Exchange Report
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Exchange Report The University of Texas at Austin - McCombs School of Business Hung Man Hin Ernest Spring 2017 MONTHLY ACTIVITY LOG Contents Monthly Activity Log January 2017 ........................................................................................................... 2 February 2017 .......................................................................................................... 3 March 2017 .............................................................................................................. 4 April 2017 ................................................................................................................. 5 May 2017 ................................................................................................................. 6 General Exchange Informaton Visa Procedure ......................................................................................................... 7 Things to do before orientation activites ................................................................... 7 orientation activites................................................................................................... 7 International services & activities ............................................................................. 8 Accommodations ...................................................................................................... 8 Course registrations ................................................................................................. 8 Teaching & Assessment methods ............................................................................ 9 Sports & recreation Facilities .................................................................................. 10 Finance and banking .............................................................................................. 10 Social clubs and networking opportunities .............................................................. 11 Health and Safety .................................................................................................... 11 Food ........................................................................................................................ 11 Transportation ......................................................................................................... 11 Climate ................................................................................................................... 12 Communication ...................................................................................................... 12 Cautionary measures ............................................................................................. 12 Items to bring & Others Items to bring ......................................................................................................... 13 Useful Links and contacts ...................................................................................... 13 Page 1 MONTHLY ACTIVITY LOG JANUARY 2017 I arrived Austin a week earlier than as required by the school. There were several things that should be done as soon as you are arrived. For instance, I went to the student services building to do tuberculin screening and immunization clearance. I also registered in the Flawn Academic Center (FAC) and collected my UT Student Identification Card, which could be used to waive the bus fares while traveling around in Austin. I have joined the International Student Orientation, where staff from the Exchange Office explained culture and traditions of Texas. It was also a good chance to make friends with other international students including PG students. We were also required to hand in a list of courses that we would like to take in the exchange semester to the BBA Program Office. I haven’t joined much orientation activities. Yet, I highly recommend new comers to join these events as staff from Exchange Office will bring participants to several attractions. Instead during the 1-week break before the start of semester, I have travelled to San Francisco with other exchange students for a weekend and visited attractions like Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street and Pier 39. - Night scene taken at Twin Peaks, San Francisco Page 2 MONTHLY ACTIVITY LOG FEBRUARY 2017 It has been around 2 weeks since the classes kicked off on 17th January. Most of the professors laid out the syllabus in the first lesson and thus there were sufficient information for me to decide whether or not I should take the courses. The professors were outgoing and willing to provide their points of views on the difficulty and burden of the courses. The 5 courses I have enrolled were as follows: FIN374C Valuation, MAN337 Entrepreneurship & Innovation, MIS325 Database Management, MIS373 Data Visualization & Analytics and MKT372 Global Marketing. I have joined the BBA Career Services Career Expo which was held in Rec Sports Center. It was indeed an eye-opening experience as multinational companies such as J.P. Morgan, Ernst & Young and Pepsi Co. have sent their recruitment officers to mingle and further provide information regarding their talent acquisition programs. Although most of the companies stated that they will not consider exchange students, participating such event certainly broadened my horizon and knew more about the culture of job hunting in the United States. Since it was still the start of the semester, I was still able to spend some free time and visit New York with other exchange students. We have visited attractions like Statue of Liberty, Wall Street and Empire State Building. - Scenery at Empire State Building Page 3 MONTHLY ACTIVITY LOG MARCH 2017 Most of the mid-term examinations were scheduled before the spring break. Thus, most of my time were spent on preparing the group projects and examinations. During the 1-week holiday in Spring Break, I met up with my friends and we spent the holiday in Orlando, Miami, Denver and Colorado. We have visited several tourist attractions like Disneyland’s Magical Kingdom, South Beach, Denver zoo, City of Gods and several hiking trails in Colorado. We have also tried out gun shooting and kart racing. We originally planned to ski in a ski resort in Colorado. Yet, there was a hill fire that unfortunately stopped us from going. But in general, Denver and Miami were the best places for people like us who love sports. - Scenery at Disney World I have signed up a program called PALS, which was organized by UT to match exchange and local students with similar interests. Through the program, I was paired to Connie, a local student who was in her final year of education. She brought me to some of the local stores in South Congress of Austin. We discussed about the differences of culture and education systems in Hong Kong and Texas. Page 4 MONTHLY ACTIVITY LOG APRIL 2017 I have participated several case competitions, which were held in April, with 3 other exchanges students coming from Mainland China, Macau and Australia. We participated in McCombs School of Business Case Competition 2017 and Texas ABSA & BHA Spring Case Competition. Our team obtained 1st runner-up and champion in both competitions respectively. These were precious chances to know more about different industries in the United States. For instance, we were asked to suggest a new mechanism in balancing the interests of patients and pharmaceutical companies which specialized in developing orphan drugs. Such experiences were eye-opening as we were exposed to new topics as well as challenges as our opponents were mostly born and raised in the country, and thus they had advantage in analyzing the industry landscape. Fortunately, the organizing committees paired us up with mentors from Walmart and Accenture, who were experts in respective fields. - Team photo after obtaining championship in one of the competitions Page 5 MONTHLY ACTIVITY LOG MAY 2017 As classes end in the first week of May, most of the group assignments, presentations and quizzes were packed in the last four class days. Such academic burden should never be underestimated, especially when UT was known for its long study hours in Texas. I was required to do one presentation, submit two final report and take one examination on the first day of that week. During the 7-day study break before the final examination for my Valuation course, I chose to visit my friend who studies in the University of Toronto. We then travelled from Toronto to Montreal by train, and took a flight to Boston as our final destination. The interesting part of this trip was to experience the drastic culture differences in these 3 cities. For instance, although Montreal is located in Canada, it is the fourth largest French-speaking city where most of the street signs and menus were written in French. Therefore, one of the unforgettable experiences was to overcome the language barrier while traveling around the city. In this trip, I have visited several attractions like Niagara Falls, Casa Loma, the campus of the University of Toronto (which was used for film shots in movies like Good Will Hunting), Old Port of Montreal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the Freedom Trail. I departed from Austin and went back to Hong Kong on 28th May after the trip. - Sceneric view at Niagara Falls Page 6 GENERAL EXCHANGE INFORMATION VISA PROCEDURE Staff from UT Austin issued us a DS-2019 form, which was necessary for the application of J-1 student visa. We were required to fill in an Electronic Visa Application – Form DS-160 and pay SEVIS fee in order