MicroEDU has helped me a lot, especially because you can easily phone with questions. You get a list of documents you need for the application and the visa.
For the visa, I went to Berlin with a thousand documents (a lot of work!) To find out that you were standing in line in several places and I didn’t even have to hand in half of the required documents. After 3 hours I was briefly asked what I was going to study and how I would finance it – that was it. I think the acceptance came from MicroEDU in May. Cal State Long Beach now has financial problems (like many universities) and is cutting many jobs. MicroEDU is sure to have up-to-date information on how many applicants will be accepted in the future.
Studies:
The ALI team on site is great and helps you a lot. With every question you can go to the office and get a good introduction at the beginning. You are part of the “Open University”: There are usually students there who are still coming in during the replacement process and are too late to register for courses. These students, including us, had to go to many courses and talk to the lecturer to ask if we were allowed to attend the course. This was quite nerve-wracking and time-consuming. So approaches the matter very flexibly. Many courses are hard to find on the Internet and only on site do you understand a lot to find even more courses in lists. In the end, however, I got all the courses I wanted. Business students had a harder time. Read more student reviews on Existingcountries.
The courses are more demanding because you have a lot of submissions and you couldn’t wait until the end of the semester. You also have midterms. That means that you already have exams in the middle of the semester. Even if you have more work – in the end the exams are sometimes totally a joke. So very easy. But I found the workload feasible and I learned a lot more from it than in Germany. In Germany I officially have to read a book and can somehow avoid it until the exam at the end of the semester. In one of my courses I always had to write a 4-page book review and was forced to read it. I had a lot of fun in all of my courses, which I hadn’t seen in a long time.
The campus is very large and you have to get used to all the walking back and forth. Unfortunately you can’t find a real cafeteria, but subway and Co. So you don’t give a euro or at least. $ 5 off for something to eat. If it is to be healthy, it has to be a salad for 6-8 dollars. The cheapest, of course, is a one dollar bagel.
The library and other buildings offer many places to stay for the students. Because many have to share a room, many more students study at the university.
Living Long Beach:
I went to a host family first and the woman was also very nice and I liked it. The disadvantage of host families is that I don’t know any who were not very far from the university. If you get one that drives you somewhere or you buy a car then it’s doable. The bus system is pretty bad. In CA I just need a car. Of course, you can also do without it, because you always get to know someone with a car. I moved after 6 weeks (I lived in Huntington Beach (OC) first). I then lived in Long Beach 5 minutes from the university, so it was really easy.
I shared a room and paid $ 360. A room / month can cost up to $ 400 if you share it. A single room can only be found for $ 650 to $ 850 / month. You shouldn’t expect beautiful IKEA-furnished rooms either – that’s rather rare. Studying in the States is very expensive and students work a lot. Mainly because almost everyone owns a car. You can be in LA in an hour with the metro that leaves from Lgb. It takes that long by car. The metro system in LA is actually not that bad. But you still mainly go out in Long Beach. You just don’t “just go to LA” – because it just takes at least an hour.
But I had very cool roommates and sharing the room was unexpectedly no problem at all. Dorms are apparently okay too, except that the students there are usually very young and there are controls.
Costs:
I have already mentioned the housing costs. With a lot of skill you can go shopping cheaply if you know cheap shops. Discount stores don’t really exist. So it’s quite expensive in CA. If you cook with someone you might still be able to do it. Otherwise, the following applies: the healthier the more expensive. But I often cooked with roommates or just searched a lot to find cheap things.
So if you want to enjoy the beach and LA and want to study for a semester in Long Beach, you simply have to compromise on the quality of life. Unless you have a lot of savings – then just forget what I wrote before.
CONCLUSION:
Life is expensive there, but studying there is really worth an experience. Student life is also different and you can see many beautiful places and beaches. You are close to LA, San Francisco, San Diego and Las Vegas. The courses at the university are challenging, but very interesting (at least they were mine).
