University: California State University Los Angeles

City: Los Angeles

Country: United States

Continent: North America

Field of study: Business Administration, Economics

Study type: semester abroad

Hello, my dears,

My name is Christian and I was studying abroad for a quarter or term at Cal State LA. The name of the city and the central location in California, which is ideal for travel and the short study period, which gave me the opportunity to write further exams at my home university, were ultimately the reasons why I chose this university have decided. Check educationvv.com to see University of California Riverside Exchange Program.

Before starting the trip:

The application via “MicroEdu” and above all via Anja Heinz and Kristin Twilfer went smoothly. She received my documents, checked them, forwarded them to Cal State and sent me the confirmation and all the important visa documents within 6 weeks. The visa application went without any further difficulties and within a few days after visiting the embassy in Munich my passport with the visa I had applied for arrived.

If you follow the instructions on your acceptance documents, you will eventually encounter all payment requests. Please don’t pay any of this! All of this is included in the $800 “deposit” that you paid after the commitment. Health care, orientation day and insurance. In the end there was only drama when they wanted the money back. You will receive your access data for the “GET” system by email from the university, which corresponds to the Stud.Ip system in Germany, in order to register for the various courses. Here you can also check whether your courses are offered at all. Normally your password will be emailed to you shortly afterwards, but that wasn’t the case for me. In order to be able to log into “GET”, you need an English internet provider (switching the language of your Firefox or Chrome to English is not enough. You have to install the American version of it on your computer). You can also check Cal State’s website to see if certain courses are offered. The course catalog of the respective semester does not indicate whether certain courses are offered in this semester! Otherwise, “GET” is unimportant for F1 visa students, as they cannot enroll in courses. Shortly before the trip I got myself a whether certain courses will be offered this semester! Otherwise, “GET” is unimportant for F1 visa students, as they cannot enroll in courses. Shortly before the trip I got myself a whether certain courses will be offered this semester! Otherwise, “GET” is unimportant for F1 visa students, as they cannot enroll in courses. Shortly before the trip I got myself aBooked a hotel room for a week near the university because I couldn’t judge distances in this big city and wanted to get an overview of the apartment and the surrounding area first. My flight went from Frankfurt am Main by Lufthansa to LAX. Actually, I should have changed trains in Chicago. However, the lady at the counter said that two hours of transfer time was too short and therefore rebooked me on a direct flight on site.

Checklist up to here:

• Toefl or substitute, Transcript of Records from home university, financial confirmation for application through MicroEdu
• Short objection to the “Transcript of Records”
• In Germany, it is not uncommon to register for courses and later not to take the exam. This is unusual in America and that’s why the whole 5.0 entries, despite a good cut, look a bit “weird” for the processing office at Cal State LA, since such grades hardly exist there. However, the ToR is created according to certain guidelines and cannot hide the failed grades. However, most universities offer a German excerpt with “only passed grades”. You can have these translated in a certified translation agency. The price is around 30 euros plus 5 euros for each additional copy or 80 euros in an urgent procedure (translation on the same day).
• For the visa you need the I-20, the online forms, financial confirmation and to expedite the process your plane tickets

Los Angeles:

Arrived at the airport, the mood increased mainly because of the famous California weather. I took a local taxi to the hotel/motel (“Floral Inn” Monterey Park). Of course it’s also cheaper than 80 dollars, but at the moment it was more convenient for me. You can also take the “LAX FlyAway” busfor $7.50, which takes you directly to Union Station. Union Station is the intersection of all major bus, train, subway and S-Bahn connections. From there you can then take the respective connection to your home or take a taxi. The Inn hotel/motel chain has a strong presence in Los Angeles and can be found in every part of the city. You can get a room here relatively cheaply via Booking.com. If you are on site and want to extend your room, it costs 80 dollars a day, which I unfortunately had to do very often, because in retrospect it was a mistake to decide against an “Airbnb.com” room reservation and prefer to stay entered the “Craigslist.com” gambling. Please pay a little attention on this page. The first room I looked at was from someone called Steve and Jake, depending on which room you’re looking at. His ID was on his table, which then showed an Arabic name. This person is mainly present in downtown and the surrounding area and I would advise against him based on the feeling.

