After I decided to spend a semester abroad at the CSULB, I had the DAAD English certificate issued by my university. Anja Heinz was my direct contact person for all questions and was helpful to me in all matters. When I had all the necessary documents together, I sent my application to Anja, i.e. Anja took over the entire application process for me. The acceptance came in the mail from MicroEDU about 2 weeks after I submitted the application. In addition, I put together a very large selection of courses in front of USA, all of which I could have credited to me through an acceptance from my university. The problem at the CSULB was that as a free mover you are not allowed to take business courses and I can only credit courses which are related to my degree program. As the next step, I applied for the visa, made an appointment and answered questions directly at the consulate. I decided to go to the consulate in Frankfurt. The appointment was at 8:30 a.m. and at 9 a.m. I was already done. After I received my visa in the mail, I booked the flight and applied for a homestay place. In addition, I made sure that my vaccination protection was up to date. I booked the flight and applied for a homestay place. In addition, I made sure that my vaccination protection was up to date. I booked the flight and applied for a homestay place. In addition, I made sure that my vaccination protection was up to date.
University and surroundings
Long Beach has its own beach, but it is not particularly suitable for surfers. The closest beach, ideal for surfing, is Huntington Beach, about 15 minutes away. The bus connections in Long Beach are relatively good, it is very easy to get to downtown, etc. From downtown the blue line (Metro) goes to Los Angeles. Travel time is around 2.5 hours, which is a long time to get to LA, but very cheap (under $ 10). In addition to public transport, there is the option of using an Uber, which I’ve only heard good things about and experienced myself. Long Beach can get cold in winter once the sun is gone, so you’ll need a winter jacket. Read more student reviews on Iamaccepted.
The CSULB is a big university, you feel like you are in your own city. However, I would say that after a few days you will get used to the campus and you will know where to find what. There is a very large gym for $ 35 a month. The university provides various shuttles that are mainly used for the dorms. A shuttle goes to the Beverly Plaza & Park Avenue apartment complex (and is called the “Off Campus Shuttle”). There are many sporting events (basketball, volleyball, soccer, waterpolo, …) during the semester, all of which are free of charge for CSULB students. The Study Abroad Office organized a lot in the “orientation week” and the “homecoming day”, otherwise relatively little came.
Course choice
From my list, which I already had my university promised me, I have now written favorites and tried to attend as many courses as possible in the first week. In principle, all professors put a signature on my piece of paper right away. I had imagined it to be really harder. After you had the signatures of the professors, you had to pick up the signature of the department and then that of the Study Abroad Office. Only then could the courses be entered online in MyCSULB and BeachBoard.
I have taken the following courses:
ECON 310 Microeconomic Theory at Jack Hou
ECON 372 International Economics with Lisa Grobar
I / ST 222 Skills and Methods of Leadership at Richard Marcus
ENGL 317 Technical Writing at Rusty Rust
I would definitely advise against taking a course with Jack Hou. Lisa Grobar was okay, but I cannot recommend taking economics courses from 300 levels up for the semester abroad. The I / ST 222 was a very easy course that I would definitely take again. And technical writing was partly laborious and the woman didn’t have the best organization, otherwise it was okay.
Accommodation
As I already mentioned, I decided on a homestay. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good experience with it, which is why I decided to move into one of the Beverly Plaza Apartments in October. I lived there with a Danish, Slovak and 2 Germans divided into two rooms. The rent was then cold at around $ 550. Until the end, I haven’t regretted moving into the apartment and I can recommend everyone to move into a shared apartment. There was always something going on, accordingly it was never boring and homesickness was out of the question. There were some apartment parties in these apartment complexes. As mentioned earlier, there is a shuttle that goes to the apartments. This runs every 15 minutes from Monday to Thursday.
Leisure
Compared to Germany, it should be mentioned that the workload is significantly higher than what you are used to in Germany. A lot is expected during the semester, including assignments, mitderms, tests, group work, presentations, etc. I tried to organize it so that I didn’t have too much to do on the weekend, so we could travel around a lot. Highly recommended are San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Las Vegas, Death Valley, Yosemite National Park, Grand Canyon and Antelope Canyon. In the event that you don’t want to rent a car, there is a long-distance bus called Greyhound that goes to some cities. I myself only drove to San Diego with Greyhound, but I was satisfied.
Conclusion
The time in Long Beach was unforgettable, exciting and eventful. I got to know so many different people. The semester abroad definitely topped everything I had hoped for or imagined, which is why I can recommend a semester abroad in California to everyone.
