California: SD vs. OC
Hey there
I'm from Continental Europe and am planning my study abroad semester for the Fall term of 2012. Atm I have two options in California and some others outside the US. But since this is a US Forum, I will focus on the two destinations in CA.
1) San Diego
vs.
2) Orange County, Fullerton
How do those two cities/areas compare to each other in terms of
- City (I guess SD >>> Ful)
- Student life
- Costs of living
- Partying
- Girls
- Travelling
- Experience
- Safety?
- whatever comes to your mind.
Please notice that I don't care very much about the university and the academics. I just want to have a great time before starting to work.
Thanks in advance
OC is right next to los angeles. It's also about a 30-45 min drive from USC and UCLA (Girls, partying, student life). It's also next to the beach and mountains (traveling).
Please, Fullerton? Kill yourself. San Diego is just a better version of LA - less traffic, more girls, better beaches, and less expensive. I've lived in Southern California my whole life residing from Santa Barbara through San Diego. I know from experience that San Diego is easily the best city for the beach way of life in the US.
San Diego state is one of the top party schools in CA. The girls there are ridiculously attractive. You won't get the same exact experience in terms of education as you would at, say, usc ucla berkeley, but you'll have some really really attractive girls, lots of whom have very low self esteem and/or standards.
Fullerton, I'm guessing CSUF, is okay. Downtown fullerton has bars, girls go to the school.. there are a lot of attractive ones, but fullerton... I don't know. I never have taken too much of a liking to the place. I grew up maybe 20 miles from there. Fullerton isn't anything special, in my eyes.
I don't know what costs of living are in these areas. SDSU isn't like.. right on the ocean or anything so it shouldnt be too costly. Theyre probably close. Safety... unless you want to head across the border and test your luck with the drug cartels, you should be fine in SD. Well I take that back slightly. Both campuses will have a large presence of douchebags. A lot of 909ers (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=909er) in both locations.
Traveling... You have long beach airport thats not too far from fullerton, and john wayne airport, as well. SD has its own airport that is pretty large. LA is maybe 2.5/3.5 hours from SD... depending on traffic. Fullerton, its 1.5 hours depending on traffic.
Experience is great in either place. Great mexican food in southern california... very very attractive girls. Lots of fake attachments to the girls down here.
I dont live in the area, but I visited the LA area (including OC) during the summer....it was amazing. Girls, beach parties, laid back attitude. I fell in love with the place. I say go there.
I am from LA. 100% go to SD, no doubt.
The OC has its perks but that is coastal OC, newport, huntington, laguna, dana point, etc. Fullerton does not fall into that bucket and isn't where you wanna be.
In SD, you will be closer to beaches, down town, gas lamp, etc. Also, aside from the better location, I'm not sure the schools you are choosing between but barring something crappy that I haven't heard of, everything in SD is better than Fullerton.
SD would be my choice for sure.
SD, of course.
In terms of partying - SDSU is your choice. In addition to mentioned fame/infamy as a party school, it has a very supportive international student body, and international students party together all the time, maybe even more than Americans.
Cost of living will be the same, unless you decide to live in one of the fancy areas in SD like La Jolla.
Traveling - you'll need a car in either place. As for living close to LA - let me tell you something: if you are from Europe, you are going to hate LA with passion. Nice to visit that place once or twice to take pictures at Chinese Theater and see the Hollywood sign, but living there or visiting it often is another story.
In SD you will be able to live near the beach. A lot of SDSU students live at Pacific Beach, which also has all the bleached blonde college sluts partying at night, so I guess that would be a convenient choice of location in your case (it's ~20 min driving distance from SDSU).
Fullerton is quite far away from entertainment of any kind, unless Disneyland is your thing. It will get tiring to drive to LA every time to party instead of being in the center of it in PB. Also, how do you imagine the logistics with the ladies? Who the hell will go with you to Fullerton from a nightclub in LA?
Thanks everyone, it's much appreciated!
One more question about SD: Do you really need your own car there? I read somewhere that there is something like a underground system in SD?
You need a car. Public transportation is a joke in SoCal.
I'll also second San Diego over Fullerton. Fullerton is not exactly "The OC"...not much to do, kind of crappy. San Diego is almost uniformly awesome though.
Yes. You have to own a car. Otherwise even such a simple thing as grocery shopping is a huge problem. No one is going to drive you around, and public transportation is very bad.
SoCal is not in the slightest bit like Europe. Public transportation is nonexistent. Everything is built and planned assuming everyone drives a car. Commuting in California without a car is extremely difficult, and sightseeing without a car is plain impossible.
P.S. If you are thinking about girls - you better have a car, and a nice one at that. Being a stereotypical European dude in a BMW will get you laid in a shallow place like SoCal. However, at least drive something better than a 10 year old Toyota Corolla, and you should be kinda OK.
OC is a huge place, and there are large swaths of crappy areas. Fullerton is not the ideal place at all for young people. It's a typical boring upper-middle class suburb. If money is not an issue, try to live close to the beach, like newport, huntington, laguna, irvine.
SD has better weather and better beaches. Probably hotter girls than OC but a bit below L.A. It's great for older rich people. Not sure if there's a vibrant nightlife scene for young folks though.
Thanks again everyone.
But damn, the car thing makes me feel a bit uncertain tbh.. I actually didn't plan to buy / lease a car for only a few months..
That's not all yet. Wait until you see how much is the rent for a decent apartment in any of these areas... You better have the money to pay rent, buy a car, and some more for travel and entertainment. You'll want to see LA, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, etc. All that costs money.
You can get away without a car in SD honestly. Live near the campus, the trolley is pretty fast to downtown and they have party buses to PB every Thursday/Friday/Saturday.
Nightlife downtown - lots of rooftop places. Plenty of deals marketed towards SDSU students for Friday nights, in particular.
I've lived all over SoCal and SD is hands-down the place to go if you are planning to have a fun semester. Having a car will make life easier but you can find ways around it there. The international student community is very strong too - you will meet more than enough people there.
As a socal native I don't agree that you need a car. Don't let that stop you from coming.
You will make friends with cars, can take cabs or buses. While its not like Europe people are making it sound way worse than it is. Based on my experience at least half of the kids I went to school with didn't have cars at school.
Again, thanks everyone!
Ok, my last question so far..
Although I didn't really consider it yet:
Does the university for your study abroad semester matter for job search, Business School or the CV/Resume (in general)?
I don't think so. Personally, I wouldn't care if I was screening resumes.
In Europe they would not know the difference between SDSU and CSU Fullerton. If it was CSU Fullerton and Stanford - that would be a different story.
Yeah I realize that. But do you think I would be rejected for interviews etc. because I chose SDSU instead of a top university like Stanford etc.?
I mean, I really want to go there, but I don't want to ruin my CV by doing a study abroad semester at a university with no real reputation.
That said: How much does the destination of your study abroad semester really matter for your career?
In your case it's irrelevant because Stanford is not among your options. Any US exchange experience is better on your resume than none. Go to SDSU and have fun. And buy a car if you have enough money - it will make your life here infinitely better and easier.
Send me a PM when you get here, I can show you around town/give you some tips when you arrive.
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