The room descriptions are also all the same. Other international students also came across him and then rejected the offers out of fear. The problem with searching via “Craigslist” is that the majority of landlords do not take short-term tenants and I have therefore only received rejections. After some time, I searched with a friend because it also saved time and nerves with her car, but always the same answer: “I like you, but I can not give this room to you for 4 months. At least 6 to 12 months!”. We were then also in the dormitories of the USC, which were paradise, but same game. 6-12 months minimum. However, if you stay in Los Angeles for a year and plan on spending 1,000 dollars a month anyway, you should definitely take a look at the dormitories at USC. $1000 sounds like a lot, but apartments/rooms in Los Angeles are actually quite normal at $750-1200. I finally found a room in Alhambra but had to negotiate quite a bit. Instead of paying 775, I ended up paying 1,000 monthly plus a one-time short-term rental fee of $500. I would do it again for this apartment after almost 5 weeks of looking for an apartment. By the way, the room can be found in the Facebook MicroEdu group.

My verdict on the apartment:

Either come very early or book a room in advance and please pay attention to reviews. If you come across a Zarah Juplo (Boyle Heights area) through Airbnb, book one of their rooms ! Super loving Filipino mother of two boys with a more than beautiful house and rooms. I stayed there temporarily with a friend and shared a room with him, which he offered me based on my situation. Of course there were also people who found something very quickly via Craigslist, but then there were also those who lived in the hostel the entire time for $750 a month and then had to share the room with 4-8 people.

On orientation daywe then met our “Study Abroad Advisor”, who was responsible for us international students. If you have any questions or problems, please avoid that person. Please contact her supervisor “Amy Wang” immediately, because as soon as she realizes that you represent an additional effort, her mood changes very quickly. Quite a lot of people paid other things besides the $800 that shouldn’t have been paid, which resulted in extra work for her. Either she sends you a check direct to your home in Germany that you have to cash within 3 months (how to do that while in the US I don’t know) or you have to do it every 2 weeks like me and a friend did remember and get your checks some time after you are back in Germany.

Another example on the subject of the “International Office”: I had a sports accident at the end of November and there was a suspicion of a cruciate ligament tear, which is why I had to go straight to the doctor. insurance through the universityI could prove it, but I didn’t have an insurance card from Cal State LA. I didn’t even know it existed and neither did my fellow foreign students. The Health Center then referred me to the International Office, who only gave me a funny, condescending look and asked what they had to do with student health. So I had to go back to the Health Center (on one leg, no crutches or anything). There they said that the International Office was responsible for me because I was an international student. Out of pity, I was loaned a wheelchair because this back and forth went on all day. At some point I got a little louder in the International Office, until the supervisor from our “Study Abroad Advisor” came and said, that she should have sent us the insurance cards before we even started the trip. After a phone call from her, she went to the receptionist’s desk in the International Office and pulled out a huge stack of unsent letters, which included our insurance cards (it was now late November!). But now at least my knee could be treated and I was given a splint and crutches because I preferred to have the operation done in Germany. A day later we all got an email that our insurance cards had finally arrived and that we could pick them up. I think you can imagine that it didn’t really go down well with us. before we even started the journey. After a phone call from her, she went to the receptionist’s desk in the International Office and pulled out a huge stack of unsent letters, which included our insurance cards (it was now late November!). But now at least my knee could be treated and I was given a splint and crutches because I preferred to have the operation done in Germany. A day later we all got an email that our insurance cards had finally arrived and that we could pick them up. I think you can imagine that it didn’t really go down well with us. before we even started the journey. After a phone call from her, she went to the receptionist’s desk in the International Office and pulled out a huge stack of unsent letters, which included our insurance cards (it was now late November!). But now at least my knee could be treated and I was given a splint and crutches because I preferred to have the operation performed in Germany. A day later we all got an email that our insurance cards had finally arrived and that we could pick them up. I think you can imagine that it didn’t really go down well with us. After a phone call from her, she went to the receptionist’s desk in the International Office and pulled out a huge stack of unsent letters, which included our insurance cards (it was now late November!). But now at least my knee could be treated and I was given a splint and crutches because I preferred to have the operation performed in Germany. A day later we all got an email that our insurance cards had finally arrived and that we could pick them up. I think you can imagine that it didn’t really go down well with us. After a phone call from her, she went to the receptionist’s desk in the International Office and pulled out a huge stack of unsent letters, which included our insurance cards (it was now late November!). But now at least my knee could be treated and I was given a splint and crutches because I preferred to have the operation done in Germany. A day later we all got an email that our insurance cards had finally arrived and that we could pick them up. I think you can imagine that it didn’t really go down well with us. But now at least my knee could be treated and I was given a splint and crutches because I preferred to have the operation done in Germany. A day later we all got an email that our insurance cards had finally arrived and that we could pick them up. I think you can imagine that it didn’t really go down well with us. But now at least my knee could be treated and I was given a splint and crutches because I preferred to have the operation done in Germany. A day later we all got an email that our insurance cards had finally arrived and that we could pick them up. I think you can imagine that it didn’t really go down well with us.

