Hello, everyone. I am Sofia Zhengli who had an exchange semester at the University of Michigan in the United States in the 2022 Spring semester. In this exchange report, instead of providing the very standardized information and introduction that you could easily get access to from the internet or mass media, I will focus more on my personal experience and insights in every section (I would describe them as small tips).  While I will be sure to include the websites and links where you could get official and objective information from, I found it little use to just restate it here again. Therefore, if your need is to gain more information regarding the standardized procedures (such as full visa application procedures step by step), I recommend checking the official websites which contain more accurate, credible and updated information.

Before going into details, as a student who previously did another exchange in IESEG School of Management (located in Paris France) through the expat program offered by Office of International Affairs, and who will do another exchange in ESADE Business School this coming fall semester (located in Barcelona, Spain), I have some general ideas to share with you in terms of the concept “exchange”. Many students finishing their exchange semesters will describe the period of their exchange as “the best time ever in their life”. It is not surprising because the exchange semesters are usually “chill”, especially with many students manually arranging their life and course load away from pressure. Therefore, I also recommend you to take full advantage of this precious opportunity to enjoy the colorful life and to relax. However, there is never a certain specific pattern that defines a “good and meaningful” exchange, meaning that not only a super relaxing and pressureless exchange semester is acknowledged. Some students may still aim for a beautiful transcript, some students try to engage themselves more in the local society to actively network and socialize, or some students may just live their normal life at their normal pace. Therefore, you can always take control of your life, and never set yourself any limits just because you refer to some previous exchange reviews. Live your own life! In this way, a very useful tip for you is to figure out what you really want from this exchange so that you have an idea how to allocate your time, energy and money. It matters because you only have very limited time to carry out the life you want, meaning prior planning is necessary. For example, if you mainly want to relax or hang out with friends, you may seize the timings in orientation to know more friends to hang out and have fun together. If you really want to immerse yourself in local society and to make native friends, living in a co-op or frathouse may be your choice. You have the option to customize! Even in the end, you find yourself not achieving everything you had set up prior to the exchange, the unique 4-month life experience will never disappear and is forever an unforgettable special adventure.

1.University of Michigan

University of Michigan is a prestigious institution located in the United States, which I believe is the highest QS ranked university in the United States among all the universities that Korea University has exchange programs with. Although due to its inferior location, it is generally less popular than USC, yet in terms of academic excellence, U of M is a better choice in your exchange school wish list. Our exchange program is only between 2 Business Schools, KUBS and Ross Business School of U of M, but not between Korea University and University of Michigan.

As far as I know, this past 2022 winter semester is the first semester when U of M resumed its exchange program with KU after the pandemic started. The exchange program between KUBS and U of M was first launched in 2019, 2 semesters before the pandemic forced it to discontinue, making me and another girl the third batch of exchange students visiting U of M. Therefore, there are not abundant previous exchange reviews.

U of M is located in the city of Ann Arbor, near the biggest city in the State of Michigan – Detroit. Ann Arbor is pretty safe, but I heard that Detroit is pretty dangerous, with a lot of shooting cases and high criminal rate, so please be careful in Detroit. Usually students land in Detroit Airport and then commute to Ann Arbor. (You can also choose to land in Chicago Airport and drive 4 hours from Chicago to Ann Arbor.)Ann Arbor is a 30-minute drive from Detroit. If you call uber, it will cost you around 60-70 dollars single way, but you can split the costs with others if you are sharing the same car. Uber and Lyft are the most useful mobility apps. Generally Speaking, they offer similar prices, but sometimes Lyft is cheaper. Taxis are more expensive than Ubers and Lyfts. The most economical way from Detroit Airport to Ann Arbor is to take the Michigan Flyer (Michigan Flyer > Home) for a ride which costs around 15 dollars for a single trip. However, Michigan Flyer has a strict timetable that you have to follow, and there is no bus later than 6pm as far as I know. The school offers special shuttles from Detroit Airport to Ann Arbor back and forth, but the shuttles do not work during holidays.

I went for the winter semester starting from January ending in the end of April. The weather was very freezing, but I feel that it was similar to the one in South Korea in winter. In January and February, the ground was most of the time covered by snow, but it also snows in March and April. The snow is really random in Michigan. It is necessary to bring yourself with the long paddings or thick and warm winter jackets. Inside the buildings, there were always air conditioners, so it was very warm.

