University of California, San Diego Spring 2018
Gracia Stephanie Yap || B.B.A. in Information Systems and Finance
San Diego is in South California, on the U.S. borderline to Mexico. The population is a good mix of white/ non-Hispanic, Asian, Mexican, etc. Thus, you can observe a diverse culture and selection of food.
I utilize my 6 months exchange to take 10 courses, volunteer for an NGO, try 2 new sports, attend some school event, travel to 10+ cities in the U.S., visit Mexico, and at the same time interact with new people, learn about the culture, and have fun!
Winter Quarter January: After travelling in Florida and Los Angeles, I finally arrived in San Diego. I checked in to the on- campus apartment a few days before school started. On the fourth day of school, there was an exchange-student orientation that lasted for 4 hours. The first 2 weeks was the time for me to adjust to San Diego’s life and got myself settled. Coming from a semester-system, the pace of the courses seems fast in the beginning, as lecturers hand out assignments since the 1st week.
Activities: Aerial Silk - I registered for winter quarter aerial silk course.There are various sports and recreation paid-classes you can join. K-House Council - I took part in the leadership team for my residential area. Travel: ● San Diego: La Jolla Cove, Old Town, Gaslamp Quarter, Convoy (Asian food district), UTC La Jolla - the nearest mall ● Los Angeles: Watch Lakers game, Walk of fame, Santa Monica Pier, LACMA ● Mexico (Tijuana) - Avenida Revolution, Original Caesar salad, Tijuana Cultural Center You can cross the border by walking. I would suggest you to visit with a spanish-speaking friend. Things in Mexico are way cheaper than in the U.S. . Places in Tijuana accept USD payment.
February: As I have a lot of free time, I took up the 2-months project in Solana and traveled to Texas. My classes are packed Monday-Thursday, so I have Friday off. Thus, during the Chinese New Year weekend, which happened to be around a one-day public holiday, I travelled to Texas to visit a friend. It’s not the most touristy place, but you got to experience different part of U.S. Activities: Volunteered as a marketer in a non-profit, Solana Center for Environmental Innovation; My MGT166 teacher promoted this opportunity. I then applied and interviewed. Travel: ● Texas: San Antonio and Austin ● Los Angeles: Disneyland Trip with the school, Korean Food: Sun Nong Dan ● San Diego: Tried Escape Room with a bunch of UCSD friends ● On- campus:”Fallen Star” , the unique architecture in the School of Engineering
March:
Gracia Stephanie Yap University of California, San Diego Spring 2018
As my friend was visiting, I went to Los Angeles for 3 days right before finals week. I came back to San Diego for 5 days to do my 5 finals, before traveling to east coast for spring break. Activities: Undergraduate Investment Society event featuring investment bankers Travel: ● San Diego: Salk Institute (Very close to UCSD), Balboa Park, La Jolla Cove ● Los Angeles: Griffith Observatory, Museums: Broad (My favorite), Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Lots of good food: Tatsu ramen, Republique.LA is 2 hours away from San Diego by Amtrak. ● East Coast: ○ New York - Rockefeller Center, pretty Museums, Manhattan, watch Broadway ○ Pennsylvania - On the way from NY to DC . UPenn, Philly Cheese Steak ○ Washington DC - National Mall, White House, Baltimore George Town ○ Michigan - University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
Spring Quarter April: Activities: I took yoga and Pilates class in spring quarter. Travel: ● San Diego: More food exploration. Tried “Tacos El Gordos”, a famous Mexican restaurant. Hiked Los Penosquitos. ● On Campus: Checked out the food market that’s happening every Tuesday 10:00-14:00 around center hall.
