EXCHANGE REPORT UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

2017 FALL EXCHANGE REPORT

NIEH OLIVIA

BBA (GBUS & MARK)

MONTHLY LOG

AUGUST Santa Monica Beach | Camarillo Outlet I landed in LA a week before school starts (school started officially on August 22) to explore the

city and get ready for exchange life with my family. My first impression of LA is the unbelievably

good weather and abundance of palm trees (Trust me, you’ll miss the clear blue skies and beautiful

sunsets when you come back to Hong Kong). The dorm-essentials shopping process took longer

than I expected: I shopped from Walmart, Ikea and Target (oh, the stores are usually humongous)

for all sorts of things as not much is provided by the school (not even table lamp). We had the

mandatory passport verification and orientation morning hosted by Sean, the Marshall exchange

program director, covering all the important information you will need including visa info, course

registration, etc. In the first week of class, there will be an involvement fair where all student

societies will put up counters and recruit new members (Unlike the ones in UST, the counters will

only be open for 2 hours for 2 days)

SEPTEMBER DTLA | BEACHES | LA County Fair | Universal Studios I ended up making no changes to my class schedule because I was enrolled in my desired courses

and more importantly, I have Friday as day-off so I can make longer weekend plans with my friends.

As famous as it is, LA really does not lack great restaurants and places to hang out. As an avid

Instagram user, the first spot we went was the iconic pink wall on Melrose Avenue, which turns out

to be a shoppers’ paradise. Other spots in downtown LA includes the Los Angeles Contemporary

Museum of Arts (exchange students get free tickets from Sean), the Disney Concert Hall, the Grand

Central Market. We spent the Labor Days weekend at the Manhattan Beach, Taiwanese night market

(crazy-overpriced food), and explored surrounding neighborhoods in LA including Arcadia and San

Gabriel. I would highly recommend the LA County Fair (free tickets for exchange students as well)

where there are concerts, carnival rides, and my favorite part: petting zoo.

OCTOBER Yosemite | Yellowstone (5 States) | San Diego My first road-trip was to Yosemite National Park; you may recognize its scenery from the Apple

Macbook desktop. It was a LONG ride (8 hours each round; from USC to our Airbnb stay) Since it is

a long ride, it is better to have more than one driver taking turns. The hilly view, waterfalls and

gigantic rainbow are amazing. Going to the Yellowstone National Park also checked one of my bucket

list. Due to its high altitude, it would start snowing in early October, so most tours would be closed

after mid-October. We joined a ‘local’ tour (99% Mainland tourists) and travelled through five states.

We had to miss the free football game ticket but still worth it. The view is heavenly! We travelled

to five states including Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and South Dakota, visiting many tourist

spots and immersed in the completely different mid-west lifestyle for five days. October ended

perfectly with a less demanding road-trip to San Diego (only a 2-hour ride) – amazing Mexican food

(it is actually closer to Mexico than to LA)

NOVEMBER Grand Canyon | Las Vegas | Griffith Observatory | Yellowknife | Calgary

November was a crazy month as deadlines from school are all clashed together – the struggle to

balance being a responsible student and travelling almost every weekend is real. As an exchange

student, my priority was clearly travelling; the day after I came back from Canada to LA I had over

10 deadlines. For the Grand Canyon-Las Vegas tour, we also joined a local tour. What happens in

Vegas, stays in VegasJ Just note that one must try the hotel buffets (for such luxurious

consumption the price is very cheap compared to HK, just $30 for the one at Wynn hotel) We

stayed in LA for one weekend and hit the famous Griffith Observatory that also counted as our

Hollywood sign visit. During Thanksgiving, we visited Yellowstone, the Northern part of Canada,

where temperature was around -30C, to view the aurora lights. We were lucky enough to be able to

see the lights in our naked eyes but it would be better if we can master the photography skills to

capture such mesmerizing view. We spent the next two days at Calgary, which is the biggest city in

Alberta, CA. A picture is worth a thousand words:

DECEMBER Disneyland | Chicago | Boston | San Francisco December, the last month of my exchange life, aka the last chance to travel around. Just before

the exams started, we went to the the Disney California Adventure Park, which is just adjacent to

Disneyland but with more rides to scream our stresses away. Right after my last exam we went to

Chicago for two days and Boston for another two days. Chicago so far is my favorite city in US

because it reminds me of New York but in a more sophisticated way. In Boston, I visited my friend

at MIT and also went to Harvard University just because it is Harvard. Great Italian restaurants and

tried the famous Boston Lobster. My exchange life officially ended as we visited San Francisco and

had a blast enjoying the food and sightseeing.

