J1 in San Diego

Matt_Dennis

Me and 2 of my friends are spending the summer in San Diego for J1's (end of May - end of August).

Were looking to get an apartment or a house but need more people in our group for rent, so was wondering if anyone else is heading over in a small group and wants to join forces?

feathz

Hey! I'm heading out in a group of 6 next week! No idea what we're doing for accommodation yet but we'll probably be looking to bunk in with more people to keep the rent down too!!

Have ye had any luck on the jobs front yet??

Matt_Dennis

Awesome, what date ya heading over?

We were thinking of trying Avalon Apartments in Mission bay, hear of them? Their supposed to take Irish in all the time.

Nah havent looked into anything job wise yet, probably wait till were over there.

feathz

Three of us are flying out on monday, two on tuesday and the last girl is coming in june! How about yourselves?

Avalon is what we were originally thinking, but I've heard some dodgy stuff about them so we're not too sure now! I think we'll just suss it out when we get over there! If nowhere else will take Irish students, we'll probably end up there! :P

bstoran

Matt there's 3 of us heading over on the 23rd of May, looking to stay in Avalon too we've a viewing on the 24th..

What's your story when are you heading over?..I'd say we'll need around 8 in an apartment?

M_Hempenstall

Sorry about the delay from my friend, Matt, he's a tad slow.

I'll be down in San Diego on the 1st of June and would be interested in sharing accommodation. The second lad we are going with gets in on the 3rd of June and the Matt gets in on the 7th.

Yeah, Avalon is where everyone stays so have no problem with that. The more the merrier and rent will be low as well. Let me know anyway. Talk to ya

feathz

We called in to Avalon today...it looks savage!

They did say that their qualification standards have changed since last year in regards to international students though. Apparently if you are not approved already, you have to get a co signer who has a social security number and a primary residence in the US.

I'd say they are doing that so it doesn't turn into a complete party spot.

Wompa1

As an Irish person living in America and one who has travelled to San Diego for work, please please don't take the piss while you are there. I got a taxi 3 of the days there and every taxi driver has stories involving Irish students destroying apartments and acting the bollocks. Australians seem to be turning on us, I'd rather not be turned on here.

San Diego is a really cool place. Watch yourself around the streets at night, around the outskirts of the gaslamp district seemed to have a lot of druggies about the place. Enjoy!

M_Hempenstall

I see, I see. Are you still interested in sharing or have you found other people?

I was on á J1 last year so I have a social security number if that's any consolation.

What hostel are yous in at the moment?

nickknock13

Does Anyone know if you can work in a bank while on a J1?

M_Hempenstall

You're not meant to but I am fairly sure you can get away with it. The general rule is that you can't work in an 'office' but I've heard of people working in offices and there hasn't been a problem.

neil.p.b

nickknock13 wrote: »

Does Anyone know if you can work in a bank while on a J1?

Of course you can

ironclaw

Wompa1 wrote: »

As an Irish person living in America and one who has travelled to San Diego for work, please please don't take the piss while you are there. I got a taxi 3 of the days there and every taxi driver has stories involving Irish students destroying apartments and acting the bollocks. Australians seem to be turning on us, I'd rather not be turned on here.

San Diego is a really cool place. Watch yourself around the streets at night, around the outskirts of the gaslamp district seemed to have a lot of druggies about the place. Enjoy!

Apparently Australia has seen the revival of the 'No Irish' signs of times gone by. Can't blame them really. At least 50% of all Irish abroad take the total piss and give the rest a bad name

I'll be in San Diego from next week. Very dodgy reviews of Avalon by the way. Google it and you'll be fairly horrified. I'll be dropping in to scout the place but I'll be taking a good hard look before parting with cash.

Wompa1

ironclaw wrote: »

Apparently Australia has seen the revival of the 'No Irish' signs of times gone by. Can't blame them really. At least 50% of all Irish abroad take the total piss and give the rest a bad name

I'll be in San Diego from next week. Very dodgy reviews of Avalon by the way. Google it and you'll be fairly horrified. I'll be dropping in to scout the place but I'll be taking a good hard look before parting with cash.

