University: University of California Riverside
City: Riverside
Country: United States
Continent: North America
Field of study: mathematics
Study type: semester abroad
First of all I would like to thank the MicroEdu team for the help and give it a 1.0. I would like to make my experience report a little different and let the facts and data speak for themselves. You have already read in all the reports how you should apply or how great California and UCR is and in my opinion you are well prepared. Therefore, I would like to talk more about what I did not know exactly before my arrival or what I did not assess as expected. Better said, I would like to go into the costs more, because it is easy to lose track and underestimate it. I don’t want to put anyone off, just to warn you and believe it or not I happily spent every cent on it and would do it again eeeeeeeeeeeeeet time. Visit jibin123.com to get information about Semester Abroad In Griffith College Dublin.
1. Preparation phase
MicroEdu already describes the application process for the university and the visa very well.
Visa 100€
Sevis fee 200$
Photos (visa) 20€
Flight to Berlin (embassy) 30€
Flight to LA 800€
Passport 38€
Perso 8€
Visa fee 10€
ATTENTION THE FOLLOWING PRICES ARE ALL IN USD ($)!!!
I had looked for the apartment privately. For that I can only recommend the site http: //inlandempire.craigslist.org/. The apartments at the university are great in terms of location, but they also cost 2 or 3 times as much. It’s better to look for a cheap flat share and rent/buy a car, which I can recommend to everyone anyway. Just being at the university in Riverside gets boring quickly.
Rent 400
Deposit 100
Meals per month 400
Gasoline costs 150
Mobile phone flat rate 50
- University
IMPORTANT: UCR and UCR Extension Center are different things. UCX is a building on the outskirts of the university for exchange students. If possible, choose your subjects at the right university (UCR main campus). It’s huge great offer Tuition Fee
3950 Per Quarter
Fee 150 Per Quarter
Health Ins 450 Per Quarter
Fee 150 Per Quarter
Parking 84 Per Quarter
Sports 70 Per Quarter
Sport is of course optional, parking only if you have a car and want a parking permit. Briefly on the sports offer: The fee includes a fitness studio, baseball indoor & outdoor, outdoor tennis, squash, badminton, I think volleyball too, and much more. So for the almost 25 a month the offer is great.
- Car Costs
Also for the car I can only recommend http: //inlandempire.craigslist.org/. Some data you should consider when buying a car. Firstly, a car that is 10 years old has run as much as a 30-year-old car here. So don’t look for cars with 80t km for 2000$.
I had planned about $3000 and spent about 3 weeks looking, inspecting cars and test driving them. What you should definitely not do is buy an old American car. If you have run more than 120,000 miles, you will cause more problems and costs than you would like in the short time. I would recommend buying an Asian car, i.e. Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Kia, Mitsubishi, Hyundai etc. If you have more money to spend, you can of course also buy an American car, which has not been used much. But the mentioned brands are quite reliable and also economical. Of course gasoline is cheaper there than here (currently about $4 per gallon = 3.8 litres) but I don’t know if that means you have to buy a 5.7 liter machine with a V8 engine.
IMPORTANT: make sure that the car has a SMOG CHECK
Auto 2400
DMV (registration) 130
Drivers License 31
ID (Personal) 26
Insurance 270 6 months
Autoparts (steering wheel lock etc.) 35
Smog test 60 possibly cost
car battery 105 possibly cost
oil change 20-60 possibly cost
car tax 9%
- Road trip (Optional but highly recommended)
Our route went from LA up the coast to Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Jose, San Francisco and from there to Yosemite National Park, Death Valley, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon National Park and back to Las Vegas in time for New Year’s Eve. Then back to Los Angeles.
We were 3 people and wrote down the costs because one had booked a hotel, one car, etc. and we didn’t want one person to pay for everything alone. So if you are planning such a trip, this list will surely come in handy.
Vegas hotel 91.84
Sandman hotel 102.58
Francisco hotel 36.8
Yosmite hotel 16.65 extra payment
for hostel? 1.6
petrol vegas-la 40
Luxor hotel 641.46
Francisco hotel 313.2
Shuttle LAX per person 16
Rental car Enterprise 910
Gasoline 20
Parking – Alcatraz 15
Gasoline – Xmas 30
Golden Gate Toll 6
Gasoline – in front of GC 25
Motel Arizona 37
Gasoline 18
Gasoline 1 10
Gasoline 2 26
Gasoline 3 40
Jack in the box – Santa Cruz 14
Sweets – target 5
Denny’s – Campbell 26
Alcatraz (3 people) 78
Christmas dinner – Nina 21
refueling 4 – Yosemite 30
hostel – Yosemite 132
snow chains 44
shopping – Yosemite 48
refueling – end of Yosemite 20
refueling – before Vegas 37
refueling – Grand Canyon 25
refueling – after Grand Canyon 26
taxi 15
Besides the road trip I was in Hawaii and in New York and Washington. Everything highly recommended.
Riverside’s convenient location is perfect and close to Los Angeles, San Diego, Palms Springs, Orange County, Las Vegas and Big Bear Mountain.
My TO DO LIST from me to YOU:
Apart from Hawaii, NY and Washington DC, of course, since they are not exactly around the corner;-)
- Van Bueren drive-in cinema in Riverside
- Ontario Mills Outlet Mall
- Big Bear snowboarding
- Laguna Beach in OC
- Santa Monica Pier in LA
- There are a lot of beaches in OC and LA!
- Mulholland Drive in LA
- San Diego is a must-see and perfect for partying
- Los Angeles (Universal Studios, Warner Bros. Studio Tour, Six Flags Magic Mountain Freizeitpart TOP!!!!
- LAS VEGAS!!!!
- LA Party Mile is on Hollywood Blvd. And Sunset Blvd (admission is usually $20-$35 and drinks are also expensive: beer from 6, tequila 13 etc. and a dollar tip per drink is usual, just leave it at the bar)
- Los Angeles Lakers Game Search Maps on CRAIGSLIST again
I hope the data, numbers and facts will help you a bit. I wish you all a lot of fun over there.