So here too: get your insurance cards as soon as you arrive, don’t put up with anything and contact the management of the “International Office” directly!

To the courses. Please inform in advance whether your courses will be offered and get learning agreements for many subjects, especially in business administration -The “crashing” of courses is not always successful. It has always amazed me that in the previous experience reports everyone came to their courses without any problems. This was the case for some, but it was more difficult for those who wanted to study management. Too many want to go to courses that are only intended for 30 to 40 people. The courses that take place in the morning were usually overcrowded and I was immediately rejected and at the courses in the evening you had to take part in raffles. I was admitted to one of the courses I wanted by drawing lots and couldn’t take my other courses because they were full. In one of my replacement courses, the professor accepted me without any problems, since open university students are usually given preference, as we indirectly pay the professors with our tuition fees. However, he was the only one who said that. The third course was also a replacement course and took place on Saturdays. The course was hardly attended, so it wasn’t a problem to get in.

The problem with one of these courses was that I was put in the right course but not in the right section, so I was then able to access the other professor’s lecture notes. Unfortunately, changing that was too strenuous for the administration and too much “paperwork” and I was asked to ask the two professors whether my grade could not simply be communicated and the professor with whom I am registered should simply enter my grade into the system. Both had no problem with it and my professor regularly emailed me the lecture notes. If the administration makes you such a suggestion, then please reject it! The grade did not appear on my certificate because it was not an approved process. I got quite a run-in because of that and I was only able to get the grade credited because my home professor showed the necessary goodwill and the confirmation by email from my professor regarding my grade was sufficient. If you have professors who do not show goodwill in this case, you could end up with a $700 cash outlay and study effort that will never be rewarded with a demonstrable grade.