The Balboa park area is pretty nice. There's a lot of museums out there and the Zoo. Th Zoo is great. I stayed out on Sports Arena Blvd. It was pretty rough out there. For what all of the Irish people I knew that had been there I thought it would be a picture perfect place, I thought the same about Sydney. When you get there it's ok..it's a pretty place but it's not without it's problems. Same with Sydney...actually I thought San Diego was pretty similar to Sydney..

ChoralClam

ironclaw wrote: »

Apparently Australia has seen the revival of the 'No Irish' signs of times gone by. Can't blame them really. At least 50% of all Irish abroad take the total piss and give the rest a bad name

I'll be in San Diego from next week. Very dodgy reviews of Avalon by the way. Google it and you'll be fairly horrified. I'll be dropping in to scout the place but I'll be taking a good hard look before parting with cash.

The dodgy reviews are because of the Irish.. Every apartment block on the review sites has people bitching about something or other as it's usually only those with complaints that write a review. Yelp is what everyone uses here for reviews..

MB, OB, PB usually where the students live. Yes there is lots of bums around san diego, wouldn't u live here if u were homeless... no freezing nights and little rain but they're harmless so I wouldn't worry.

Be prepared to bring your passport EVERYWHERE as ID as most places no longer accept drivers..

pancakesftw

Hi, anyone who has been in San Diego for a J1 would you recommend it or not?

thanks

ironclaw

pancakesftw wrote: »

Hi, anyone who has been in San Diego for a J1 would you recommend it or not?

thanks

I was in San Diego (Specially Mission / Pacific beach) from May until early August. First off, cool place. Really and truly. I'd definitely go back. Couple of downsides:

Accommodation is VERY hard to find. Forget about living near the beach. I paid $900 per month where I was. Granted it was a very fancy part of town (Called La Jolla. Mitt Romney's house was near mine) but it was also pretty much on the sea. If you want to live near the sea or in Mission / Pacific beach you'll probably need to club in with a few people in one house. Really depends what type of holiday your after but the way I saw it was I didn't want to spend €2000 to go half way around the world to live with 20 other people in a house. Thats if you can find a house in the first place.

You can get apartments pretty cheap but you'll need to come up with a big deposit (We were quoted $10k of a deposit between 5 of us) Again this is easy if you have about 10 people willing to cram in. The reason for the deposits is you won't pass a US credit check which they all insist on. Apartments complex's are nice however. They are just generally away from the beaches etc. Its very easy to get around however in SD, all day travel by train / bus is $5. Or a monthly ticket is $72.

San Diego isn't very Irish friendly in my experience in terms of housing. We have a seriously bad rep in terms of trashing houses and as a result many people will not rent to you. We spend 2 weeks looking and nearly every time once they found out we were Irish said no. So be prepared for that. Saying that, the people are awesome in general and very friendly. You can't blame them for wanting to protect their houses.

Work, you will find it very hard to get. Out of the 5 of us, 3 of us had work. 2 of us worked in the same place. The other had highly skilled work before he went out. The other 2 must have tried a 100 places between them and got nothing. Both had experience in their sectors e.g. Waitressing etc. 50% of the people I knew or met went home early or moved to other locations when they couldn't find work.

San Diego is expensive by the way. It would be the equivalent of the french riveria. Its a very desirable place to live and comes with a price tag, even for locals. So thats something to keep in mind.

Its really a balance beam. You either find a cheap house and live cheap. Or get a nice house, enjoy it and maybe not find work / not make it back if you did. My trip was just about break even.

All that said, I throughly recommend San Diego as a destination. I would tag onto that though that you should be 21 to really enjoy it and have a drivers license, road tripping is awesome in the States.

Any questions, ask away.

pancakesftw

Thanks!

