CMU Exchange Report

Spring 2019

Tepper School of Business, Business Administration

Ou, Huiyi

BSc in Quantitative Finance and Applied Mathematics

Table of Contents

Monthly Activity Catalog .......................................................................................................................... 3

January ...................................................................................................................................................... 3

February .................................................................................................................................................... 3

March ........................................................................................................................................................ 4

April ............................................................................................................................................................ 5

May ............................................................................................................................................................ 5

General Exchange Information ............................................................................................................... 6

Visa Procedures ....................................................................................................................................... 6

Orientation Activities ............................................................................................................................. 7

Accommodation ...................................................................................................................................... 7

Course Registration ................................................................................................................................ 8

Sports & Recreation Facilities .............................................................................................................. 9

Finance & Banking .................................................................................................................................. 9

University Clubs & Networking Opportunities ............................................................................... 10

Medical Insurance ................................................................................................................................ 10

Food, Transportation and Climate .................................................................................................... 11

Entertainment & Resources at CMU ................................................................................................ 12

Items to Bring ............................................................................................................................................ 12

Useful Links & Contacts .......................................................................................................................... 12

Walk to the Skype

Monthly Activity Catalog

January

The first impression I have about Pittsburgh is the omnipresent snow when I arrived at the bus stop,

which accompanied throughout my exchange life until March. Several days after settling down, I

attended the orientation and met five other exchange students from France, Turkey, India, Italy and

China.

Classes started in mid January and there was not much workload in the

first month of study. I visited Phipps Conservatory and Botanical

Gardens, a trove of plants inhabited in different regions. The botanical

greenhouse is replete with various plant species and even holds light

shows at night.

It is my first time to know that CMU

offer students with free sports class named Group Xercise. Thus, my

roommate and I registered in the weekly yoga and indoor cycling

classes to ensure enough sports training. The trainers are so nice and

welcome beginners as they will provide detailed instruction through

the course.

February

February is a month of celebration for the Chinese New Year. The China Student Association of CMU

organized a gathering dinner for all undergraduate and graduate students, along with performance

related to Chinese culture. The college pride manifested the most when we were told that an

alumnus in his 50s flew back to CMU in order to give a concert as the chief violinist tonight. During

the dinner, I met many graduate and MBA students whose sharing of their university life and career

pathway motivated me a lot.

At the weekend, I visited Heinz History Center and Carnegie

Museums of Art and Natural History. There are many

interesting temporary exhibitions featuring different

themes, such as Apollo Exploration in the Moon and Live

Reptiles.

It is also my first time to learn about the faith of

Christianity when my roommate invited me to Klesis,

an organization run by staff in Pittsburgh and Los

Angeles. We spent great time taking Course 101 -- an

introduction of Christianity, playing fun games and

enjoying local food in Pittsburgh every week.

March

After several midterms, the culmination of March is

undoubtedly the Spring break when two friends and I

traveled to Mexico. The most impressing sights are

the Maya temples in Chichen Itza and Tulum. The

spectacular pyramids convey a sense of solemnity and

tranquility.

A masterpiece of color, Guanajuato is another place I strongly recommend to visit. As the famous

cartoon, Coco adopted Guanajuato as the prototype of story background, the magic and beauty of

this small town is unveiled to present to the public.

April

The annual Women in Data Science was held the

second time in CMU, drawing attention of thousands

of guest speakers who work as data science

professionals and students pursing careers in this field.

It was so fortunate that I could attend the forum and

hear female professionals working in renowned

financial and technology firms to share their insightful

thoughts about career choices, research implications

and ethics involved in real applications.

Spring in Pittsburgh comes in April. The highlight of such a beautiful season is the Spring Carnival. As

an overture, the campus was transformed to a gargantuan theme park. Then students of different

societies built their own booth within less in week, with vivid drawings and decorations.

May

Similar to HKUST, there will be a revision week before the final, while some courses may have their

final exams in the last class. The professors were so efficient that nearly all courses were graded a

few days after the exams.

After the final exams, I went on a trip to New York to visit my friend in high school. I took the Mega

Bus directly from Pittsburgh to Manhattan. The single trip lasts for eight hours and a round-trip ticket

costs about $80. The lights at night near Brooklyn Bridge is gorgeous if you have time to have a walk

there. Besides that, there are many museums in New York worth visiting. I went to the Met

(Metropolitan Museum of Art), MoMA and Whitney Museum of American Art. Especially this year

the Met held a CAMP exhibition, a huge influx of audience went there.

Whitney Museum of American Art Central Park

General Exchange Information

Visa Procedures

Exchange students are supposed to apply for J1 student visa. Prior to the application, some crucial

documents such as an official transcript, bank statements, passport pages and a TOFEL score report

are required for CMU to issue the DS-2019 form for you to apply for the visa. Staff in SBM Exchange

office will assist you through the process and they are welcome to answer all questions.

