[America][USA] University of Southern California 2018-1 최카니
2018.08.29
Views 2926
U.S.A.
Experience Report_USC_2015120375
Hello, my name is Khani Choi and I am a fourth-year student at Korea University Business School. I recently exchanged at the University of Southern California (USC) during the 2018 Spring Semester. As I am an international undergraduate student at KUBS from the United States, many people were curious as to why I decided to exchange in my home country. I chose USC because of its great location in the heart of Los Angeles and amazing Marshall business school which has great resources and a strong networking culture that could boost me forward in my future career in the States. USC’s Marshall Business School has innovative teaching practices and offers many opportunities to meet talented professionals, professors, and students. As it is also located in Los Angeles, where creatives gather from all over the world, I knew I would grow so much from this experience.
Preparation and Orientation
Unlike many other KUBS exchange students, I am a U.S. citizen so I did not have to go through the visa application process. USC is very organized in helping exchange students fill out and submit paperwork during the first day of orientation. Usually exchange students must arrive early in the morning at USC, but I was the sole American student so I only had to go to the orientation in the afternoon. At orientation, students fill out paperwork, learn about course registration, make a student ID card, and are able to mingle with other exchange students. I sat next to a girl from Thailand at the orientation and she and her friends became my closest friends throughout the semester.
Course registration is quite different from our system at Korea University, but it is quite easy to understand once you thoroughly read USC’s emails and undergo the orientation. For each possible first-choice course you want to take, you will need to select multiple back-up courses in case you are unable to get into that class. Thus, you will need to find many classes you want to take, more than what you actually plan on taking, and check early on with KUBS if those credits are transferrable. It is likely that you will get a back-up course instead of the first choice you wanted. After the initial course registration results, there will be three weeks to add and drop courses. Classes fill up quickly so you should check often to see if a spot opens up in a class that you want to take.
Housing
There are three main options for housing at USC. Before arriving in LA, you will be receiving many emails about applying to USC housing or finding other apartments to live in. One option is subleasing and USC will email you a contacts list of students who need to sublease their rooms as they will be going on exchange while you attend USC. Subleasing tends to be more affordable than USC housing, but the problem is that you need to find someone who will not last minutely back out on subleasing their room. I had contacted a girl who stated she had a room available for me to share with her roommate. However, right before the application period for USC Housing ended, she cancelled on me since her roommate decided to live alone in the room. Thus, I had to hastily apply to USC Housing but I received a room at “Cardinal Gardens Apartments,” which I really liked.
The second option is USC Housing, which has an application process where you must select your preference of housing. The “USC Village” apartments have the newest buildings but are extremely popular so even if you apply, you are most likely not going to live there since priority goes to USC Sophomores. Nonetheless, I loved living in Cardinal Gardens Apartments; I had a spacious living room and kitchen and lived with one roommate and two other housemates. I was lucky to be assigned to a room on the third floor, whereas some students were assigned to rooms in the basement which are not as comfortable. Many of my exchange student friends lived in other USC Housing apartments called “Century Apartments,” “Gateway,” and even in Fraternity houses that converted into USC apartments.
Another option outside of the two mentioned before is living in the luxurious “Lorenzo Apartments” which are off campus but incredibly well facilitated with a nice rooftop, a pool, restaurants, study rooms, a gym, and more. Of course, this is the priciest option but if you want to experience the best of USC, these apartments are for you.
Transportation
Unlike Seoul, Los Angeles has a pretty inconvenient public transportation system. L.A. is notorious for having bad traffic throughout the day and slow trains and buses. However, the metro system is quite easy to understand and if you have a “TAP” card, you can travel around L.A. at the affordable price of $1.75 per one way ride. You can buy the TAP card at the recharging machines at any Metro station and recharge with cash or card. A new transportation method that started in the U.S. recently, which I had never experienced before, is Uber and Lyft. Uber and Lyft drivers are thoroughly checked and certified to drive people to their destinations.
Thankfully, USC offers free Lyft rides within a 2-mile radius after 7 PM for their students. You will most likely be riding on Lyft at night to go grocery shopping, meet people for team project meetings, meet friends for dinner, and etc. USC also has a version of Lyft and Uber called “Campus Cruiser,” and this is an app you can use to ride around campus at night for free. Since USC is located in not the safest neighborhood, these services are very helpful in keeping students safe. Another important note is that USC has a flat campus so a majority of students ride skateboards, bikes, scooters, and even unicycles at school.