So basically it is really expensive and hard to get jobs. Hmm we are trying to decided between San Diego and Chicago.
Was San Diego packed with Irish this summer? Did many people get jobs in Pubs do you know?

Yes, we are all 21 going, and have licences!

Have you been anywhere else on a J1? Thank You

prescar

ironclaw wrote: »

I was in San Diego (Specially Mission / Pacific beach) from May until early August. First off, cool place. Really and truly. I'd definitely go back. Couple of downsides:

Accommodation is VERY hard to find. Forget about living near the beach. I paid $900 per month where I was. Granted it was a very fancy part of town (Called La Jolla. Mitt Romney's house was near mine) but it was also pretty much on the sea. If you want to live near the sea or in Mission / Pacific beach you'll probably need to club in with a few people in one house. Really depends what type of holiday your after but the way I saw it was I didn't want to spend €2000 to go half way around the world to live with 20 other people in a house. Thats if you can find a house in the first place.

You can get apartments pretty cheap but you'll need to come up with a big deposit (We were quoted $10k of a deposit between 5 of us) Again this is easy if you have about 10 people willing to cram in. The reason for the deposits is you won't pass a US credit check which they all insist on. Apartments complex's are nice however. They are just generally away from the beaches etc. Its very easy to get around however in SD, all day travel by train / bus is $5. Or a monthly ticket is $72.

San Diego isn't very Irish friendly in my experience in terms of housing. We have a seriously bad rep in terms of trashing houses and as a result many people will not rent to you. We spend 2 weeks looking and nearly every time once they found out we were Irish said no. So be prepared for that. Saying that, the people are awesome in general and very friendly. You can't blame them for wanting to protect their houses.

Work, you will find it very hard to get. Out of the 5 of us, 3 of us had work. 2 of us worked in the same place. The other had highly skilled work before he went out. The other 2 must have tried a 100 places between them and got nothing. Both had experience in their sectors e.g. Waitressing etc. 50% of the people I knew or met went home early or moved to other locations when they couldn't find work.

San Diego is expensive by the way. It would be the equivalent of the french riveria. Its a very desirable place to live and comes with a price tag, even for locals. So thats something to keep in mind.

Its really a balance beam. You either find a cheap house and live cheap. Or get a nice house, enjoy it and maybe not find work / not make it back if you did. My trip was just about break even.

All that said, I throughly recommend San Diego as a destination. I would tag onto that though that you should be 21 to really enjoy it and have a drivers license, road tripping is awesome in the States.

Any questions, ask away.

Hi ironclaw! Thanks for the reply, a lot of information to try and contend with there! But basically from what you've said, San Diego certainly sounds like it's a lovely place...near the beach, hot weather, nice people and all the rest, however the cons seem to be outweighing the pros...

The fact that it's hard to get work and hard to get accomo without having to share with around 20 other Irish people are important factors for me. I don't want to spend a couple of weeks trekking around worrying about having no job and place to stay as it's just too expensive!! So I'll think about it SD in depth with my friends, ie: pancakesftw and CO!!! Thanks again for the speedy response :cool:

ProudDUB

OP, my niece did the J1 to San Diego 2 summers ago. She had a great time, but she arrived loaded and that made a big diff. She turned 21 that May. Everyone gave her money for the trip, so she arrived with wads of cash that the others didn't have. Her plan was to get a job, but she wasn't all that bothered if she didn't find one. She looked for work (waitressing, bar work etc) but found nothing, so she spent the first month just laying out by the pool. She wasn't all that bothered, but her friends found it a very stressful time financially as they all expected jobs to be falling off the trees. They weren't.

There were 8 of them in a 3 bed apt in a lovely apt complex near the beach with a pool. Some slept on beds, some on the sofa, some of them on air matresses on the floor, but they were all people that she knew from college and not strangers so it was ok. Eventually she got about 15-20 hrs of work per week as a receptionist at an opticians. It paid her share of the bills just about, but nothing more. She had to dip into her birthday money to fund her "having the crack" adventures. Most of her friends were not so lucky.

