University: University of California Berkeley
City: Berkeley
Country: United States
Continent: North America
Field of study: business administration
Study type: Summer Sessions
Since I was required to gain experience at a foreign university as part of my international business studies, it was always clear to me to gain this experience at a renowned American university. That’s why I chose the University of California, Berkeley.
Right at the beginning I would like to point out that I have not regretted this decision for a moment. The initial organization of the stay is by no means complicated – on the contrary, with the support of MicroEdu you are “ready to go” with the procurement of just a few documents and papers, including a visit to the American consulate. However, you should also take into account that the student visa and all applications cost a lot (in my case about 300 dollars). Visit jibin123.com to get information about Semester Abroad In University of California Los Angeles.
I personally chose Summer Session D, this session lasted a total of 6 weeks (from July to mid-August). The courses for the sessions can easily be found on the UC Berkeley homepage and there is also a large selection. In principle, however, I advise you to register for the courses as early as possible, otherwise the places for very popular courses can be gone quickly. I chose two business courses at the Haas School of Business – Marketing and Leadership.
Basically, I was satisfied with the choice of my courses (Marketing with Prof. Robinson and Leadership with Prof. Fellows), although I would like to mention that the business courses offered can vary greatly in terms of workload. Both of my courses were structured similarly – on the one hand, group presentations had to be created, on the other hand there were “written assignments” and a mid-term and a final exam. In addition, there were “reading assignments” to be completed for each unit in order to prepare for the course hours.
In principle, the units were fully planned and filled with lots of different tasks combined with lectures by the professors. In order to give you a detailed insight into the courses, I would like to go into more detail about my chosen classes in Berkeley.
Marketing
Looking back, the course with Prof. Robinson was good. A positive aspect is the processing of a large number of case studies, which have to be prepared and discussed during the lesson. As a non-business student, you will certainly get a very good insight and overview of the world of marketing with this course. For me as a business administration student, I already knew a lot of the material I had covered, but Prof. Robinson’s lecture was very stimulating (and often supported with commercials from practice). You were constantly required to actively participate and get involved – the presentation of a case study was also part of the course. Two “letters” had to be written as written assignments. So the workload was not small and the type of lecture the professor gave was not for everyone.
I particularly enjoyed the Leadership Class, which was largely due to Prof. Fellows. The course was structured in such a way that there was a lecture part, guest lecturers were invited to almost every unit and interactive group work was always part of the course. We had to give a group presentation and hand in some written assignments. The written effort of the course was great, but we had a lot of freedom in choosing the topics for the individual paper and for the 2 case studies. I would recommend this course to anyone.
Life on campus
In terms of housing, I opted for the Residence Halls. I was billeted at Unit 2’s Davidson house. When I arrived, I was momentarily surprised at how many Asian girls there were on my floor (my flatmate from Belgium and I were the only European girls on our floor). You have to be prepared that as a European you are in the minority if you choose the Residence Halls. In addition, at the age of 23, I already felt like one of the oldest in the house (the average was about 20-21 years).
However, you quickly make friends and get to know a lot of people – after just a few days you have met at least 100 new faces (which is made easier by various welcoming events).
I generally felt well looked after in Unit 2, but today I would apply for living in the I-house.
Finally, my last tip: Those who choose UC Berkeley should definitely know in advance that it is not sunny and hot in Berkeley in July and August, but can be really cool. Mornings are fairly chilly on San Francisco Bay, but the days get warmer and the city and surrounding area are a dream when the sun is shining. If you want to go hot, I recommend a trip to Las Vegas!
