I didn’t want to do an internship during the summer, so the idea occurred to me to do something “exotic”. When I searched for “Summer Fun”, Google gave me the result “UC Berkeley Summer Sessions”. I thought it was a great idea! Living in another country for at least 6 weeks, making new friends, and just getting to know a new culture led me to decide to attend UC Berkeley.
The registration process was a bit tedious. Not because MicroEDU didn’t want to help, simply because I sent the wrong course data to Berkeley and it took the staff there a long time to register the changes. MicroEDU always understood my situation and took it seriously, so I didn’t give up. After several months, I finally got my visa and made my way to San Francisco. My advice: start the registration process early and pay attention to the details.
One should not be afraid during the “interview” from the US consulate. Although you are interested in a lot of personal information and the forms take a long time to fill out, the process goes smoothly. It took me 2 days before I got my visa. Read more student reviews on Iamaccepted.
The campus is fantastic. It’s right in the city of Berkeley – which is 20 minutes from San Francisco by train. The campus itself is enormous, and since it is a public university, it is accessible to everyone. Because of the size of the campus, there are many students who own bicycles to get from one building to the next. It contains a lot of nature, with rivers crossing the campus, surrounded by huge trees, and more animated by animals. The weather is sunny during the day, but in the morning it is cool as the well-known San Francisco fog swallows the entire Bay Area. Please do not underestimate the weather!
The city has a unique atmosphere. Although the city is mainly inhabited by students, there are still hippies of the 60s and 70s who rummage around. The city is 100% safe, especially for women, so it’s best to be together late in the evening. There is a lot of entertainment: cinemas, small shops, restaurants, and bars. The city is very easy to get to and there are several options. Oakland Airport is 25 minutes. away, while San Francisco Airport takes a good hour. The whole Bay Area is well connected and offers bus, train, or boat options. If you have your own car, you have to spend a lot on parking. UC Berkeley sells parking permits for certain parking spaces with student discounts during the summer. The nice thing about Berkeley is
All students are very friendly – but many of them are also exchange students and therefore not directly UC Berkeley students. In difficult courses, they like to form groups to solve homework and projects together. There are many brotherhoods, or “fraternities”, which have many parties in the evenings, but also accommodate many students.
I took 2 courses: micro-economics and business communications. Microeconomics was extremely difficult, even for Berkeley students. There was a lot of math involved, and the book for the course was at least $ 140. However, I have learned a lot in a very short time, and I recommend it to anyone interested in business administration. The professor was very funny and intelligent, and always made students feel good. I didn’t like the seminars for this course because they were taught by PhD students who found the course difficult themselves. So I gave up on the seminars, but not on the course. Business Communications was taught by a well-known professor who knew a lot about US corporate traditions and customs. You didn’t have to take an exam for this course, but it was based on a lot of homework and 2 oral exams – one of which had to be done with PowerPoint. An extremely interesting course, but I found the professor a bit unfriendly and inflexible.
Overall, my time at UC Berkeley was great, but since I lived with people I know, I cannot provide any accommodation information. It was a great decision to go there and of course it was an incredible alternative to an internship during the summer. In addition, the visa gives you 90 days (30 days before arrival, 60 days after the end of the course) to travel to the USA. I took the opportunity to travel to Michigan, New York, Seattle, Boston, and Washington DC – an incredible experience. Of course it’s more fun when you have friends with you.