Some of her friends got part time work at Sea World (a HUGE seasonal employer in the area) some in restaurants/bars, some in customer service, but none of them were all employed for 40 hrs a week at the same time. That was a bit of a dampner to their "doing stuff" plans, but it made the living arrangements a lot easier as they all worked different hours. The apt would have been very, very cramped if they didn't.

The apartments deposit things is nationwide, not just in San Diego. Every thing in the US is driven by credit score. If you have a good one, one months rent is the norm as the deposit on an apt. A group of people fresh of the plane from Ireland will not have one, so a hefty deposit will be required to protect the interest of who ever you are renting from. Apartments are rarely leased furnished either, so bare that in mind too in your choice of where to live.

San Diego is one of Americas most expensive cities to live in. As another poster said, it is the French Riveria of the US. Every thing costs more there than in other parts of the US, from the cost of apt rents to petrol to groceries. Not all of them had the great time my niece did due to the cost of living there, so factor that into your plans.

What they all she loved about San Diego was the weekend road trips that they would go off on to Palm Springs, LA, the Grand Canyon, Catalina Island, New Mexico, Las Vegas etc etc. If you go to Chicago, you are pretty much surrounded by miles and miles of very boring prairie before you get to anywhere else that is even remotely interesting. Not so in Southern California. They got to see a big part of American that the average Irish person who only ever considers going to the Big Three of New York, Boston or Chicago never does. They all loved that aspect of it. They all agreed that they got more bang for their buck re the whole American experience in going to west coast, vs going to the east coast. They just wish that they had saved harder and planned better financially for it, and the "sticker shock" that comes with living in that part of the world. Hope that helps !

ironclaw

ProudDUB summed it up really. It's an amazing place but quite honestly any work you find will just be a float of money. You need to have some savings behind you first. All told, you'd want to have €1400 for the Visa/Flights, and that again for deposits and getting started. You'll very quickly run out of money if you don't find work.

The best advice I can give us try find a house before you go. The best way to do that is get a cheap hotel and a car. Grab a phone and start calling. We made 1000 mins of calls in the first week. Once you have a house, you can cook etc which drops your costs considerably.

Worst case sceanrio is you stay for a month, do some sight seeing and come home. I'd estimate 75% of all Irish J1s don't get a job or come home early. Few people I talked to had jobs, but then again most had a crap attitude or the parents were footing the bill.

I'll write a full FAQ post sometime soon.

prescar

ProudDUB wrote: »

What they all she loved about San Diego was the weekend road trips that they would go off on to Palm Springs, LA, the Grand Canyon, Catalina Island, New Mexico, Las Vegas etc etc. If you go to Chicago, you are pretty much surrounded by miles and miles of very boring prairie before you get to anywhere else that is even remotely interesting. Not so in Southern California. They got to see a big part of American that the average Irish person who only ever considers going to the Big Three of New York, Boston or Chicago never does. They all loved that aspect of it. They all agreed that they got more bang for their buck re the whole American experience in going to west coast, vs going to the east coast. They just wish that they had saved harder and planned better financially for it, and the "sticker shock" that comes with living in that part of the world. Hope that helps !

Hi poruddub, thanks for the reply too! OP and I are looking for some info on SD and there's some great advice here! First of all I spent the summer in Chicago and 3 weeks in Boston, but I'm guessing you have never been to Chicago before because the city is so big you don't even need to travel outside it...it is a fabulous city with so much to do and see, wonderful coastline Lake Michigan surrounds it (which in opinion is better than the sea because there is no salt water in it) and there are plenty of festivals at the weekends!

You firstly stated that many of your niece's friends couldn't exactly enjoy the pleasures of the west coast because they often were not able to financially fund it, this is what worries me about the west coast...the reason "the big 3" are so appealing is because although my summer didn't come cheap, I can't even imagine how expensive it must have been for the people who were trying to look for jobs and pay the bills at the same time in SD.