Campus Life
The USC Dining Halls are buffet-style and located in different parts of the campus. The best dining hall in my opinion is called “Parkside” and it is the largest one. The USC Village area has a dining hall that offers crepes and ice cream and was the closest to my apartment so I ate there frequently. If you live in USC Housing, you will be required to buy the Dining Plan which gives you 40 Dining Hall meals and $150 to use at restaurants and cafes on campus. My favorite meal on campus is the Avocado Salmon bowl sold at the Law School Café, which is an underground, quiet café that many USC students don’t know about.
Courses
Overall, I took two major courses and two non-major related courses. My main goal in attending USC was to not only study at school but also gain practical marketing and design experience in an internship in L.A. Thus, I made sure that I only took courses on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays so that I could intern whenever I did not have class. The courses I took are Marketing in a Digital World, Organizational Behavior and Leadership, Digital Photography, and Hip-Hop Dance. Students at USC are very vocal and actively participate in every class. I was intimidated at first by the students who constantly spoke out in class, but over time I found myself speaking out a lot more than before.
Marketing in a Digital World
This course taught us how to acquire, retain, and develop customers through digital marketing. Every week we took a quiz about case readings and they were short multiple-choice questions. There were two main projects. One project is about creating an app for a real business and designing prototypes on websites that the professor introduced to us. The final project is about creating a digital marketing campaign that would fix a company’s major problems. One of my groupmates is the owner of a sportswear company in India, so we based our project on his company and created a digital marketing campaign about a new customizable sportswear app that sport teams throughout the US could use to easily design and produce their own team gear. My suggestions for this class are to read and highlight the main points of each case and to communicate with classmates early on so that you can group up with people who work well with you. If you do not choose your groupmates early on, the professor will randomly assign you to a group.
Organizational Behavior and Leadership
This course is packed with assignments, group work, and surveys so it will keep you very busy throughout the semester. This class has two parts: a discussion class that meets every week and a lecture class that meets every other week. The focus of this course is to help students reflect on their personality, improve problem solving skills, and become an effective leader in an organization. Every week, you will be take personality surveys and compare your results with other students. You will be assigned to one group at the beginning, and you will undergo exercises and assignments with them throughout the semester. This course was unlike any other course I took before because of the innovative practice that Marshall established called the “Experiential Learning Center” (ELC). During “discussion class,” you will be going to the ELC, which is in the basement of Fertitta Hall and has multiple rooms that resemble interrogation rooms. In each room is a camera, monitor, table, and a one-way mirror. Every class, we had hands-on exercises to discuss the lessons of the week. For example, once we role played different positions in a company and the whole class watched the video playback of each team’s discussions. Overall, this course taught me so much about my personality and how to intrinsically motivate others in a team; I found myself reflecting on the lessons in my daily life.
Digital Photography
This course is under USC’s Roski School of Art and Design. As USC is famous for cinematic arts, I knew learning photography at this school among such creative students would be both challenging and exciting. Photography has always piqued my interest but I thought I could not learn unless I had a nice DSLR camera. This course taught me that the art of photography requires no fancy equipment; the significance of a photograph lies in its subject, form, content, and meaning. This class requires you to step out of your comfort zone with many presentations about your ideas and what each of your photographs portray. You will have to criticize other’s photographs and learn to accept criticism on your artwork as well. USC has a variety of Canon cameras, tripods, and lighting equipment for students to rent out for free. However, students must pay for the prints, which can be quite costly because there are several projects requiring large prints.
Hip Hop Dance
Hip Hop Dance is a very vigorous workout and will introduce you to so many different USC students. You will learn basic Hip Hop dance moves such as Waaking, break dancing, and more. This will escalate to freestyling in class and eventually choreographing dances that consist of the basic moves. This class also teaches you the history of hip hop culture and how dance heals people and builds close-knit communities. There is a mandatory experience assignment where you must go to a hip hop event in L.A. and write about it. You will also have to write a report about a movie based on the actual global break dancing community.
Internships
Los Angeles has many internship opportunities and I was lucky to experience two internships during my exchange at USC. As a U.S. citizen, I was able to easily apply to internships but USC also has a program for international students to experience an internship in L.A. This program Is called “Academic Training” and allows international students to work in an internship for a semester after their exchange experience. More info about “Academic Training” can be found here: https://ois.usc.edu/employment/j1employment/academictraining/
Final Words
Overall, I am very satisfied with my exchange experience and I would love to go through it again if I could. It is not common for someone to exchange in their home country but I do not regret my decision at all. My exchange was challenging and eye-opening, and I was able to hear and learn from the stories of people who gather from throughout the world in the bustling city of Los Angeles. Thank you for reading about my experience and if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at khaniLchoi@gmail.com or message me on KakaoTalk @missbokchoi.