Apart from that, the courses at Cal State are not very learning, but time-consuming, compared to the German level of education. 3 to 4 exams per course, as well as group projects, presentations, homework, etc. With little work, you definitely get a “B-“. Everything that should be better is a little more work, but by no means comparable to Germany. For the conversion of gradesI have to say that you should please communicate to your home university that Cal State LA, unlike some other California universities, does not have an “A+”. My “A” in “International Economics” was only worth 1.7 here, since “A+” is calculated as 1.0 and a devaluation according to the “Bavarian formula”. You will probably have to submit an “Evaluation of the Student” at your home university, on which the professor enters what percentage an “A” corresponds to. For me, this “A” corresponded to around 90 percent. Ask the professor if he can increase that to 95 percent for you for conversion or depending on what percentage at your home university leads to a 1.0 (with us, for example, you get a 1.0 with 110 out of 120 points. Of course depending how the exam turns out and is therefore corrected up or down). The purchase of the textbooks is required by most professors and is very expensive to buy and rent ($150-400 for rent or purchase). I bought the international version for 30 euros, which is the same text vis-a-vis, even if the professors complain that these are not the right versions, which I still have not understood to this day. If you borrow books, do it through “Amazon”. You will receive books for 3 months with an option to extend them and a return slip, which you can then simply hand in to UPS with this return slip. I bought the international version for 30 euros, which is the same text vis-a-vis, even if the professors complain that these are not the right versions, which I still have not understood to this day. If you borrow books, do it through “Amazon”. You will receive books for 3 months with an option to extend them and a return slip, which you can then simply hand in to UPS with this return slip. I bought the international version for 30 euros, which is the same text vis-a-vis, even if the professors complain that these are not the right versions, which I still have not understood to this day. If you borrow books, do it through “Amazon”. You will receive books for 3 months with an option to extend them and a return slip, which you can then simply hand in to UPS with this return slip.

On the topic of making American friends and American student life:

Cal State is not UCLA or USC! The majority of people who attend this university work part-time and cannot financially afford to concentrate solely on their studies. Hence the term “travel university”. If you’re asked what you do for a living and you answer that you’re just a student, you’re likely to encounter wide-open eyes. As such, it’s hard to form closer American acquaintances at uni, which means you’ll probably only hang out with the other international students unless you’ve moved into an apartment with Americans. Larger parties are also not allowed in the dormitory, which is comparatively not very large. I believe that a maximum of 10 people are allowed per apartment. We once talked to a police officer there who said that there have often been shootings there in recent years and that he himself has also been shot there. With too many people, the probability is too high that at least one person will have a gun with them. So if you want to lead an American student life that you know from television, you unfortunately have to go to UCLA or USC within Los Angeles (I only heard good things about the university in “Fullerton” in this regard). Although I have to add that I was only in Los Angeles from the beginning of September to the end of December. My fellow students, who were also over there, will probably confirm the same opinion in their experience reports. that at least one person is carrying a weapon. So if you want to lead an American student life that you know from television, you unfortunately have to go to UCLA or USC within Los Angeles (I only heard good things about the university in “Fullerton” in this regard). Although I have to add that I was only in Los Angeles from the beginning of September to the end of December. My fellow students, who were also over there, will probably confirm the same opinion in their experience reports. that at least one person is carrying a weapon. So if you want to lead an American student life that you know from television, you unfortunately have to go to UCLA or USC within Los Angeles (I only heard good things about the university in “Fullerton” in this regard). Although I have to add that I was only in Los Angeles from the beginning of September to the end of December. My fellow students, who were also over there, will probably confirm the same opinion in their experience reports. that I was only in Los Angeles from the beginning of September to the end of December. My fellow students, who were also over there, will probably confirm the same opinion in their experience reports. that I was only in Los Angeles from the beginning of September to the end of December. My fellow students, who were also over there, will probably confirm the same opinion in their experience reports.

But if you mainly want to travel, you can’t go wrong with the Cal State LA. Due to the central location in California, you can get to San Diego, Las Vegas and, with a little more time, to San Francisco very quickly. There is also a lot to see in Los Angeles. Be it stars, beaches, theme parks, film studios or anything else. On the subject of a car, I have to say: “It works without it”, but with a car you definitely save 3-4 hours of daily bus and metro travel as well as transfer and waiting times.