EXCHANGE INFO. 1)   Visa Procedures

The  entire  procedure  takes  about  1.5  month  so  make  sure  you  reserve  plenty  of  time.  

The  exchange  program  director  will  tell  you  everything  you  need.  Make  sure  to  check  

clearly  if  there  are  any  typos  or  wrong  information  once  your  visa  documents  are  sent  

to  UST  SBM  office  by  USC.  You  will  then  need  to  pay  the  SEVIS  fee,  fill  in  the  online  

visa  application  form,  and  reserve  an  interview  time  slot  with  the  US  consulate.  After  

the  interview,  you  can  pick  up  your  passport  there  or  in  any  SF  Express  deliver  center.  

During  the  passport  verification  in  orientation,  you  will  obtain  a  travel  signature  on  your  

DS-­2019  form  that  allows  you  to  travel  outside  the  United  States  during  your  exchange  

semester.  

2)   Orientation Activities

From  time  to  time  you  will  receive  LONG  emails  about  updates  on  orientation  activities.  

Scavenger  hunt  on  campus  will  be  held  to  help  you  familiarize  with  the  campus.  Through  

updates  on  the  exchange  program  Facebook  page,  USC  students  will  help  organize  group  

outing  which  you  can  choose  to  join  or  not,  such  as  trip  to  Disneyland,  Universal  Studio  

etc.  

3)   International Services & Activities

You can always find help from the Marshall exchange program office through email, in person (the office is located inside the new Business building), or through Facebook messaging the program director. There is also the Office of International Services in charge of all activities.

4)   Accommodations I lived in university off-campus housing in Troy Hall (five minutes walk to the school main entrance), where all Marshall exchange students stayed. Basic housing facilities are provided, mostly the big furniture like beds and tables. Some students may choose to rent an apartment in Lorenzo, a luxurious hotel-like complex run by external organization. However, as one must sign a full-year contract, I did not opt for the private housing. USC constructed an even newer and bigger residential area called the University Village just five

minutes away from Troy Hall with restaurants, grocery stores and a wonderful gym.

5) Course Registration The exchange program director would email you about the procedures of course registration in full-length. Basically you will submit your course preferences (choosing from the school’s official course pages) by filling in a form emailed to you. Exchange students are enrolled in classes weeks ahead of other students in early March, so you would most likely be enrolled in all your preferred classes and you can always drop or swap classes during the first 2 weeks of school. The maximum number of credits you can take at USC is 18 credits, or else you would need to pay additional tuition, so normally students take 4 academic course and 1 ‘fun’ course that contains 1 or 2 credits.

5)   Course Evaluation I took a total of 5 courses at USC (4 credits per Marketing course and 1 credit for the Yoga course). The professors at USC whom I met are very approachable and employ highly interactive teaching style. All the classes I took expect high level of class participation, in which students are not allowed to use electronic appliances in class - quite different from the classes in UST. In addition, all of my professor invited guest speakers with highly relevant and impressive experiences. The following is just my personal opinion and I would highly recommend you to check out ratemyprofessors.com when you are choosing the courses.

Course Name Difficulty Workload Comments

MKT 402

Research Skills for

Marketing Insights

(Prof. Sha Yang)

4/5 4/5 Highly Recommend The professor had wonderful resources as she had worked with many companies, the date of which students are able to make use of and learn from using a handful of statistical tools. She is very helpful and is the nicest professor I have ever had. Skills and concepts you learn from this class will be very useful if you want to work in Marketing and any industry that deals with data.

MKT 405

Advertising and

Promotion

Management

(Prof. Arianna

Uhalde)

2/5 3/5 Recommend The class is highly interactive as 30% of class time come from students’ inputs, which the professor gave clear and organized responses along with relevant real-world examples. The professor also invited several guest speakers who added industry insights and are highly inspirational. However, the class content is rather theoretical and your learning curve really depends on your classmates and group-mates.

MKT 445

New Product

Development and

Branding

(Prof. Therese

Wilbur)

2/5 5/5 DO NOT RECOMMEND Learn from my mistakes and do not take course! I regret so much for not reading previous exchange reports. The instructor is very unorganized with grading and expectations for assignments and project. All students I encountered were confused by her teaching. I personally did not learn anything from the class besides certain framework that turned out not proven by any research findings.