Upon receiving the package which includes DS-2019 and your Andrew ID in mid-November, you can

start the application as soon as possible. Below are a few steps and I have attached the websites for

your reference:

1. Start your application for a non-immigrant visa at US Department of State’s website,

complete the DS-160 form and note down your application ID.

(https://ceac.state.gov/GenNIV/default.aspx)

2. Pay the SEVIS fee of US$180. US Federal government needs to track and update all

international students’ information, so the SEVIS data base is relevant to your immigration

status.

(https://www.fmjfee.com/i901fee/index.html)

3. Make an appointment for an interview and pay HK$1,280 application fee at Consulate General

of the United States Hong Kong & Macau website along with your application ID in the DS-

160 form. The interview takes around 3-5 minutes and the interviewer only asks some simple

questions. The processing time is moderate and within five days you can receive your visa if

you choose to mail back to HKUST.

(http://www.ustraveldocs.com/hk/hk-niv-typej.asp)

Orientation Activities

An immigration check-in will be held a few days before the semester starts, where all exchange and

graduate students must attend. Staff of OIE will give some briefing about immigration affair, CMU

and Pittsburgh and you could just follow their instructions.

Shortly after the check-in, all exchange students are invited to an orientation, where you can meet

and have lunch other exchange students. (There are only 6 this semester) After that, the advisors

will show you around the campus and share some interesting stories about CMU.

When Chinese New Year is approaching, the CSSA, a Chinese student association, will hold an annual

New Year celebration in UC.

Kung Fu Show Concert given by Alumni and Orchestra

Accommodation

Exchange students may not be guaranteed on-campus accommodation and I know some friends

renting apartments near the campus. Thus, I highly recommend you apply for housing as soon as you

receive your Andrew ID if you prefer to live on campus. Here is a timeline for your reference. I applied

my dorm on November 29th and received a confirmation on December 21st.

One great thing about CMU is its flexibility. You have rights to choose your roommate if you know his

or her Andrew ID or you can also match to people with similar life style to yours on the housing portal。

Regarding the dorm selection, I lived in Morewood Gardens, which is very close to the main campus

(across Forbes Avenue) and the university health center. Located at the crossroads of Forbes Avenue

and Morewood Avenue, there are three bus stops right outside the building and at Forbes Avenue,

at which you could take buses to the supermarkets, downtown and Pittsburgh International Airport.

Tepper School is right behind the dorm, so you will never be late even for a 9:00 class.

The facilities inside Morewood Gardens cater to all my needs. There is an underground cafeteria,

although it mainly serves burgers, pasta and light sandwiches. If you are used to cooking yourself,

there are well-equipped stoves and an oven in the kitchen on each floor. To keep a healthy diet, I

cook dinner myself and procure fresh vegetables, meat, dumplings and condiments either from Giant

Eagle or through a Chinese online store called Zgomart (匹村小铺). Eating out at the weekend is also

very convenient. There are many restaurants near Craig Street, University of Pittsburgh and

Shadyside.

Aside from Morewood Gardens, there are definitely many other choices. I have attached the map

and fee rates below for your reference. Prices vary depending on the dorm and room type you apply

for. A reminder is that exchange students should apply for upper-class housing rather than first-year,

so there may be some restraints of which dorms you could apply.

Campus map: https://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/online-campus-map

Housing rate and fees: https://www.cmu.edu/housing/ourcommunities/rates-and-fees/18-

19HousingRates.pdf

Course Registration

Sarah, the academic advisor will help you with course registration and waiver of pre-requisites. You

can take up to five courses in total and no more than two courses outside of Tepper School. Although

we are a bit later than full-time students for course registration, exchange students sometimes have

priority in the waiting list.

I took five courses in CMU. The workload in math courses are much heavier than those in UST, each

with two weekly assignments and three midterms, while business courses focus more on techniques

and application without much workload.

Course Code Equivalence Content and Difficulty

21-260 Differential Equation MATH 2352 Linear differential equation and Laplace transformation. Easy

before the 2nd midterm and harder afterwards.

36-410 Intro to Probability

Modeling MATH 3425

Markov chain. Very difficult but professor Jin teaches very good and

explains clearly.

70-374 Data Mining &

Business Analytics COMP 4331

Basic machine learning algos implemented by R. Contents are

accessible and sample codes are provided.

70-455 Modern Data

Management COMP 3311

Hands-on practice on SQL and Tableau. Moderate workload.

70-398 International Finance FINA 4403 Contents cover interest rate and currency derivatives. It’s easy if

you took FINA3203.

The teaching styles here are quite similar to that of UST, except for the difference in workload and

assessment methods. Workload for Math courses are much heavier than those of business courses,

with three midterms and two weekly assignments for each course. 70-455 has six labs, consisted of

sql syntax, design of ERD diagram, data wrangling and visualization. It is quite competitive to get top

grades in labs since most classmates have previous experience using MySQL or Tableau.