Miscellaneous:

In the first week after my arrival there was a credit card frauddiscovered on my Mastercard. In such a case, the documents sent must be completed and a copy of the report must be submitted to the police within two weeks so that the amount can be transferred back. In my case, unfortunately, it was a good four-digit amount. Your parents, siblings or other close persons cannot fill out the documents on their behalf. However, a copy is sufficient in this case (i.e. no original has to be sent by post). In my case, my father sent me everything by email, I filled it out, signed it and sent it back as a cell phone picture. You can file a complaint online and after one day you will be informed of everything you need to know. You must also block the card. A replacement credit card arrived the next day, However, you can only pay with this in person and no online transactions, since there is no “security code” on the back of the card. You cannot withdraw money with it either, as there is no PIN for the card. You can apply for emergency cash at any time and then pick it up at Western Union. The problem here is that “Google” doesn’t tell you whether it’s a Western Union machine or a real switch that you need for this. That’s why it’s unnecessary stress without a car if you only find a vending machine after a long drive. You can apply for emergency cash at any time and then pick it up at Western Union. The problem here is that “Google” doesn’t tell you whether it’s a Western Union machine or a real switch that you need for this. That’s why it’s unnecessary stress without a car if you only find a vending machine after a long drive. You can apply for emergency cash at any time and then pick it up at Western Union. The problem here is that “Google” doesn’t tell you whether it’s a Western Union machine or a real switch that you need for this. That’s why it’s unnecessary stress without a car if you only find a vending machine after a long drive.

If you want to rent a car for short -term trips, this is best done with Hertz. If you are under 24, there are online promotion codes where the “underage fee” does not apply. Hertz can be found at Union Station and scattered throughout Los Angeles. In addition, we got an “upgrade” of the car category every time. You should avoid public holidays, as there is a surcharge of at least 150 percent depending on the model class.

On the subject of cell phones or cell phone network providers, I have to say that I was satisfied with T-Mobile. $60 a month with all the trimmings. International calls, unlimited data volume and the usual flat rate supplements (SMS, national calls, etc.).

If you want to exercise but don’t want to use Unifitness, I can recommend Gold’s Gym or LA Fitness. However, be aware at LA Fitness that there is a $100 registration fee if you do not sign a contract on the same day as your first visit. So if you want to continue watching and then come back, you will unfortunately have to pay this fee. Like Gold’s Gym, LA Fitness is a fitness chain and you can use your card to train in any of these studios. I had indoor squash courts, swimming pools, basketball courts and the usual gym facilities for $30-40 a month (negotiable).

You can get to the university from Union Station by taking the Silver Line and buses that stop at the same stop. The Silver Line is part of the Metro and is a silver bus. If you have a daily, weekly or monthly pass, you still have to pay a dollar extra each time you travel to a new zone. With the metro card you can go downtown and everything west, south/northwest of it. Anything east of Union Station costs a dollar extra. (One way $1.75, Day pass $7, Weekly pass $25, Monthly pass $100). Please always check if the bus goes through South Central and if so, please do not get off en route. We had one case where someone was mugged near their hostel. Please also avoid the tent area downtown in the direction of Little Tokyo.

Overall conclusion:

I had only read good reviews about this university. Maybe I just got the wrong semester, but in my case I wouldn’t recommend this university. If you are used to German organizational structures, the stay on site is associated with a lot of stress, starting with the simplest administrative things. I also missed the help and concern for problems that one normally gives to guests. The hoped-for student life with a lot of contact with Americans did not materialize either. I was staying with a friend in San Diego and I had more fun there and had more contact with students, especially American students, than in Los Angeles. Of the cities visited, San Diego was by far the most beautiful city. Los Angeles itself is very diverse, if maybe not really nice. But you have a lot of fun and variety there and I miss this city again. So from my side a clear no to this university. The only good thing about Cal State from my point of view is that it’s in Los Angeles. My recommendation would be that you please check out the other universities in this city first, or look around in San Diego. Los Angeles is big, but you saw and got to know most of it in one week. But if you have decided to go to this university, then get permanent accommodation in advance and avoid everything that has the consequences mentioned above. I wish you a lot of fun too LA is great and you should see this city at least once.