James' Exchange to San Diego State University | USA - Murdoch University Study Abroad and Exchange

My name is James and I just completed exchange in San Diego, California! I attended San Diego State University for the Fall 2018 semester, studying classes related to my business marketing major.

Key factors in choosing SDSU were that I have always dreamed of visiting America, and even more so studying there. Watching so many movies as a kid drew me closer to the USA, and I felt home the second I had arrived. San Diego is also similar to Perth, both being on the West Coast and holding many similar cultural values and activities. The beach lifestyle and climate were familiar, with the people just as friendly (and always excited about meeting Australians).

From the first day, school in San Diego felt more full-on than the laid-back experience at Murdoch. I took two final-year Marketing classes and a final-year Public Relations class. Class sizes were much larger, with double the contact time, and double the assessments. Despite this, I had a much more practical outcome to my learning. I spent most school days inside the huge, beautiful Love Library. School at SDSU felt much more competitive, with students really caring about their grades. Be prepared to work hard but enjoy the hustle and bustle of a huge 40,000 student campus. As part of a class I took at SDSU, I participated in a communications internship with the San Diego Council of Literacy, a non-profit who help people of all ages learn to read and write. SDCOL even took me to the world-famous San Diego zoo!

I made a tonne of friends at school and around my apartment complex (Blvd. 63), so got to experience much of California and beyond. My friends from school were eager to show me around the area. Public transport in San Diego isn’t the best, but in large groups we would just use Uber or Lyft. We ate many times at “In ’N Out”, the most American fast food restaurant. We also loved the Baked Bear dessert spot in Pacific Beach - the best ice cream sandwiches ever! Being so close to Mexico, street tacos were so popular. Taco Tuesdays were the best food night out, with our favourite being at Fat Fish.

The best parts of the exchange were being around so many other foreign students as we all got to experience many new things together and were always down to explore. I lived at the resort-style “Blvd. 63” - a huge apartment complex near SDSU. It had two swimming pools and a crazy party culture fuelled by countless international and exchange students. I would definitely recommend living here if you can. My favourite times were when my housemates and I travelled around San Francisco on bikes and partying in Las Vegas. Huge groups met up with us wherever we went - it was never hard to find friends from San Diego. I travelled California extensively, with trips to busy Los Angeles, Orange County, and the rest of the golden West Coast. I even flew to snowy Colorado, where I skydived over the incredible Rocky Mountains.

Despite a challenging school environment, there’s plenty of time to enjoy everything California has to offer. I’ve made true lifelong friends and it’s been the experience of a lifetime that I will never forget!