San Francisco is a small city with an outsized reputation, and the first practical thing to know is that two of the three schools here are not in San Francisco itself but in Berkeley, across the bay. That is not a downgrade — it is a different and in some ways better student experience, and it is worth understanding before you choose.
Berkeley is a university town built around UC Berkeley, one of the best-known public universities in the world. Telegraph Avenue runs from the campus gates through bookshops, cheap food and street stalls; the population skews young and international through term time; and rents are lower than across the water. BART, the regional train, gets you into central San Francisco in about half an hour, so the city is available without being your landlord.
San Francisco itself rewards walking, if you accept the hills. The waterfront runs from the Ferry Building past Fisherman's Wharf to the Golden Gate; Golden Gate Park is larger than its New York equivalent and free; Mission District murals, Chinatown and North Beach are each a different city compressed into a few blocks. The cable cars are a tourist ride that also happens to be public transport.
The fog is real and worth planning for. Summer in San Francisco is cooler than spring, the bay draws cloud in over the city most afternoons from June to August, and the warmest months are September and October. Berkeley, a few miles inland, is noticeably sunnier — another quiet argument for the east side of the bay.
What costs nothing here is unusually good. Golden Gate Park, the Presidio and the walk across the bridge itself are free; several museums run free days; and Berkeley's campus, its libraries and its lecture posters are open to anyone who walks in. A student who uses that list eats into the cost of the term more than any discount card would.
The honest constraint is cost. The Bay Area is among the most expensive places to live in the United States and accommodation is the sharp end of it. Studying in Berkeley rather than the city is the most effective lever a student has on that number.
Studying here. Topstudy works with three schools here. Kaplan San Francisco Berkeley, LSI San Francisco – Berkeley and EC San Francisco each offer General English, Semi-Intensive English and Intensive English, so the full range of weekly loads is available and the real choice is where you want to spend your term — the campus town or the city.
Accommodation. Kaplan San Francisco Berkeley places students in the Telegraph and YMCA residences, both in Berkeley and both within reach of the school on foot. Host families are the alternative and are usually further out along the BART line, which trades commute time for more hours of English a day and a lower weekly cost.
Who it suits. Students who want a famous city without paying to sleep in it; anyone who works better in a university town than a business district; and students who will actually use the weekends, because northern California — Napa, the coast road, Yosemite — starts just outside the bay.
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