San Jose State University Review (3)

San Jose State University Review (3)

North America

University: San Jose State University

City: San Jose

Country: United States

Continent: North America

Field of study: Business

Study type: semester abroad

The application process for SJSU was pretty easy. I contacted MicroEdu about 1 year before my stay in the USA and started to deal with the topic of a semester abroad. I have quite extensive advice from MicroEdu on possible partner universities in California and my choice fell on San Jose State University. My personal reasons were the location (located in Silicon Valley and close to San Francisco), the required language level (“only” B2) and the courses offered by SJSU. In the run-up I had to take care of two essential documents: proof of financial resources ($13,000 for ONE semester) and proof of language proficiency at level B2 (I submitted a DAAD from my university). I have provided the proof of financing partly via the foreign BAföG and partly via a private proof of financing. The application for the foreign BAföG for the USA was processed very quickly and I received my answers after a short wait,I would still recommend taking care of it at an early stage (submit an application 6 months in advance, even if not all the documents are available at that time). Once I had both forms of evidence, I used MicroEdu’s instructions to complete my application and forwarded all the necessary paperwork to MicroEdu, who did the rest for me (thanks for that!). After a short time I got my acceptance and was able to take care of my visa accordingly. After my visit to the embassy, ​​I received my passport and visa back about two weeks later. Visit mcat-test-centers.com to get information about University of California Los Angeles UCLA.

I looked for my accommodation in advance on all possible websites. Since a room on campus was very expensive, I decided to look for something off-campus. At this point I have to admit that I quickly noticed that the rents in San José (especially downtown near the university) are very high. For a single room you have to calculate on average about 900 – 1 300$ per month. That’s why I decided to share my room with someone. I finally found my room through a group on Facebook and was able to fly to the USA in a relaxed manner without having to worry about accommodation. I shared a room with another girl (American) and paid about $700 including all the trimmings and the apartment was right across from campus right downtown. It was very practical, especially for courses that take place in the evening, because you no longer had to walk or drive far.

My studies at SJSU started in January with an orientation week specially organized for the internationals. Here it was explained to us in detail how the course selection works at SJSU & how best to contact the professors with whom we wanted to take the courses. The rest of it actually worked itself out when you went to the courses on the first day and the professors usually asked themselves who else wanted to take the course (at least in the business area). Apart from that I can only say that the responsible study coordinator for the Internationals was very helpful and always responded to us with any problems. In the O week, fun events were also organized for us, such as going out to eat together, a trip to San Francisco or a city tour of San José (for free).

I took three business courses and one English course (specifically for internationals) at SJSU. Despite homework and constant preparation for the exams (I had to write 3 exams in each business course), the course was very relaxed and I had a lot of free time. San Jose itself does not really offer many opportunities to spend your free time, but you can always spontaneously take the next train to San Francisco or the bus to Santa Cruz and spend your free time there (about 40-80 minutes drive). In addition, the university offers a wide range of courses. For example, I took cooking classes at the university (2 classes per semester are free) or a trip to Sacramento for kayaking (good value for money for students). Weekly events were also offered especially for internationals, such as joint cinema evenings. In any case, I can say that one could never get bored.

In general, I can only say that this semester abroad was a good experience that I can only recommend to everyone, whether at SJSU or elsewhere. I think SJSU is particularly interesting for students who are studying something in the field of business or IT due to the special location of SJSU.

San Jose State University Review (3)