Type of housing: Apartment/House

Arranged by: Independently - My choice

If returning, I would choose: Apartment/House

Why? I chose to live off-campus instead of on- campus as I wanted to experience the city life more and the travel to the uni. The housing market in San Francisco is one of the most expensive ones in the USA. Living Downtown or at Northbeach will be more of a financial burden compared to living in the Richmond or Sunset district (where I was situated). Housing can be found through www.craigslist.org

Personal comments:
Not applicable as I didn't choose to live on campus.

Describe host city: Students equally interact with the local and student community

Activities, Nightlife, Travel: Takes place both within and outside of the university/student environment

Personal comments:
If you like pubs, there's Joxer Daly's, a simple Irish pub, near SFSU in West Portal. If you like night clubs, go to downtown to South of Market, and there are plenty of choices. Castro and North Beach also are good places to do clubbing. Some really beatiful or interesting places to go in San Francisco are Twin Peaks, Buena Vista Park, Sutro Heights Park, Seacliff, old games in Cliff House and Haight Ashbury. Some cool places close to San Francisco are Berkeley Hills, Point Reyes, Tiburon, and of course Highway 1 within a few hours to north from S.F.! I think that's the best part of Highway 1 in California, and so close to San Francisco... Check your tourist guide to find other tourist traps. These were some awesome places that came into my mind now.

Course recommendations:
There are many courses to chose from. It's also worthwile to attend courses that are not applicable to your study but can be seen as interesting to follow on the side. Some courses were to easy for me. Overall the teachers are very helpful and kind. Also the American students like to talk to Europeans, at least from my experience. Then again, I am also a social person that walked up to Americans myself, as most of the time they walk out of classes in a rush.

Personal comments:
Don't be late, teachers are strict on arriving on time. Also be active in class, as the teachers appreciate input from their students. Coming from the EU and having economic classes is nice as you can have other views on matters and the Americans were really interested in my opinions and experiences with the Eu/Euro. Also get involved in clubs so you can have more contact with the locals.

Language of instruction: English

Main source of funding:
Personal savings

Other sources of funding:
Family
Government assistance
A private grant

Work opportunities:
I didn't explore any work options

Personal spending habits:
I may be wrong, but food costs about the same in Finland and in the US, I think. San Francisco has almost unlimited number of restaurants from all over the world. It's relatively cheap to dine out, but it's still possible to spend much money on that. USA is a developing country in wireless telecommunications services, so prepare to pay high cellphone bills. Housing is expensive in the Bay Area. Housing in Finland is so ridculously cheap that the difference in living costs between Finland and San Francisco is mainly due to housing. Beer is cheaper in bars here than in Finland, or you just drink less here... :) I travelled a lot in California, so I had high travel costs. Commuting in S.F. is not that expensive though.

Travel, Telephone, Housing: was more expensive than at home.

Food, Overall: was the same price as at home.

Nightlife: was less expensive than at home.

I wish I had known...
SFSU is not seen as a top notch university. It is not ranked that high at all supposably. The quality of the subject-matters could have been deeper explained. Sometimes I felt as if I wasn't learning THAT much but perhaps I chose some wrong classes.

In my opinion:
Everybody loved it, you will too!