Details

• United States of America
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

For the interview, prepare talking more about your motivation and why you choose your particular destination. Unfortunately your grade largely depends on what interviewer you get. For choosing courses I would suggest to read many exchange reports as otherwise its difficult to get deeper information helping you with your decision.

2. Accommodation

I lived at the Lorenzo, a typical student residence for students from abroad. The amenities were great and the rooms okay. The management is awful, as they are very lazy with their tasks and dont respond to emails, but in the end it worked out for everyone and I think going through this was worth it in the end. The location is approximately 10 minutes to campus by bus or train. Although the area around is sometimes a bit sketchy, its really safe inside the Lorenzo. As they often just offer 1-year-contracts, it is helpful to coordinate with other students going to USC before or after you to split the lease.

3. Academic life at host university

the campus is huge and very pretty. academically its comparable to WU, exams are maybe easier but participation and other coursework take up bigger parts of your grade. classes have typically 30 to 50 students making it a smaller and more interactive environment.

5. Every day life in the host country

Transport: the metro is safer than often described and we used it basically every day. as long as you have enough time, you can use the metro (train+bus) to get around everywhere in LA. There are many sketchy areas in LA as there are many homeless people, during the day its not so bad but I would consider it when being outside at night. For social/leisure activities, LA offers various things. You can go to many different beaches, hike near the hollywood sign and griffith park or just explore the city in general. Sports are a very big thing there as you on the one hand have the college teams playing regularly and on the other hand many professional teams like the Dodgers (Baseball), Lakers and Clippers (Basketball) and Rams and Chargers (Football). For doing sports yourself the university courses are the best option as they are really fun and often an easy A.

6. Testimonial

Overall, the whole experience was something I would never like to miss. I loved the everyday life with going to campus as well as exploring LA from day to day a bit more. Also we did some really cool trips inside California as well as to Las Vegas and Texas which gave me a more holistic picture about the USA. I connected to many different people and made so many unique experiences. I would definitely choose USC again.