MKT 450

Consumer Behavior

and Marketing

(Prof. Arianna

Uhalde)

3/5 2/5 Recommend Class is less interactive than the advertising class I took from the same professor, which is understandable because it is a 8am class (I KNOW) and the content is rather non-

7) Sports & Recreation Facilities

The new gym at the Village is fantastic with 30,000 sq. ft. cardio, weight lifting, functional

training & group exercise. I visited the gym once or twice a week as the location is very

convenient. Just Google ‘USC Village’ and you will see why I appreciate the facilities so much;

everything you need to access is there, including the bank, Target with all the essentials and

Trader Joe’s for organic healthy ingredients.

8) Finance & Banking (including currency / expenses)

I would recommend opening a bank account and deposit cash with one of the major retail

banks once you arrived at the States, namely Bank of America, Chase Bank, or Credit Union.

It is hard to give an accurate breakdown of my spending in the semester, and it would not be

applicable to everyone too as everyone has different dining and spending habit, which also

highly depends on your travelling schedule. In general, dining is more expensive than in HK – a

meal costs $6-10 on campus and over $15 in restaurant (there is a ~9% tax and it is a

courtesy to give >15% tips). Accommodation varies from ~$4000 per semester for on-

campus housing or ~$6000 per semester for apartments like Lorenzo.

9) Social Clubs & Networking Opportunities

debatable. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the class as it is very organized and some concepts are very inspiring. Workload is rather light as there is no project nor final exam, but only an individual 10-page research report.

PHED 120A

Introduction to

Yoga

(Instructor:

Isabelle Mazumdar)

2/5 5/5 Recommend The class is very relaxing and the practices are suitable for beginners. and I would recommend students taking fun courses like this one during exchange. The class is similar to sports skills classes at UST, except there are assignments, mid-terms and finals (that test your Hindi). Attendance is 50% of final grade; therefore, workload in terms of physical effort you need to put in this course is quite high.

There will be an Involvement Fair in the first week of class where you can know more about

different clubs and societies on campus. For me, I joined the Trojan Venture Group, USC

Applied Statistics Club, Korean American Scientists and Engineers Association (very random I

know), Hong Kong Student Association, and the USC Volunteer Centre group. There are plenty

professional networking event organized by different business societies and the school from

time to time so you may also pay attention to any Facebook events related to that. You can

also utilize the USC Career center to network with potential employers.

10) Health & Safety

Medical cost in US is incredibly expensive, so all exchange students are required to purchase

a health insurance (Sean will tell you more about that). That would cover most expenses in

the Engemann Student Health Center, which is located near Lyon Center. Minor incident during

my exchange semester includes a false shooting report on campus that led to a campus lock-

down. The USC area is considered a rather sketchy area by the locals so do not walk alone at

night. Make good use of the free Lyft (similar app as Uber) service offered by USC everyday

during 7pm-2am to avoid walking alone back home!

11) Food

There are many dining options on campus, but in general LA is full of great restaurant too!

Because of the huge Korean population, there are a lot of hidden gems in Korean Town, and I

particularly like BCD Tofu House. There were also great Japanese restaurants in Little Tokyo

and downtown area. Use the Yelp or Trip Advisor app and Google to search for restaurants

with high ratings! In general, the size of food is VERY big: for four people, we usually order 2-

3 items and would be very full.

12) Transportation

Public transportation system in Los Angeles is not as well-developed as Hong Kong, and Metro

can be pretty dangerous as I often smell weird things like weed or gas; I never take it alone.

Uber and Lyft are great ride-sharing apps for travelling around. Also, USC offers free Lyft

service within 2-mile distance from USC campus every day after 7pm-2am, so you may also

want to take advantage of that too.

13) Climate

Sky is always blue and the climate is the best thing about California. During summer, it is hot

(at times it is 40C) but windy so you would not feel the uncomfortable stickiness like August

in Hong Kong. Shades and hats are essentials! Even for winter, it is not as cold as the East

Coast and generally similar to the winter in Hong Kong.

14) Communication

There are several huge telecommunication network providers you can choose from, such as

AT&T, Verizon or T-mobile. However, T-mobile offers a better coverage in LA and major cities,

with family plan which significantly lowers the cost if you register an account with several

friends. However, in rural areas such as Yosemite National Park the reception is very bad. There

is Wi-fi everywhere on campus but the connection is often so bad I had to use my data to

complete online assignments. 15) What to bring

1.   Passport, DS-2019 form (and copies of them)

2.   Business suits

3.   Electrical adaptors

4.   Personal laptop, camera

5.   Sunglasses and hats

6.   Swimsuits and thicker clothing (for travelling to colder areas)

7.   Money (you can always buy things you forget to bring)