than the one-time $20 club fee. The club was a good opportunity to meet new people, especially Americans.

Leisure / Travel

Of course, in our free time we were mostly occupied with traveling.

There were few weekends when we were just at home in Fullerton. Fullerton as a base is a great place to travel. It is 1 1/2 hours to San Diego, about 4 hours to Las Vegas and to Los Angeles only 30 minutes without traffic. Since we didn’t have a car, we mostly borrowed a car on the weekends or drove with friends who had rented one for the entire period at the beginning of the semester. I can more than recommend renting or even buying a car for the entire semester!! At first it hurts to get rid of so much money at once, but it is worth it. We used to take the Uber all the time for small errands or usually had to rent a car if we wanted to go to LA or were planning a trip and that adds up quite a bit after half a year.

Reconciling traveling with the university wasn’t a problem at all. We all made sure that we didn’t put any of our courses on a Friday to have a long weekend, which really wasn’t a problem. I actually didn’t know anyone who still had to go to university on Fridays. I even had Thursday off.

As a travel destination, I can recommend all national parks. I never thought that I could become a friend of nature, but Yosemite National Park in particular really blew my mind. But you should take your time for the national parks. Usually it is not enough to go there for just one day.

But Fullerton is also a great place to have fun, even though it’s a very small town. So we all met every Wednesday at Brians (a bar) and had a drink. And when I say everyone, I really mean everyone. If you want to get in touch with any internationals, then on Wednesdays at Brians. Then we went on to the next bar (Rems), where we could still dance properly until 2am.

All in all I can say that I had a great time in California and it was worth every penny I spent.