Exchange Report
The experience at Boston College is the highlight of my university life. In Boston, you can meet really interesting people whose stories can bring much positive energy to our life. The city itself is a thick book about the US history and culture and it is continuing to write this book with these interesting people. It is never hard to find the sense of inner tranquility and then see the positive side of life in Boston.
There were difficulties and even frustrations along the journey. But I really appreciate these when looking back now. The benefit of living in a completely new environment is to have a clearer picture of one self when one is free of all the previous expectations and pressure from others. Given the resources at such a top undergraduate business school at Boston College, I enjoyed the process of self exploration in life and the highly intellectual experience in terms of academics. Visa Issues: Boston College issues F‐1 instead of J‐1 visas to most exchange students. The advantage of an F‐1 visa is that you do not need to come back to Hong Kong to change J‐1 to F‐1 if you plan to continue to be a student in the United States in the following semester. Also, the visa allows you to work part‐time on campus at a wage of around $10/hour. The procedure is quite straightforward. Follow the instructions on the US Consulate’s website and you will be fine. But one more thing, for mainland students, you can not obtain a Schengen visa in the United States if you will not be a student in the following semester. If you want to travel to Europe immediately after the exchange, plan ahead and obtain the visa before the exchange.
In fall semester, BC offers a well‐structured three‐day orientation for both exchange students and freshmen together. There was a cruise where you can meet other exchange students. This may be the best opportunity to make friends with other exchange students and locals. It can be quite busy after the semester begins. Also try to make use of this period to explore more in the city of Boston. In the whole exchange period, people tend to explore a lot of wonderful places except Boston itself where there are tons of history and stories to discover. So this may be the best time to do so. Accommodation Although it is much cheaper to live off campus, I would strongly recommend you live on campus. You can save about $2,000 if you choose to rent your own house, but it is not worth doing so from my perspective. A lot of chances to make friends will be lost if you live off campus. In this valuable semester, it is wiser to spend more time exploring yourself and the new environment around you. Course Selection Exchange students can choose up to five courses. The American students in my class all study super hard. The classroom is always heated throughout the class, which gives me much pressure. Here are the courses that I took: Strategic Management – MB099 Taught by: Professor Heide Abelli Recommended! This is the capstone course of CSOM. So most of the students are BC juniors but it is also very popular among exchange students. About one third to one half are exchange students. It is heavily case‐based, which means we have to read and think through the cases before each class. There is no way to be involved in the discussion if you do not
form your own argument beforehand. Actually the participation of this course is as high as 40%. In class, the professor plays the role of facilitator, channeling our discussion into a more fruitful track. Professor Abelli, currently the managing director of Harvard Business Publishing, is also very charismatic. Having worked as a consultant and a senior manager in the music publishing industry, she told us tons of insight from the perspective of an insider of the industry. This is the best part of the course.
International Law – IN/PO 521
Taught by: Professor Hiroshi Nakazato Highly recommended!
This must be the best course that I took during my exchange. Although the structure is more or less similar to any introductory level international course, the teaching method is largely different from that used in UST. The course is very reading‐intensive, which scared away many international students. There are three to five judicial cases and 20 – 30 pages textbook to read before each lecture. For non‐native speakers, the dense and rigorous legal cases can be quite a challenge, especially when some of them are intricate writings more than one hundred years ago. My friend from HKU told me that they have a pre‐course teaching sentence structures for law students, when we need to learn from scratch. It is normal to get lost in some places, but you should feel excited about that because that means a better intellectual experience. To provide us with such an intellectual experience, Professor Nakazato would put seemingly completely contradictory cases together. The process in which we struggled to understand the logics behind them helped improve my reasoning capability a lot.
