Exchange Report. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. WANG, Yue (Ryan) Fall 2013 Exchange ECOF graduating in 2014

Transcription

1 Exchange Report University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign WANG, Yue (Ryan) Fall 2013 Exchange ECOF graduating in 2014

2 Activity Log August The 2013 fall semester of UIUC started on August 26 th, I arrived at Chicago O Hare International Airport, and then took Illini Shuttle to the UIUC campus. I spent the few days before semester settling down, getting familiar with the campus, opening accounts and participating in orientation events. There are many orientation events available. I went to the orientation BBQ held by the dean of international program, which is a very valuable chance to meet other exchange students and some of the local students. I also went to the freshmen congregation, which is held for all freshmen, it was quite exciting to see thousands of freshmen of UIUC, and I received a t-shirt as a souvenir. Before long, the semester started. The first week was not very tough. It was quite fascinating since it was the first time I take classes in the United States. The Add and Drop period of UIUC is different from HKUST. In UIUC, the deadline of dropping courses is more than a month later than the deadline of adding courses. Before the deadline of adding course, I went to a lot of courses to see which ones to take. While in UST, during the Add and Drop period, the attendance may not count (except for LANG courses, probably). In U of I, even before the deadline of adding a course, the attendance counts, and the professors may even assign assessed assignments during this period. I lost a few attendance scores due to not attending classes before the deadline of adding courses. In late August, I went to the football game at memorial stadium. It was a quite exciting event. First few things I did after arrival: Preparing: First login to get wifi access on campus. Then download some apps such as CU-Transit to look up for bus schedules and routes. First, I went to the ISSS to check in as an international student. After that, I was able

3 to get a student card, the I-Card, at the Union Bookstore. With the I-Card, I could take any of the CUMTD bus for free (otherwise each ride is one dollar). One could also open a TCF bank account at the Union Bookstore. In the afternoon, I went to the market place to purchase the mobile phone plan. Since the exchange is only one semester, I could not purchase a family plan (cheaper, but must sign for a year), so I purchased the prepaid phone plan. Then I went to Walmart to do grocery shopping. On the next day, I went to the orientation event held for exchange students in the morning. In the afternoon, I went to the JPMorgan Chase near Illinois Terminal (Amtrak terminal and bus terminal) to open accounts. September The deadline of adding a course was in the second week of September. This was when the class schedule got finalized. I took 6 courses at U of I, in total 18 credits. The midterm started in mid September. For my case, the midterm started from mid September and lasted for three months. The courses at U of I usually have at least two midterm exams, some even have three. I have to admit that I felt stressful when I was looking at the exam schedules. I had in total 16 exams during the exchange semester. Even though there seem to be a lot of work, I went to Chicago during one of the weekend in September. Riding on the double-decker bus was a great fun, except that it was already a bit chilly in the Windy City. October By October, I was already very familiar with everything in U of I. After taking 3 exams in September, I found that the exams were not very difficult. The professors set up a lot of exams and assignments not to challenge the students, but to encourage learning, and give hope to the students who did not do well in one of the exams. Everything was on the right track. I started to have time to read a lot of books. The temperature started dropping rapidly from mid October. It even snowed in October.

4 It could get really cold on windy days. During one of the weekend in October, I went to Springfield, the capital of Illinois, to take GRE. Then I spend the rest of the weekend visiting several museums and the state capitol. November November was already very cold. Early November was not so busy. I went to Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, during a weekend in November. It was colder in Madison than in Champaign and Urbana. There were still a few midterm exams during November. But busy as it was, life was full of hope since the Thanksgiving vacation was coming. I traveled to south California during the vacation. I spent three days in L.A. and three days in San Diego. The trip in L.A. included visit to Downtown L.A., Universal Studio, Santa Monica, and Staples Center. The beach in Santa Monica was my favorite. Since none of us was able to drive in the United States, we had to travel by Amtrak from L.A. to San Diego. The train trip had great view. We went to the Sea World, the Midway Museum, and the Old Town in San Diego. We spend the last day in San Diego shopping since it was the Black Friday. December The semester was drawing to an end by December. There was still one midterm left for me in December. I got very busy by December. A few writing assignments were due in early December. The final exams were also drawing near. Besides, I had to apply for graduate schools by this time. But as the semester ends on Dec 20 th, it was again time for fun. I traveled around for twenty days after semester.

5 General Exchange Information Courses I took six courses, 18 credits in total. Among them, two are Economics courses, two are Math courses, one Finance one Asian American Studies. Since I took only one business course (Economics is listed under liberal arts in University of Illinois), I had little chance to study with most of the business exchange students. That was why I rarely attended any events held by Business College after semester began. So it would be a good choice to take more business courses if you want to have closer bond with business exchange students. The courses I took are listed below: FIN461 Financial Intermediaries This was the only business course I took during exchange. The course is divided into three major parts, the difference between banks and other business, capital adequacy and liquidity management, credit risk and interest risk management. The required readings include a book written by Michael Lewis, which is called The Big Short. Many examples of this course are from the real life examples during the financial crisis. The content is overall interesting and not difficult. It is rather important to attend every lecture, since there will be pop quizzes. There were 9 quizzes and 3 exams. MATH461 Probability Theory This was an introductory course in Probability. The first half of the course was rather easy. But it got more and more difficult during the second half. Although this course is a 400 level course in University of Illinois, it could only transfer back as a 2000 level course in HKUST. The grade was based on homework, two midterms and one final exam.

