UK student moving to CSULA for the year (Los Angeles, Long Beach: apartments, for rent)

[beshamish]

Hi, I'm a student from England and I will be attending CSULA for my foreign exchange year. I've done as much research as I can on-line but I want to ask some direct questions.

First of all, where are the best areas to live if studying at CSULA, I have been looking at the Alhambra area on Craig's list but I think I need to know a little more about the areas around the campus before I choose somewhere to live. I do like to party, and I enjoy bars and club so an area with bars and clubs would be preferential. Also where is the best place to find accommodation, I already know Craig's List but it is difficult to contact people because of the time zone difference.

Secondly, I'm going to try and budget for a car I know you guys have pretty cheap gas prices (compared to us) but how much am I looking at having to spend if I want a cheap car (will just need a runner, nothing special), inc insurance etc. I already understand I will probably need to take a couple of lessons and take a driving test, any useful information regarding best places to go for this would be cool.

Any information whatsoever is very much appreciated, thanks for looking!

[streetscenes]

Alhambra would be a good place to live but there aren't too many bars or night clubs in the area, a few places along Main Street is all that comes to mind. For night life in the proximity of Cal State LA try Pasadena or downtown LA. If you want to drive a little further to school go to the Hollywood area, great night life and plenty of apartments.

I'm not sure of total costs for a car. You could probably pick up a used SUV for cheap these days. As a new driver insurance would be at least $1,000 for a year. Add at least $200 a month for gas. I'm sure you'll get some responses about best web sites to look at for car prices, insurnace prices, etc.

[CESpeed]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not go to CSULA. There are much much much better schools. CSULA is the absolute bottom. They'll let ANYONE IN. You barely need a high school diploma. My friend had the misfortune of graduating from there last week. It was the most disorganized mess I have ever seen. They graduated three schools at once and didnt call out ANYONE's name and the crowd keep trampling all over the two wheelchairs we had with us. Do yourself a favor and select another CSU school.

[jayolm]

I agree with the first poster. Pasadena, particularly around old town Pasadena, and Hollywood are your closest areas that have nightlife, and that have plenty of apartments. Old Town Pasadena is probably closer to CSULA than Hollywood though.
I haven't been to Hollywood too much, but old town Pasadena I have. Many great bars and a few nightclubs there. There's a good english pub called Lucky Baldwins there that you should feel right at home at.

I can't help you with the apartment questions, unfortunately. For the driving questions that you had, perhaps look on the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) website, I would assume they would have a list of places in Alhambra that you could go to for the test and lessons.

[katenik]

Originally Posted by CESpeed

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not go to CSULA. There are much much much better schools. CSULA is the absolute bottom. They'll let ANYONE IN. You barely need a high school diploma. My friend had the misfortune of graduating from there last week. It was the most disorganized mess I have ever seen. They graduated three schools at once and didnt call out ANYONE's name and the crowd keep trampling all over the two wheelchairs we had with us. Do yourself a favor and select another CSU school.

i'm also wondering how someone from the UK would have ended up there, of all places. hmmmm...

[beshamish]

Thank for all your replies, I will definitely look out for apartments in South Pasadena but I am still open to suggestions.

$1000 a year insurance is like 10 times cheaper then it is at home, so hopefully I can manage to run a small car or something (SUV would be great but I would feel guilty)

As for why I'm going to CSULA, basically its a year abroad thats only worth 15% of my actual degree, I don't get any credits from CSULA itself they all transfer over to my school at home, so as long as I get good grades I'm not really worried about the academics. Its essentially a year out to research for my dissertation topic I will study back home in my final year. But I have read that CSULA isn't a very good college, I kinda got that impression when they spelt my name wrong (now I'm called Bejamin)

Could anyone tell me if a $1500/month budget would be sufficient to live in the Alhambra area?

Thanks for you're replies again. I will appreciate any more replies!

Ben

[CESpeed]

If you insist on going to an inferior school, you should be fine with $1500/month. You should prepare yourself for a one year mental vacation. You'll definitely boost your GPA if you have at least the IQ of a slug because they don't set the bar ver yhigh at all, and you won't learn a thing except how to be throughly abused and disrespected by a "learning" institution.

[streetscenes]

You won't be living large on $1,500 a month. Figure $800 to $1,000 for rent plus $200 for utilities plus $200 to $300 for food that doesn't leave alot for going out for drinks or buying a car.

[Chowhound]

Originally Posted by beshamish

Hi, I'm a student from England and I will be attending CSULA for my foreign exchange year. I've done as much research as I can on-line but I want to ask some direct questions.

First of all, where are the best areas to live if studying at CSULA, I have been looking at the Alhambra area on Craig's list but I think I need to know a little more about the areas around the campus before I choose somewhere to live. I do like to party, and I enjoy bars and club so an area with bars and clubs would be preferential. Also where is the best place to find accommodation, I already know Craig's List but it is difficult to contact people because of the time zone difference.

Secondly, I'm going to try and budget for a car I know you guys have pretty cheap gas prices (compared to us) but how much am I looking at having to spend if I want a cheap car (will just need a runner, nothing special), inc insurance etc. I already understand I will probably need to take a couple of lessons and take a driving test, any useful information regarding best places to go for this would be cool.

Any information whatsoever is very much appreciated, thanks for looking!

Just curious what bring you all the way from the UK to go to CSULA. I'm a little confused. You said you were a foreign exchange student. There are a lot better and or interesting schools to go to. Even If you stayed in the CSU system you got fullerton , Long beach just to name a couple. CSULA is in a crappy neighborhood without much to do. I worked as a contractor there for about 3 months and wasn't impressed at all. Sorry to give you bad news. But of course every situation is what you make of it. Good luck to you honestly. Didn't mean to sound like an jerk

[skreem2]

CSULA would be a great place to become better acquainted with the common folk of Los Angeles. UCLA is mostly Asian and top echelon (i.e.'nerdy'). USC has not earned the moniker, "University of Spoiled Children" for nothing. Fullerton and Long Beach definitely outrank CSULA academically, but Dominguez Hills is about the bottom of the barrel in the Cal State system. There are good professors at CSULA; you just have to search for them. You'll see a reasonable cross section of the population of LA in this school. That might be disturbing to some, but it is real.

The neighborhood is not crappy. It is genuinely middle class, and relatively quiet. If you like Chinese Cuisine, Monterey Park is very close by with top notch Chinese restaurants. As I recall, there is student housing on campus which would more easily accommodate your budget than the rent charged for apartments off campus.