May: Midterm weeks. As I have confirmed that I’ll spend my whole summer break doing internship, I decided to travel more in May. Yosemite was the highlight in May; I totally recommend going to Yosemite if you are into nature and hiking. Travel: ● San Francisco: Fisherman’s Wharf, Palace de Fine Arts, Golden Gate Bridge; Food/Beverage: Boba Guys, Tartine Bakery ● Northern California Around SF: Berkeley, Yosemite ● Los Angeles: Hollywood sign sunrise hike, Santa Monica Pier, Beverly Hills, attended IdentityLA2018 event; Recommended food: Blu Jam ● Joshua Tree - Desert ● Around San Diego: Carlsbad Flower Fields, Irvine - Food: Kang Ho Dong Korean BBQ ● On-campus: Red Chair, Mini Stonehenge, Enjoy sunset at Skilling building in Revelle college
June:
Gracia Stephanie Yap University of California, San Diego Spring 2018
My last trip outside of San Diego was to North California: San Francisco and Sacramento area. Sacramento is a small governmental city, capital city of California. After finals in the second week, I spend a few more days to hang out with friends and bid farewell
Travel: ● North California: ○ Sacramento, Davis ○ Palo Alto (Stanford) ○ San Francisco: Twin Peak, Bernal Heights, Brazilian Steakhouse
Gracia Stephanie Yap University of California, San Diego Spring 2018
Courses Exchange students are recommended to take 3 or 4 courses each quarter. However, depending on the course, I’d say that taking 5 courses is still manageable. The quarter system, which last for 10 weeks, has faster pace and assignments submission since the first week. Unlike UST, there is no study break before finals week. The classes have relatively nicer grading; only some classes are curved.
Rady School of Management (MGT) classes encourage students to actively participate in class discussion. In general, the classes have less calculation / numerical aspect, but more required readings.
Course HKUST Course Subject Code Equivalent Course
Winter Quarter (18 Credits)
MGT112 ISOM3100 Global Business 70% of the grade are from the 2 projects and Strategy an on going simulation game. Prof. Soma expects student to complete around 30-50 pages of required reading per week and actively participate
MGT162 MGT3140 Negotiation Fun class with a lot of role play
MGT166 MGT2030 Business Ethics & I like how Prof. Moran deliver the material and Corporate Social provide a lot of real life examples. Besides Responsibilities midterm and final, the class has a few quizzes, writings, assignment. Plus, you have to do 1 time debate.
MGT131A ACCT3010 Intermediate The accounting and finance course here Accounting A covers less material, and has slower pace than HKUST. Prof. Houskeeper made the class more interesting by telling some accounting- related current issues.
MGT187 FINA4603 New Venture Emphasis more on concept, less on Finance calculations, relatively easy compared to UST Finance courses.
Gracia Stephanie Yap University of California, San Diego Spring 2018
Spring Quarter
ECON174 FINA3203 Derivatives / No assignment, just midterm and final exam. Financial Risk Management
MGT131B ACCT3020 Intermediate Next half of ACCT3010.Same professor, Accounting B similar course structure
MGT187 FINA4000 Investment Practical weekly assignments. Heavy workload Banking compared to other finance courses.
PHIL10 HUMA Introduction to Attendance using clickers. 4 quizzes, 1 final, Common Logic quite easy. Core
REV12 - Science of Practice and learn more about being mindful, Mindfulness and self-compassion.
Adding new courses to the course equivalency database is not difficult, but it may take up to 4+ weeks. Even if you are taking 2 quarters, you can only transfer back 20 HKUST credits.
Housing Housing result is pretty late, mid December. Exchange students can first apply to International house. The space for winter quarter is pretty limited, I was put on the UCSD waitlist. I then settle for homestay / renting a room in a local family’s house. On January 2nd, a week before the school starts, I was offered a room in Marshall apartment. In San Diego, the rent on and off- campus is relatively the same.
If you live on campus, you have to buy dining dollars, credit that you can spend in the dining halls around campus
Climate California is known for its amazing weather! It does not go below 6o Celsius, and its sunny most of the time.
Gracia Stephanie Yap University of California, San Diego Spring 2018
Finance: Flight 1800 6000HKD with Cathay Pacific Promotion, not applicable for peak season e.g. end of December
Accommodation 7700 6 Months, On-Campus Shared Apartment single room, Including $1800 Dining Dollar. Not including $450 deposit
Books 300 A lot of business courses requires you to buy e-reader
Insurance 1300 For 2 quarters
Travel 700 Texas 3.5 days Trip
2000 9 Days East Coast Trip
800 2x @3 Days LA Trip , and 1 Disneyland trip
500 Around San Diego / California : Mexico, Yosemite, San Francisco, Carlsbad
Others 2000 Local Rideshare (Uber/ Lyft) , Hanging out around San Diego
Misc 900
Total Spending 18000
People go cashless here. It’s more common to use debit or credit card than cash, and students transfer money to friends using Venmo app. Both opening and closing a bank account is very straightforward. There is a Chase bank on-campus; but you can’t apply for credit card without a social security number. To apply for credit card, choose Bank of America instead.