The campus was huge, covering the center of Ann Arbor. The places that I visited the most were the 3 buildings of Ross Business School, the shapiro library, the michigan union, and the language and the language and literature building. During the orientation, I guess  you will have the chance to explore around between several different buildings. Personally, I think Ross Business School is super similar to KUBS with the 3-building layout that I even doubt if they are sharing the same designer. A good analogy will be that: Ross Building →LG Posco, Kresge Building → KUBS main building (with lots of offices), Blau Buidling → Hyundai motor house. You can make a reservation for the classrooms and study rooms on the Impact (Study Rooms Ross IT Services at Michigan Ross (umich.edu))website just as you can do in KUBS.

2. Visa Application and i-20

My experience of applying for the student visa may be helpful if you are also applying outside South Korea (the country where our home university is located). I applied for a student visa to the US in Spain. The general process is similar to the one in South Korea, but you need to check the official US embassy website of the country you are residing in. Please always check if the city where you are staying has the US embassy processing visa application or not. For the case of Spain, the city of Barcelona where I stayed in does not have an institution processing cias application, so I had to fly to Madrid for a visa application.

There are few things to do before you get your i-20, so please be patient in receiving it from the U of M international office. Your i-20 is very important and is mailed to you physically around 20th of November. Before you receive i-20, all you can do is to start filing the DS-160 form on the US visa application website. You cannot submit the form because you must fill in the form with the sevis number stated in your i-20. After you receive your i-20, please follow the instructions enclosed in the mail package. You need to first pay the sevis number fee, and then you need to fill in the sevis number in DS 160 form. After that, you can submit the form online, pay the fee if necessary and select an appointment date for visa application in the US embassy.

Please check the official website for more information.

I think you can arrive in the US at the earliest 30 days before the starting date stated in your i-20 and you must leave the US at the latest 60 days after the starting date in your i-20. I-20 is very important to prove your status as a student, even more important than the student visa page.

3. Cost and Expenses

The living expenses in Ann Arbor are higher than what I was expecting. In my opinion, the living expense level is similar to that of the big commercial cities such as Chicago and New York. The housing expense is around 700 dollars -1000 dollars minimum including utilities, depending on the conditions of the housing. More information will be provided in the housing section. The extra living expenses vary from person to person, however, I do feel that the estimation of the total cost of living provided by the University of Michigan when it was asking for financial solvency proof is reasonable. Therefore, it is a good way to refer to that estimation. I directly used my visa debit card to purchase everything most of the time because I feel it is more convenient for me, but I did apply for the bank card of University of Michigan to do some big transfers.

4. Course Registration

I think the system of course registration of U of M is not that friendly to exchange students, mostly because it requires exchange students to submit the proof of prerequisite courses respectively for every course (which have prerequisite courses) they want to register. I believe for most third-year and fourth-year students, they have already taken the basic business courses in their home university, making it necessary to register for courses which have prerequisites. Moreover, the process of verifying the prerequisite courses was time-consuming and inefficient. We need to raise a ticket through a specific website in order to verify the documents of prerequisite courses, and it usually takes centuries for the administrative office to approve them.  A good and effective way to solve the problem of lack of efficiency is to audit the course you want to register in person during the first several weeks, and to talk with the professor about the issue. WIth the interference of the professor, sometimes the administrative office will be more efficient in responding to the ticket request.

One thing that you may need to keep an eye on is that there is a minimum credit requirement in order to maintain the F-1 student visa in the US which is 12 credits. Please make sure that you have registered credits which are more than the minimum required. The maximum number of credits are 18 credits for regular students and exchange students. For me personally, I registered for 17.5 credits for this semester, which was a pretty huge workload. I need to put a lot of effort into studying if I want to keep a good grade. The credit approval rate with Korea University is 1:1, and I recommend you to check the other details of the process of credit approval through the official guideline provided by KUBS. I will share the details of my personal course registration in the following. Although the exchange program is between KUBS and Ross Business School, we are eligible to choose the courses from all over the campus as we wish.

(1)   Spanish 232

The language courses are administered under the LSA Language and Literature Department. During the first week of the semester, I took a placement test online to test my language level to join the class, and then I was assigned to Spanish 232. Spanish 232 takes 4 credits, having classes 4 times a week, but can be only approved as a 3-credit course to KUBS due to the regulations. I recommend not to take this course because this course is with a huge (huge, huge, huge) workload, a great number of exams and strict evaluation criteria. In addition, most probably, you need to take the courses with many students who major in Spanish. Although the course is an absolute evaluation, it is wise to consider the level of effort other students will put in this class to avoid mental depression (lol). Although I did learn a lot from that course, I feel that the course is a bit beyond my own level and I did not have a chance to fix it before the deadline of add and drop (which is January 25th). The add and drop period is pretty long and flexible, so please take full advantage of this time to make the decision for the course schedule. Language courses are usually with the most exam and quiz frequency. For that class in particular, it is required that every student must spend at least an hour everyday studying the class materials. Therefore, please think carefully before you choose the course.

