University of Pennsylvania Exchange Report, Fall 2016

LI, Mingjian

BSc in Quantitative Finance

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Introduction

University of Pennsylvania is one of the most famous business schools in the

world, and has been the cradle for elites in all fields. I was lucky enough to be selected as

one of the five nominees to exchange at the Wharton School. I am writing this to provide

some useful insights and suggestions to future exchange students.

Monthly Activity Log

August

After a long flight, I eventually arrived at the Philadelphia International Airport.

Upon arrival on campus, we checked in at student houses and settled down. Various

orientation activities for exchange students were also held for us. We got to know each

other during the orientation and made friends. Since we are the fall exchange students, we

could also attend some events designed for freshman, such as the student societies affair.

September

Classes commenced in early September. the coursework at Penn was challenging.

There were some topics different from those at HKUST so that we can take this chance to

register for some courses that are not offered at home school. One of my friends took

anthropology. Another thing worth a mention is the course registration system. There are

no waitlists for classes. Which means once a class is full, the first one who registers after

someone has dropped would get enrolled. I personally recommend a websites named

PennCourseNotify, which will send email once the specified section is open.

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In this month I also went travelling with my families. They live in Canada and can

drive to Philadelphia and take me to places. We went to New York and Washington.

Because the two cities are near to Philadelphia, we could get there easily.

October

Several midterms happened in this month. However, we also managed to squeeze

some time for a city tour. I went sightseeing with two of my friends from Tsinghua

University. We walked to the city center (which took approximately 40 minutes) and

visited the museums, as well as had lunch in China Town.

Another thing I was interested in doing was to exploring the good tasting food

everywhere, which I think is especially important for international students.

Although the omelette at Wharton café is great tasting, the meals in America are

not always suitable for our tastes. I personally recommend the Korean restaurants like

Utown and Koreana (tasty chicken soup and tofu dishes). Also there are several Chinese

restaurants like Han Dynasty (famous for Sichuan spicy dishes) and Sangkee (don’t miss

their fried chicken and peppers stuffed with shrimps). Chilli Szechuan, although a bit far

away from campus, is also a good place to go when you get bored with sandwiches.

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November

This was a month when a lot of projects were due. I was busy because four of my

courses required group work. US business schools emphasize on teamwork, and the style

of collaboration among students is also different from that of Asian schools. A lot of work

was done during face-to-face meetings rather than being divided into parts and allocated

to members.

Apart from the projects and exams, I also joined a cook gathering and celebrated a

classmate’s birthday. In this month I went to New York for recruitment events held by

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banks and visited my friend studying in Columbia University. Several friends also

exchanging in the US visited Penn and I performed as the tour guide. During the thanks-

giving break, I went to New York for shopping. A lot of brands were on sale!

December

December was the final exam month, and we had a study break before the exams.

We were all busy with studying, and the library was crowded. In the spare time, I took

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walks with my friends and had meals with them. I knew very nice people at Penn, and was

really comfortable getting along with them. We developed great friendship and promised

to be tour guide should we visited each other’s city in the future.

Visa Procedures

I applied for J-1 Visa. It is OK to only apply for the duration of study. If you want to

stay in the United States during winter break, you can apply for a one-month grace period

after the exchange termination date. The ISSS of Penn will send emails about the grace

period during your study, so don’t worry about it when you prepare your initial J-1 visa

application.

Orientation Activities

The orientation is a precious chance for you to get to know the campus. There will

be a campus tour in which you are introduced to various functions and facilities at Penn.

Also, there are safety talks and an academic advising seminar with your advisor.

International Services & Activities

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The aforementioned orientation is held by the International Students Services

Center. They are also the department which facilitates you during visa procedures. So if

you encountered any problems concerning your student visa, just email them and they

will reply very soon.

Accommodations

I lived in Harnwell College House which is one of the three high rises on campus.

Penn exchange students are required to live on campus. Among the college houses, the

three high rises are most popular and are the newest. You get to know native students in

these houses. My roommates, for example, were all from America. I lived in big apartment

with three roommates, where each of us had our own bedroom.

Another dormitory which is popular among internationals students is Sansom

West. Most of my exchange friends lived here, and there were also many international

students.

Courses Registration

I registered for five courses which worth five credits.

FNCE 207 Corporate Valuation

This is one of the most challenging courses at Wharton. Professor David Wessels is excellent in this field and is an interesting person. A former consultant at McKinsey, he wrote a book about valuation and used it as the textbook.

REAL/FNCE 209 Real Estate Investment

This course is about the valuation of properties and the decision-making process in real estate investing. This is also the course I loved most. Professor Maisy Wong is extremely smart and insightful about the market.

FNCE 250 Venture Capital and Finance Innovations

This course covers the aspects of venture capital investing. You should take it if you want to become a venture capitalist or company founder. Because it teaches the details in venture capital investing/financing which are important to both start-up founders and investors.

OIDD/MGMT/LGST 209 Negotiations

This is one of the most popular courses at Wharton. In the classes, we got to negotiate on cases and practice with classmates. In almost every lecture, we negotiated in pairs/groups and reflect on the process.

MGMT 251 Consulting to Growth Companies

A real-world consulting project is to be done in the semester. at the beginning of the term, ten growth company founders in Philadelphia presented to us about their businesses. We form groups and carry out consulting projects to them.

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Teaching & Assessment Methods

Each of the course will provide a syllabus, which we could check on Penn-in-

touch. Since most of my classes were project-based, participation and group work had

high weights in the grading.

Sports & Recreation Facilities

There is a huge gym at Penn. Five floors of it have different functions. I

participated in personal training with two of my friends where we had classes about

exercising. That was interesting experience since we learned many new techniques of

working out. The price was also a bargain - $170 because we were in a group of three.

Finance & Banking

I opened an account at PNC Bank. The procedure opening an account was easy

and fast. Visa cards are widely used in the US, so it was very convenient just put money

inside the Visa card.

Social Clubs & Networking Opportunities

I joined three clubs as members – Wharton Hedge Fund Club, Wharton

Investment and Trading Club and Wharton Finance Club. The former two have weekly

AGMs where their members pitch stocks. Wharton Finance Club holds various activities

and career fairs with banks. The also regularly post the banks’ recruitment event news.

Health & Safety

Exchange students are required to buy health insurance. I bought one which was

cheaper than the school-offered one. be careful when choosing the insurance plans since

only a certain list of which are admitted by Penn.

Dining

I mentioned a lot of great restaurants above. Also, we came the Penn with an

initial amount of dining dollars, which we could only spend in specified locations

including the canteens. However, since I like the food outside better, I chose to spend the

dining dollars in 1920 Commons, where there was a small supermarket that could be paid

by dining dollars.

Transportation

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I did not try the Philadelphia subway. For most of the time, we drove to places or

walked there. It is a huge advantage if you had the international driver’s license. It is

admitted in the US, and cars are the main transportation tools.

Climate

The winter in Northern America is cold. The heating systems in student houses

start in November. It is important that you shop some coats when the winter is coming.

The climate is also a little bit drier than that in Hong Kong.

Communication

I joined a family plan of T-Mobile with three other friends. It costs 120 USD per

month for four people. It was a great deal because there was unlimited data within the

plan. And it was convenient for us to pay the fees since there is a store on campus.

Check List

Passport Debit/Credit Cards

Adaptor Charger

Cash Lotions

Clothing Medicine

Computer Cell Phone

Useful Links

Penn Course Review: https://penncoursereview.com/

Penn-in-touch: https://weblogin.pennkey.upenn.edu/

PennCouseNotify: http://www.penncoursenotify.com/