Ceyda's Exchange to California State University, Monterey Bay | USA
Hi my name is Ceyda and in semester 1, 2019 I went on exchange to California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB).
At Murdoch University I am studying Finance and Human Resources Management.
My key factors for choosing to study at CSUMB were . . .
After contemplating going somewhere like
Germany or Netherlands for my semester abroad, I decided I would rather go
somewhere where English is the first language. I’m sure I would have enjoyed it
just the same had I not made this decision, but it’s what led me to narrowing
it down to England and the USA.
I had said for a long time before going on
exchange that if I moved anywhere overseas I’d want it to be California, so in
the end I decided going on exchange there would be a good way to do that
temporarily. My first ever day of uni at Murdoch I’d read a brochure for Cal
State Monterey Bay in the student centre and it stuck with me, which is
ultimately why I ended up choosing that particular uni.
A little bit about CSUMB, classes and the teaching system . . .
After doing some research and speaking to
my academic advisor at Murdoch I realized I wouldn’t be able to do the equivalents of my core
units while overseas and have them count towards my degree. I was told I could
still go for the experience and do whichever units I wanted and that they would
count towards my breadth unit requirements.
That’s what I ended up doing and
took three units; two that I thought would benefit my Human Resources degree
and one in American history which was quite interesting (and somewhat
depressing). The education system over there is quite different. The content is
super easy compared to Australia but what gets everyone is the workload.
For
each unit I had 4 contact hours (2 classes) per week and I had homework to do
for each class, plus assignments. They also don’t really go by how many units
you’re doing per semester, they put more importance on how many credit points
you’re completing because each class gives you a different number of credit
points depending on how easy or hard it is.
What no one told me and the advice
I would give to anyone going to America on exchange is this: if you have some
freedom with what you can pick and you only have a certain amount of credit
points to complete, you don’t have to pick units that will give you 3
Australian credit points each like you would be doing at home. For example, my
only requirement was that I needed to complete 12 American credit points. I
took 3 units that gave me 4 American credit points each. I could have been
taking 6 easy classes that gave me 2 credit points each instead (walking, yoga,
diving etc.) and had a really fun time with classes… except no one told me I
could do that until it was too late.
A little about the city I lived in Monterey . . .
My host university’s campus was kind of
secluded and not really that close to anything else – I’m assuming because it
used to be an army base. It meant you had to catch buses everywhere which was
frustrating in the beginning as they only came once an hour and you had to wait
in the cold and rain. There was an app everyone used that made it slightly
easier and I did get the hang of public transportation eventually.
Downtown
Monterey was very pretty and the locals are pretty similar to Australians in
that they’re easy to chat to once you make the effort to go up and talk to
them. One thing I didn’t realize about Monterey is that the weather in winter
is FREEZING. I just assumed that because it was in California the climate would
be pretty similar to Perth but found out early on that I was very poorly
mistaken. I joked with friends many times that Australians found anything under
20 degrees freezing and they’d just laugh and go “Yeah…. you definitely came to
the wrong place.”
The best part about my Exchange experience was . . .
The people I met. It wasn’t super
easy to make friends straight away, especially because there are always going
to be people you hang out with a few times and realise it’s just not meant to
be. But I walked away from exchange with some really close friends who will
hopefully be in my life for a long time.
Culture shock and struggles whilst studying abroad . . .
Culture shock over there wasn’t
really a huge problem. I wasn’t expecting America to be as different as it was
but I realised that slowly and over time as I’d experience/learn new things so
it was never that bad.
I did get quite homesick though. I was completely fine
at the beginning but it slowly seeped in. I spoke to my family and friends back
home quite often but it’s still not the same as being in your own room, with
your own things, in your home city.
A little about my accommodation . . .
I lived in student housing while on
exchange. It wasn’t too bad – the place itself was nice but had I had my pick
of flatmates I wouldn’t have ended up with the ones I did! CSUMB does have a
housing system in which you can make an account and pick people to live with so
that’s always an option. I was in North Quad and stayed in a suite with 4 rooms
– 2 double and 2 single. I paid for a double room to make it slightly cheaper
and never ended up getting assigned a roommate so I got the best of both
worlds.
The RAs for my floor only held two meetings (one at the beginning and
one at the end of semester), but they would regularly check in with weekly
emails and encouraged reaching out to them for anything we needed.
Someone told
me to choose the Promontory housing for my semester over there which is what
most other exchangers did but I would recommend against it. It may be slightly
nicer but it’s also the most expensive and the furthest away from everything on
campus, which means in winter you have further to walk in the freezing cold!
Travelling through the US whilst on exchange . . .
As far as things to explore around
Monterey itself there are a few really good hiking trails that are constantly
recommended by the local students. During the semester I got taken to the Santa
Cruz Beach Boardwalk which was amazing! Santa Cruz itself is very pretty and
the boardwalk was a really fun experience.
I spent a week in San Fransisco for
spring break and while it didn’t quite live up to my Princess Diaries
expectations it was still very cool – Alcatraz prison was a highlight and I
would definitely recommend it to anyone heading that way. As part of that week
I also went on a day trip to Yosemite National Park which was beautiful. It was
in all the ‘Must See While in California’ lists and it didn’t disappoint.
Definitely would have stayed there a couple nights had I had the time and
money.
I also got to stay in Paso Robles for a week in a friend’s hometown
after semester ended, before moving on to LA, New York (favourite place in USA
hands down) and Boston before heading home.
Take your time thinking about
which semester is going to be the best semester for you to go. I don’t regret
going when I did but in my excitement to go it ended up being very rushed and
had I stopped to think about which semester was going to be best for me I
probably would have gone later in my studies.
- Ceyda studied abroad at California State University Monterey Bay in the USA.
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