Study Abroad in University of California, Riverside

After I had already spent a student exchange in Minnesota, it was clear to me that I would like to spend another longer time in the USA during my studies and decided to do a semester abroad at UC Riverside (UCR).

It was very important to me that my achievements from abroad would also be recognized at my home university, which is why the UCR seemed particularly suitable to me, as its business school is accredited by the AACSB. In September, two weeks before the start of the semester, my fellow student from Munich and I made our way to Riverside.

If you book a flight early, look around to see if you can arrive directly at “Ontario” airport, which is even closer to Riverside than LAX. Back then, I booked a rental car online through Hertz early on and did not use the UCR pick-up option. You don’t need a navigation device under any circumstances, with a little sense of direction and a free map from Hertz you can easily find your way from LAX or Ontario Airport to Riverside.
For the first few days on site, I booked a hotel nearby and kept the rental car for a week so that I could take a look at a few apartments and check out car dealers for a used car.

As I said, I wanted to find my own apartment and not use the UCR dormitory. Dormitory is probably the wrong word here, the whole apartment complex is very chic and modern and is right next to the UCR, but the rooms are VERY expensive. For the same money you can easily get your own apartment near the university.

• Check topschoolsintheusa for more about University of California Riverside Rankings.

Invest a day and just drive down the streets near the university, there are tons of apartments. Back then, my fellow student and I opted for the “Boulder Creek Apartments” on Iowa Avenue. The price was perfectly okay, for a 1-room apartment that could easily be inhabited by two, we paid about $ 1000 per month and shared it. I can only recommend the residential complex – the most beautiful pool area of ​​all apartments in Riverside, seriously!

If you decide to have your own apartment, it is essential to have an internet connection. Some apartments offer free WiFi, ours unfortunately not. We decided on the Anbierter “Charter”. With this one can conclude a “contract” for Internet and television without a social security number and also borrow equipment such as WLAN routers and receivers; there is also no minimum contract period. As soon as you leave Riverside, you bring the borrowed equipment back and the “contract” is over. We bought a used television on ebay for $ 20 – it did its job without worries.

Many of the apartments are furnished, but unfortunately not ours, so we bought a piece of furniture from Ikea, which can be found about half an hour from Riverside in Covina.
My biggest tip I can give you: craigslist.com. There you can find everything from wardrobes to skateboards mostly very cheap.
In addition, we decided to buy a car. I really wanted to buy from a used car dealer in order to have a guarantee if something happened to the car.
I would NOT do the same thing again. You’d rather spend a few dollars more and rent a car over time. After a long negotiation I got a guarantee for the car, which then cost us $ 6000, but it was sorely needed. I stood at the dealer in the yard 12 (!) Times to have the car repaired, thank goodness everything was covered by the guarantee. Shortly before the return flight I wanted to sell the car back to the dealer, but they made me a lousy offer and so I had to sell the car to Carmax for $ 2000 (I had expected $ 4000) for better or worse.
But a car is an absolute must if you don’t always want to ask someone to drive you to go shopping. The California distances are definitely not to be underestimated.

Daily Life:

There are numerous supermarkets in Riverside, my tip: Food 4 Less, more of a kind of wholesale market and much cheaper than other supermarkets. There are also enough banks. To get cash free of charge, you either do one of the following: With cards from Deutsche Bank, you can get cash free of charge at Bank of America; alternatively open an account on site, it costs nothing and you get a soccer ball for free ;-); get a credit card. You definitely need it, because firstly in America you can easily pay for any chewing gum with a credit card, but it is also often irreplaceable for paying bills (internet, garbage,…) over the internet. With many free credit cards that are offered in Germany, you can withdraw cash from ATMs internationally free of charge.
Get a cell phone! Tip: Kmart, $ 30 including cell phone and free minutes. Don’t be surprised: even if someone calls you, you pay with American prepaid cards.

Traveling:

The great thing about Riverside is the location! It is an hour to downtown LA, 1.5 hours to the beaches and 1.5 hours to San Diego. San Diego is my all time favorite here! Pack a few people in the car on the weekend, rent a cheap hotel and go to a few clubs in the Gaslamp Quarter – great! Downtown LA is definitely a must-see, but the whole thing seemed rather dingy to me during the day and rather dangerous in the evening. Since having to party with San Diego much better. An absolute must, especially New Year’s Eve, but only if you are over 21: Vegas! As I said, it’s really only worth it if you are over 21, the bouncers understand their job, believe me.
Travel around, discover California (insider tip: Santa Barbara and the district “Isla Vista”: you haven’t seen anything like this before, what’s going on there on a Saturday evening!). Whatever you do: DO NOT go to Tijuana! It used to be a party hotspot for San Diego students, now it’s just dangerous and what’s there to see is not worth it.

Uni life:

You read again and again how difficult it must have been for some students from abroad to get their desired course at the UCR. There is a simple rule here: keep calm and speak genuinely and kindly to the right people. If you kindly explain that it is very important for you to come to this course, because you need it for your university at home, even the fullest course can be done at once with a little bit of negotiation skills. You hardly need to send emails, unfortunately they are rarely answered, go straight to the consultation hour.
After you have completed your course selection, studying at the UCR is a lot of fun. I had three courses – a business course and two economics courses. The schedule was put together just right. You will notice a difference to your German university: More homework and unannounced smaller tests, but slightly easier tests in the middle and at the end of the semester. My tip: If you have the chance and the interest: choose a course from Dr. Sean D. Jasso – the best professor I have ever seen!
Use the Recreation Center: The whole thing costs about $ 75 for a quarter, but you have a gym, tennis and squash courts, you can borrow equipment for free and, and, and… it’s worth it!

Conclusion:

If you feel like studying a quarter at the UCR – do it! You will have incomparable experiences and have the fun of your life.
To recap: Craigslist.com should be your best friend, rent a car, meet as many people as possible and just have fun, but that’s almost guaranteed!

Many thanks to Aline Meyer for her always friendly and helpful support!