Studying in San José: Where the Coffee’s Overpriced and the WiFi’s a Scam

okay so i landed in san josé last week and immediately realized this isn’t the la-la land everyone talks about. first impression? a cathedral of traffic jams and a coffee shop where $5 gets you a cup that tastes like regret. but hey if you’re a budget student out here, you’ve got options. let me tell you about it.

first up universities. i’m not talking ivy league nonsense here. i’m talking scapolite university which claims to have the best engineering program in central america. delivered via a powerpoint with 35 slides about avocados. their student fees are like $4,000 a year which sounds cheap until you factor in the $200 transpo fee for a bus that only runs 4x a week. then there’s university of san josé which is basically a tech incubator. their coding bootcamps are cheap as hell but the dorms? no dorms. you either live with roommates in a favela or commute from a hostel in central america. which brings me to student life.


here’s the thing about san josé: you either become a part-time gig worker or you become a freelancer. i’ve seen people teaching english online while working at a taco spot called grill of shame. their burritos cost $1.50 but the owner, a guy named juan, charges $5 for a tip. it’s chaotic. and the job market? stable for tech but only if you’re fluent in spanish. english? useful in cafes. spanish? crucial for everything else.


let me drop some data. rent in san josé is brutal but manageable. average one-bedroom is around $500 a month if you’re lucky. i found a place near the university for $400 but the neighbor next door is a retiree who plays mariachi music at 3 am. also the cost of living? groceries are 30% cheaper than usa but alcohol is a nightmare. a beer here is $3.50 which is $2 in the usa. wtf. i checked yelp and tripadvisor and everyone agrees-don’t buy coffee here unless you’re desperate.


now about the weather. it’s like the city lost a coin flip between spring and monsoon. last week it rained for 12 hours straight then switched to heatwave. neighbors? they’ve got generators running all night because of climate change. shoutout to the guy who lives two blocks away with a palm tree in his driveway. he’s basically a landscaping wizard.


someone on reddit warned me about the rio certainly. allegedly it’s not safe to walk alone at night. i didn’t believe ’em until i saw a guy in a security uniform spying on everyone at a bus stop. rumors? whispers about a ghost hostel in the city’s old quarter. locals say it’s haunted by a student who tried to cheat on an exam. data? i don’t have hard numbers but i saw a phd candidate working at a bookstore called paper trail. they sell used books for $1.20. some of ’em are vintage.


this place has sideshows too. there’s a park where people sell dreamcatchers made from trash. another where you can get a massage from a goat herder. whole communities built around selling useless crap. i went to a pop-up market once and bought a necklace made from bicycle spokes. it cost $5 and now i can’t stop looking at my reflection.


here’s the thing about studying in san josé: it forces you to adapt. you either embrace the mess or you’ll go nuts. i’m living in a hostel with 8 other people. one’s a yoga instructor who only speaks in affirmations. another’s a skateboarder who racializes every conversation. we argue about whether avocados are a fruit or a vegetable. the coffee snobs in my group tried to start a union. they’re demanding hotter brews.


i’ll leave you with this. if you’re a budget student here, don’t trust anyone who says san josé is ‘vibrant.’ it’s cheap, confusing, and weirdly functional. the universities are okay if you hate structure. the job market’s a gamble but worth it if you’re resourceful. and yeah the weather? it’s like the city’s trying to expire. don’t say i didn’t warn you.


p.s. check out tripadvisor for cheap eats: https://www.tripadvisor.com/r/San_José_Costa_Rica_2942098
blog post about student life on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SanJoséStudents/
yelp for taco spots: https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Taco+Shops&find_loc=San_José%2C+Costa_Rica
local subreddit forBroken WiFi: https://www.reddit.com/r/SanJosWiFi/

p.s. here’s a random cat photo i took. not sure why:

another one of me in a questionable outfit:

and this is the hostel bathroom:

p.p.s. if you need help with tech, hit up the university of san josé’s free wifi zone. it’s called ‘studiosity’ but it’s basically a glorified park with a sign: ‘free internet if you have a laptop’: https://www.unsplash.com/photos/student-studi-1234567890?w=1080&q=80

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