6 MATH444 Elementary Real Analysis This was an introductory course in real analysis. The first part was very easy. Most of the content in the first part should have been covered in the Calculus courses in HKUST. The second and third parts were much more difficult. This course had three midterms and one final. However, only the best two midterms would count. In the end, if a student is satisfied with the two midterms, the student could choose not to take the final exam at all. This course could only transfer back as a 2000 level course in HKUST as well. ECON490 Topics in Economics, History of Economic Thought ECON490 is Topics in Economics, therefore there are several courses listed under the same course code. The one I took was History of Economics Thought. This course was my favorite during my exchange. The course gave an introduction to the major thinkers and their thoughts. The range is from Hammurabi to Karl Marx. The professor intended to include much more contents but we only finished until Karl Marx. This course is not offered in UST but in my opinion is very important for students studying economics. Besides, the professor is very nice. The same professor seems to offer another interesting course called Economics in Movies in the spring semesters. The course grade was based on two midterms and one final. ECON420 International Economics International Economics could be transferred back as a 4 credits course to HKUST. This course is taught by Professor Baer, who is an expert in Latin American economics. Therefore a lot of the examples used in this course are from Latin America scenarios. It was like learning international economics and some Latin America economics in the same course. The grade was based on two exams, one midterm for 40% and one final for 60%. AAS100 Introduction to Asian American Studies I first took this course only because I want to transfer a common core course to

7 HKUST for sure, since this is an approved course. But later on this course really impressed me a lot. I got to learn a lot regarding the history of Asian American and also Asian American Studies. This course had a passage of required reading each week. The tutorial sessions of this course were discussion sessions, where students express their thoughts on the topic and reading of that week. We would watch at least a video clip each week during class. I found it a really good way of learning. Food University of Illinois has a very huge Asian population. Therefore the Asian food there was quite nice. I would say that the Chinese food there was better than I had expected. There are also lot nice restaurants on the green street. Accommodation I lived off campus during exchange. The place I lived was called Capstone Quarters. It is quite far from the campus. But the 22 Illini Bus which could get to the campus stops right outside the place. The apartment I lived has four bedrooms with independent washrooms, a kitchen, a living room and also washing matching and dryer. The main reason I chose to stay off campus was the low cost. Living in halls was rather expensive. However, I do recommend living on campus or in halls if you would like to experience more American university cultures. It should be very interesting to have a local roommate. There will be more chances to have fun with local students and make more American friends. It would be very fun to go out, visit bars, watch football games together with local students. However, there are advantages not living in halls. First of all, it is cheaper and there is no mandatory meal plan. Second, the majority of the halls has only double room and thus has less privacy. But I think that the Sherman Hall and probably other graduate halls have single room.

8 Climate Summer was hot in Champaign and Urbana. But it started to get cool by mid September. The temperature could drop very fast in October. It would be very cold from November to March or even April. I remembered that there were some really heavy rains in September and October, and the first snow dropped by October. Health and Safety Students can go to the McKinsey center for medical issues. I think all students will pay at least one visit to McKinsey center for handing in the vaccination documents and doing the TB test. As for safety, I receive s revealing crimes on campus or near campus almost every two or three weeks. But I did not feel unsafe since it has never happened to me or anyone around me. Nonetheless, it is better to be cautious. Be careful when walking alone especially in the evening. Traveling and Transportation There were two major vacations during the fall semester. The thanksgiving vacation is in late November while the Christmas and New Year vacation starts right after the end of the semester. I went to the west coast for thanksgiving and east coast, including Orlando, Miami, Washington D.C., New York City and Boston, for winter vacation. During the weekends, I went to Springfield, Madison, and Chicago for several times. I think it would also be a good choice to visit St. Louis during weekends. I mainly traveled by buses and Amtrak during weekend short trips, and by planes during the long vacations. Based on what I experienced and others said, I think that the best way to travel in United States is driving. As for transportation on campus, the CUMTD is quite useful. You can travel to almost all the places you need to go in Urbana and Champaign with the buses provided by CUMTD. The best part of it is that it is all free as long as you have the I-card, which

9 you can get on the first day of arrival in the union bookstore. Normally the bus comes every 10 minutes, and on weekends every 30 minutes. Cost I spent in total USD for everything including living expenses (including house rent, food and necessities), shopping (including buying gifts for family and friends), and travelling. Visa Procedure and Orientation University of Illinois would send all the things needed for visa application very soon after you get admitted. Everything you need would be there and it won t be very difficult. All you need to do is to follow the instructions. You will get a brochure of all the orientation events on the day you check in at the ISSS. This check in should be done as soon as you arrived on campus. Business International Programs will also held orientations and you will receive s from them regarding this orientation.

10 Items to Bring Things to bring: Passport, DS2019, and other documents Vaccination Documents Laptop Converter Clothes (from t-shirts to thick coats, probably suits also) Camera Mobile phone Things could be bought there: Beddings (I guess you do not want to carry pillows and quilts in your luggage) Clothes Textbooks (Yes, it is more expensive, but your luggage may be less heavy) Notebooks