Sports & Recreation Facilities

Most recreation facilities are located in University Centre, including a basketball field, gyms, racket

ball rooms etc. There are two well-equipped gyms in CMU, the larger one is located on the ground

and first floor of University Centre near Forbes Avenue while the other one is in Tepper School. In

addition, there are some sport rooms on the second floor of University Centre used for free exercise

courses including Yoga, cycling, Zumba etc. You can find the daily course schedule on CMU GroupX

website and register at the counter in the gym in UC with your student ID for free. The playground is

next to the University Centre.

Finance & Banking

Housing fees and other student fees need to pay soon after semester starts. You could pay online

through Flywire with your domestic bank account. If you want to open a local bank account, theses

local banks will be a better choice: PNC Bank, Citizens Bank and Dollar Bank. There are a few PNC

Bank and Citizens Bank ATMs on campus and a PNC Bank counter in the Cohon University Center. It

is worth bearing in mind that you need to close your bank account before you go back to Hong Kong.

For students who plan to travel abroad, you can exchange foreign currencies in one of the bank

counters at least one week before departure. As far as I concerned, the exchange rates I was charged

in PNC Bank were not quite good compared to those in Mexico, where I traveled to during spring

break.

Note:

1. The mandatory student fee includes transportation fee, technology fee, student activity fee etc. With student ID, you

are free to take any buses and visit many museums in Pittsburgh.

University Clubs & Networking Opportunities

A club fair is held shortly after the semester begins and you can find academic, entertainment, art,

science and other club counters there. I joined a Data Science Club and a Knitting Club. The projects

of academic clubs in CMU are very practical and you can embark on the whole project if you are

experienced enough.

Regarding job seeking, Handshake, a website for posting job fairs and opening is very comprehensive

and you can find many part-time or internship positions there. Tepper also prepares graduate and

MBA students with many networking resources, you may utilize them if you know some graduate

students who could share the information with you.

Medical Insurance

Personal medical history, immunization records and TB Testing results must be uploaded before

arriving at CMU. If you have one or two vaccination remaining to take, you could receive the

vaccination at the university health center. All documents are required to be translated to English

and should have clear dates stated. To avoid any rejection and confusion, I went to a local

Item Cost (HKD)

Visa application 2,700

Flight 11,000

Insurance 3,600

Mandatory student fee1 3,600

Accommodation 36,500

Meals and Necessities 18,000

Travel 10,450

Total 85,850

international travel health care center at home city where staff there helped me prepare all formal

documents with my original immunization records.

CMU requires all students to enroll in health insurances, with broader coverage than the one SBM

purchases for exchange students. The standard plan provided by CMU costs about US$1,379, with

which you can reimburse most expenses you incur during the exchange period. However, I found it

too expensive and waived it with another insurance provided by ISO (https://www.isoa.org/), which

only costs US$456. It covers most expenses incurred at the university health centers and some clinics

in the insurance network. You might need to find the updated waiver requirement on CMU website

and confirm with ISO customer service center to see whether your plan meets the current standard.

Food, Transportation and Climate

There are a few dinning halls on campus, most of which serve western food. I will recommend the

Korean food and taco in University Centre. You can also find many good Mexican, Chinese and Thai

food around Pittsburgh.

Bus and cars are the only transportation in Pittsburgh. The transportation fee included in student

fees ensures that students are free to take any bus in Pittsburgh. It is very convenient to go to

Shadyside, Squirrel Hill or downtown by bus, for there are many bus stops near the campus.

The winter in Pittsburgh lasts from January to April, so make sure you bring enough cloths. Generally,

the heating system in dorm can protect you from the extreme coldness. Due to the severe snow

storm spreading the east coast this February, the university even canceled classes for one day. When

it comes to spring, CMU is decorated with many beautiful flowers and the campus is filled with vigor

again.

Entertainment & Resources at CMU

OIE – Current events at CMU and around Pittsburgh

The Bridge – information of all clubs

Handshake – information about internship and career

events

CMU & University of Pittsburgh - Talks and workshops

Free weekly film in UC

Museums

Point State Park and the Incline

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

Catholic of Learning in University of Pittsburgh

Items to Bring

1. HKID, Passport, Visa, SEVIS form, DS 2019

2. Adapters for electronic devices

3. Cash, Visa/Master card

4. Medicine

5. Clothes for cold weather (down jacket, gloves, boots, scarf, hat)

6. Stationary and laptop

Useful Links & Contacts

1. CMU Police: 412-268-2323

2. CMU Housing Portal: https://starrez.housing.cmu.edu/

3. CMU Health Portal

4. Canvas: https://canvas.cmu.edu/login

5. SIO: https://s3.andrew.cmu.edu/sio/s3Login

6. 中国电信美洲公司: https://www.ctexcel.us/