The allure of the west coast is amazing alright, the Grand Canyon, Vegas, Mexico etc, however it keeps coming back to jobs...I might do some research and if there's a job before I arrive there waiting for me then I would highly consider SD alright! But from what we've read the cons seem to be outweighing the pros.

ProudDUB

prescar wrote: »

Hi poruddub, thanks for the reply too! OP and I are looking for some info on SD and there's some great advice here! First of all I spent the summer in Chicago and 3 weeks in Boston, but I'm guessing you have never been to Chicago before because the city is so big you don't even need to travel outside it...it is a fabulous city with so much to do and see, wonderful coastline Lake Michigan surrounds it (which in opinion is better than the sea because there is no salt water in it) and there are plenty of festivals at the weekends!

Au contraire. Up until this past Spring, I used to live in the US. I know and love Chicago very, very well. It is indeed a wonderful, wonderful city. I have traveled and lived all over the US. I know that if I was 21 again, and was a young Irish person spending my first (and possibly my only) summer in America, I would want to see and experience more than just one city, more than just one way of life, and more than just one culture. From my own knowledge of America, and listening to my Irish nieces and nephew and their friends talk about their J1 experiences, Southern California lets you experience a level of diversity in ways that the US mid west and east coast really doesn't. But ya know what.... each to his own and all that !

Also re the whole US cost of living thing, I have several close friends who live in San Diego, hence my interest in this thread. When I was bitching about the price of petrol hitting $3 per gallon in Atlanta, it was hitting $4 in San Diego. That happens right across boards, on all consumer goods. So if you are getting financial feedback from people who have done the J1 thing on the east coast, add on another 25-30% if you are heading to San Diego.

I get that the expense of the area may be off putting, but if you do your research ahead of time, you may get results that will save you money next summer. Do your home work now, and start calling around places...bars, restaurants for work, apts complexes for prices and rental policies etc etc. It may seem expensive to call from here, but it's not if you plan it well. I have a land line with UPC. For an additional 7.50 a month, I get 500 minutes per month of talk time to any US phone number. That is 8 hours of talk time. If you are willing to spend 20-30 quid now now to arrange your plans for next summer, it could save you a ton of money next year.

Lamp92

Hey guys!
Also thinking of doing a J1 next summer with some friends and we are pretty set on going to the West Coast. Has anyone been to Huntington Beach, CA? Would love to hear of peoples' experiences and whether or not they'd reccommend it

storimc5

Hows things! Im from Galway and 2 lads and 2 girls are on bou goin to San diego 2? Anyone know possibilities of accomadation or jobs?

LuSay

Hi!
Me and my friend (I'm 24, he's 25) are looking for people to share accommodation with in San Diego for June and July. We have jobs on Mission Beach so anywhere around there or Pacific beach would be perfect! We are poor though so not too fancy We are also going to try travel to Seattle on the greyhound through August hitting LA, San Fran and Portland. Message me if you are interested in sharing accommodation or have advice!

ironclaw

LuSay wrote: »

Hi!
Me and my friend (I'm 24, he's 25) are looking for people to share accommodation with in San Diego for June and July. We have jobs on Mission Beach so anywhere around there or Pacific beach would be perfect! We are poor though so not too fancy We are also going to try travel to Seattle on the greyhound through August hitting LA, San Fran and Portland. Email me if you are interested in sharing accommodation or have advice!

Just out of interest as I was there last year where are you working?

LuSay

Belmont Park

ironclaw

LuSay wrote: »

Belmont Park

Have the actually said you have a job? I mean in writing? They are a big company and only take on people who can work the entire summer i.e. Until at least after Labour Day (September). The only reason I say it is many Irish were turned away before or when they arrived because they couldn't work the entire summer. It was the first question in the interview.

On the plus side, you can pretty much live anywhere because your on the bus route to and from San Diego. Probably at most 40 mins from anywhere including Downtown.