Customer Relationship Management – MK/MI 161/811
Although this is co‐listed as both an undergraduate and graduate course, most of the class is MBA students. I even had people featured in HBS cases as my classmates. You will also be graded on the same curve, but do not be scared. As long as you are proactive enough in class and show innovativeness in the essays, Kat will get you a very decent grade. She is also very passionate for the topic and she invited many wonderful guest speakers that gave us insight into the industry. This is a very practical course where we would study one case for each class. It is true that much of the content will be quite useful to students’ future careers, but personally I think it may be a better idea if we can spare more time for enhancing our foundations. The practical stuff can be studied later on in our career. But overall, this is a very enjoyable learning experience. Corporate Finance – MF 127 Taught by: Professor Mike Barry This is the equivalent course of FINA4104 at UST. There were two quizzes and one final exam, where the result of the final can cover those of the previous ones. Whether this is the right course for you depends on what you look for in this course. Mike is very resourceful and would tell us information on recruiting events that are going on campus everyday. Before each class, he would brief us on the latest news in the financial sector. But we international students were quite struggling to understand his strong accent. We therefore turned to his notes for some hints, but usually none of us could make sense of his random writing. Another challenge was those American jokes he told in class. We international students almost dozed off when the Americans burst out laughing. Therefore, if you want some insider career advice, go to Professor Barry’s class, but this may not be the right choice if your only purpose is to learn corporate finance.
Financial Statement Analysis – MA 351
Recommended!
This course is more than simply doing arithmetic analysis on financial statements. It emphasizes the connection between the strategy and the financial statements. You will know how firms manipulated their earnings and the final project will be the analysis on a company/industry/deal. With Amy’s insight of the subject, the learning curve was very steep. The peer Americans again put a lot of pressure on us. But at the end of the day, all the efforts will pay off. The process of analysis seems much more intuitive to me now.
Health and Safety
The area around Boston College is very affluent with an extremely low crime rate. Newton was ranked among the 10 best US cities for living last year. Usually there should be no problem to walk late at night, but burglaries do happen. If you live off campus, just close the windows and doors when you go travelling. However, it is another story on the other side of the Charles River. So do not stay too late there. In terms of insurance, the BlueCross Plan can be waived by “ISO”, which mainly serves students. We even earned some money back by referring friends among ourselves.
Food and Supplies
Although some people say the food at BC’s mess hall is the second best in the United States, I highly doubt it. One alternate is to buy dumplings at Super88, which saves time, money and is actually imported from China. There is also a Star Market and a Whole Food near campus. BC has shuttle bus to get you to the Star Market every weekend. Some recommended restaurants are Legal Seafood (the nearest one should be at Copley), Jojo Taipei and a lot on Newbury Street. The desserts of Finale at Harvard Square are also wonderful. In fact, it was started by two Harvard MBAs, hiring the best chef in the area.
For supplies, the nearest Target is in Watertown, which is just ten minutes away. A cab will cost no more than $15.
Transportation
The transportation system is quite easy to use. The green line (B, C and D line) and bus 86 serves BC. Take the green line if you want to go to downtown or the riverside bus station. Both the bus terminal and the airport can be reached by subway. Take bus 86 if you are going to the other side of the Charles River where sit Harvard and MIT. I believe it will not take long to understand the public transportation system. A Charlie Card (like the Octopus Card) can help a lot when you go out. If you arrive in Boston at the South Station, get one at the counter that sells commuter rail ticket. Travel Boston is at a very convenient location for travelling. By bus, it takes around four hours to go to New York, seven to Philly and just one to Providence. The town of Salem is also less than an hour away by commuter rail. I travelled to all major cities on the East Coast. Usually a weekend is enough for a trip to another major city. In fall semester, there are two major holidays, namely Columbus Day and the Thanksgiving holiday. The university will organize traditional Thanksgiving dinners at faculty’s home for international students. But to travel is another good idea as well. Some of my friends and I travelled to Florida to enjoy the sunshine and all the fun at the amusement parks. You will definitely miss it when you come back to Hong Kong. Providence is another city I would strongly recommend to visit. It was the central port of slavery trade. All the scenic spots are about this theme. Now people would usually use the word “artistic” to describe this city, but that may be far from adequate to show the hidden beauty and tranquility of this city. During a walk along the streets, castles and churches may unexpectedly pop out from your view. Classical music is flying through the streets, houses and churches
from morning to night. It would be a perfect place to go for those who want to experience a day free of noise and burdens. Cost and Expenses (in US dollars) Air Ticket (SHA JFK, JFK HKG): 1,800 House Rent: 2,700 Food: 1,500 Textbooks: 350 Local Transportation: 150 Travel: 2,500 Miscellaneous (Cell phones, entertainment, insurance and etc.): 1,000 Total: 10,000
You can contact me for more information at [email protected]. Wish you have an enjoyable semester at Boston College!