Pre-Arrival
Visa You need to submit financial proof and fill out some form to submit to University of California. After UC send you I-20, you need to apply for the visa to American Embassy.
Course Registration Quite simple process, done around November. As they don’t have complete data about the courses you have taken, you may need to submit proof that you have completed the prerequisite classes. Remember that UST requires students to take classes on letter grades whenever applicable.
Course Equivalency Check out UCSD Courses list and submit course equivalency request to HKUST. The process may take up to 1 month.
Gracia Stephanie Yap University of California, San Diego Spring 2018
Vaccine You need to do some vaccine such as: MMR, Tdap, Meningococcal, Chicken pox, then submit the proof to UCSD. They can be done in UST clinic
Accommodation Either apply for on-campus housing, or look for off-campus housing/ homestay.
While in UC, San Diego
Orientation Brief event to inform you important things plus the chance to meet other exchange students
International Services The ISPO will send information about visa https://ispo.ucsd.edu and Activities and orientation information. /
Social Activities and Student organizations will have booth in the Networking library walk in the beginning of every quarter. Opportunities Also check out Facebook events and school email regarding the events. Business related organization includes Undergraduate Accounting Society (UAS) and Undergraduate Investment Society (UIS)
Food California has a lot of Asian and Mexican Food; On-campus dining Check out Convoy area and Tacos El Gordos. https://hdh.ucsd.edu/ There is more vegetarian / vegan/ halal option DiningMenus/default. than in Hong Kong. aspx?i=18
On-Campus: Dining hall serves various cuisine. Dining dollars are acceptable in ~10 restaurants and 6 markets around campus.
Transport Free bus around San Diego with u-pass. U-pass Take a Lyft or Uber ride https://transportation. Not as convenient as in HK. ucsd.edu/alternative Rent a car for road trip. s/transit/u-pass.html Amtrak to go to other cities e.g. Los Angeles. Enjoy the student discount by purchasing the ticket at the counter.
Clothes People in california dress casually: t-shirt, sweater. Although San Diego’s temperature does not usually go below 6o Celcius, bring
Gracia Stephanie Yap University of California, San Diego Spring 2018
thick coat in case you wanna travel to East Coast.
Communication AT&T and T-Mobile are the common service provider
Health and Safety You are required to purchase insurance (UC Insurance Ship), unless you opt to buy another insurance https://wellness.ucsd with similar coverage. The insurance covers .edu/studenthealth/in dental and vision, meaning that you get free surance/Pages/defa dental checkup and discount for purchase of ult.aspx glasses or lenses. CSO Walk Escort There is a student health center (SHS) and https://police.ucsd.ed hospital in the campus area. u/services/cso.html
After 8pm, you can call for CSO Walk Escort - Triton rides: to accompany you to walk around campus https://police.ucsd.ed area/ Triton Rides - free ride around campus u/services/triton- rides.html
Accommodation You can choose to live on or off- http://hdh.ucsd.edu/h campus(apartment/homestay). The rooms on- ousing/currentreside campus consist of single, double, and triple nts/pages/ room. If you live on-campus, you have to purchase “dining dollars”. There are a lot of residence area around campus.
Climate California is known for its great weather! It does not go below 6o Celsius, and its sunny most of the time.
Sports and Recreation There are 2 main fitness center and countless https://recreation.ucs (paid) recreation program you can join. Find d.edu/ the sports/ activities you want to try. Aerial Silk Yoga/Pilates/ Meditation
Things you wanna know // To-bring / To-do: It’s easy to buy stuff including beddings in Target / Costco Download uber/lyft application Check out Facebook group: Free and for sale 2.0 for everything from housing to books
I’d be happy to share more details and answer your inquiries. Please get my contact from SBM Exchange Team by emailing at [email protected].
Gracia Stephanie Yap University of California, San Diego Spring 2018