(2)   Options and Future

This course is worth a credit of 3. It needs the prerequisite of financial management and Excel skills. The accent of the professor is a bit strange (in my opinion it was an Australian one), but I feel the knowledge is very useful in a real-world financial business career. By comparing the syllabus, I infer that the course by U of M focuses more on practical excel skill, while the course in Korea University focuses more on mathematical theory. Therefore, I infer that the U of M one is relatively easier than the Korea University one. We touched on the topics of options, future and forward contracts, and the main topic is to value the financial assets by building and using models. In general, it is a quite useful course.

(3)   AI and ML investment

This course needs a sound knowledge of python, but when he introduces the course, he will tell you that the knowledge in python is not necessary but preferred. I strongly doubted it. I was taking without any knowledge of python, and I was so struggling, because the course is completely about python. It is crazy to take this course without python skills. Therefore, I learned python briefly by myself to take that course, but even so, the course is still very technical and confusing. However, the professor is very chill and the grade evaluation is only based on final group project and attendance (there are assignments, but he does not grade; and there is no exam)

(4)   Financial Modeling

This is a half-term course which starts from the second half of the semester, and it is worth 1.5 credits. There is only one session with 3 hours duration every week. The course is about building up an LBO Model. The professor is Chinese, and he teaches really well, with clear logic and expression. I think he is the best professor among the professors that I met in University of Michigan.The course evaluates with one final exam and one final group project. If you follow the timeline he gives with no procrastination, I think you will be fine in the course.

(5)   Business Presentation

This is a 3 credit course. It is easy to get a good grade even if you are not presenting the best. The professor is kind and instructive. Actually, I learned a lot from this course and it is really helpful for my English presentation skills. However, the disadvantage related to that course is that this course is a bit challenging, and you almost cannot see any Asian faces. There is also almost no exchange student as well.

(6)   Capstone Consulting

A 3-credit challenging course for non-English native speakers, but you can definitely learn a lot from this course. This course a bit challenging in terms of language. It requires you not only a master's in English but also the capability of articulating in the business world. I grew a lot throughout this course because it accelerates my courage to participate in class discussions in the native environment. Class participation is very important in this course. In this course, you will also have a chance to do role play and analyze the financial statements.

5. Housing

Housing is generally expensive in Ann Arbor. Usually, for exchange students, you have several common options.

(1) On-campus student housing

This includes the on-campus student housing and meal plans. Students are obligated to join meal plans if they plan to stay in the student housing.

(2) On-campus Co-op housing

This is a special on-campus housing called Henderson house, which is where I live in. It is quite affordable at $1000 a month including the food. The food is ordered for everyone and is shared among the students. However, yo need to commit to at least 5-6 hours to the chores of the housing. The house is only for female students. I met so many local friends here, so I believe  it is the best option to meet local friends.

(3) Off-campus housing

Students usually choose to stay in a student apartment such as Arbor Blue, Six 11. Try to look at the official websites of those apartments.

6. Campus Facilities

There are free gyms for students. For Ross students, there is a  special gym on B1 floor of the Ross Building, but it charges an amount of membership fee. The Shapiro library is a very nice place to study and it runs all day and night just like the central library in KU.

7. U of M events and clubs

US Business Schools are famous for their Consulting club and Business Frat. I recommend that if you want to have an opportunity to be fully immersed in the American Business School Culture, try to apply to one of the clubs. It would be a really fun experience. For me, I joined 180 dc Michigan branch. However, they also require the case interview and behavior interview, which is a bit tough.

8. Traveling Opportunities

I did not travel very much during the normal weeks, but I took the advantage of the Spring break to travel to New York and Boston. I also traveled to California after the semester ends. During the semester, I traveled to Chicago with my housemates in Henderson House.

9. Language, Food, and Culture

The food in US is not healthy as it is known for. In US, it is not legal to go to bars and clubs until you are 21. Unfortunately, I was not 21 when I did the exchange. However, I did find some bars and clubs which allow students under 21 but older than 18. For the bar, there is one called Catina. For the club, there is one called Necto. The others all require 21 I think.

It is necessary to tip in the US, and tipping is usually not printed on the bill, so you have to count the tip and write on the bill the tipping. In Michigan it is around 15%, in other States, it might be 18%-20%.