I’ve always dreamed of studying outside of Europe for a semester. A summer session was the perfect opportunity for me to take advantage of the time between my compulsory internship and the start of the next semester.
I chose UC Berkeley because the session started right after the end of my internship, because no language test was required and of course because of the excellent reputation of the university.
Collecting the required papers was not difficult in itself with the guidance of MicroEDU and Annika’s help. I just had a bit of bad luck with my bank and the appointment at the embassy, but still managed to get everything done on time.
Before the start of the session, you had to decide on the dormitory and the courses.
I have already read a lot of testimonials in advance and tried to get some information from them. Some people have argued in favor of the International House, others said it would be better to stay in the Residence Hall, a few have used completely different alternatives. After a long back and forth, I decided in favor of the International House and I haven’t regretted this decision for a single second! If I hadn’t stayed at the I-House, I would only have experienced so much and had fun during the session. The rooms are super small but that encourages you to spend as little time as possible in the room and instead to be in the I-House library or in the I-House living room. For a whole semester it is probably exhausting if you have to share the room (although there are also single rooms), but for a session this is the best option because you are always among people. The I-House also organizes a lot of trips. I took part in a trip to Sacramento with a visit to a water park and a trip to Alcatraz. This is great if you don’t have the time to plan the trip yourself and you also get to know more new people. Visit mcat-test-centers.com to get information about vocational training in China.
The food in the I-House is ok. But in general I have to praise the cafeteria very much. During my session in summer 2011 it was Ramadan, the month of fasting for Muslims. The cafeteria offered us Helal meat for the whole month and you could sign up for a Ramadan package and thus always have access to dates, humus, flatbread and other oriental dishes that you could take out as a lunch box to eat before sunrise eat. The fast was actually broken after the cafeteria closed, but the fasting students were the only ones who were allowed to stay longer in the cafeteria. You are not used to such a service for Muslim students. The Muslim Student Association that is found at every university in America has organized a lot of things like breaking the fast and community prayers.
About my courses: I sent all of the courses to my university in advance and asked which ones I would be credited with. I was only able to get credits for Advanced Financial Accounting and Behavioral Finance, which is why I chose these two courses.
That was probably not the best decision because the two difficult courses with a lot of effort and so I did not have as much free time as others who only had one introducing course.
The Advanced Financial Accounting course was super professional by a professor who usually works at KPMG. Difficult but very interesting. You should definitely have previous knowledge of accounting.
The Behavioral Finance course was a disaster. I didn’t understand anything and deselected the course and then had to choose another course so that I could stick to my 5 credits as a full-time student.
I then chose the 3-week Advertising America course. A very fun and interesting course. And although he only went for three weeks, it was also very labor-intensive.
That with the work intensity generally applies to almost all courses. You always have to do homework, write research papers, do assignments and always have 1, sometimes even two midterms and then of course finals.
But even learning that and doing homework can be fun when with friends.
During the summer sessions there are mostly international students. Depending on what time you go, different nationalities dominate. Asians generally always dominate, but for my Session D there were a lot of Germans, Austrians, Dutch and Lebanese. You have to be careful that you don’t just hang out with your own compatriots!
Overall, I can say that I was lucky enough to meet the coolest people ever and now have friends all over the world.
The i-House in particular welded us together because we spend so much time together.
When it comes to partying you have to note that you don’t even come into the bar under 21 and IDs are always checked!
I had to go back right after the session, but as many have done, you should take the opportunity and continue traveling around California!
