University of California, Los Angeles, US - BBA International ...

UCLA Study Report 2TESTIMONIALUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES(SEPTEMBER 2010-JUNE 2011)KITTIKIAT TANTIVUTTIKITISIRIKARN ASWASUDSAKORNWhy UCLA?There are three main reasons that wechose to apply for UCLA. First, by applyingfor the UC system, we would have a chanceto go study abroad for one academic year.Therefore, we believed that we would havemore time to experience new things anddevelop our English skill. Second, UCLA is aglobally well-known university. TheAnderson Management School was ranked inthe top 20 of all Business schools in the US.Even though the school is for graduatestudents, it also offers some business classesfor undergraduate students, especially forthose who are majoring in businesseconomics major. Hence, we were sure thatUCLA would provide us experiencedprofessors and competitive learningenvironment. Finally, for accounting major, it is the highest-ranked campusthat you can choose from UC system since Berkeley does not offer accountingclasses for exchange students.Some tips for UCLA’s applicantsYou do not need to be an intelligent student in order to be accepted byUCLA. It does not mean that the person who has highest GPA and TOEFLwill be chosen. Even though we do not know the exact criteria or even thescore distribution, we strongly believe that the extra-curriculum activitiessuch as university activities has a huge effect on the total score. Thus, oursuggestion is to attach one or two certificates that show your participation inthis area with your application form.Prepare yourself before going to the USVISADo not listen to the rumor that to get US VISA is way too difficult. Justmake sure that your prepare the documents, be there on time, then youare good to go. The only problem that some of our friends counter is not

UCLA Study Report 3UCLA Study Report 4to make the appointment early so that they need to keep refreshing theUS VISA’s website constantly 24/7 hoping for one available space topop up.Pay tuition feeYou need to pay the tuition fee at Thammasat for the whole year beforeyou leave. It is going to be cash payment made in Dome BuildingAir ticketSome of the students may try to find the cheapest airfares withoutchecking the background of the salesperson. Our suggestion is to gosearch for the ticket among reliable agents and ask for student price.(STA Thailand is recommended)International Student Identification Card (ISIC)The card claims that it offers a worldwide student discount. However,we do not recommend you to pay for it since as soon as you get yourUCLA student card, you will be eligible for student discounts as well.Pack your stuff• Important documents - make sure that you have all the importantdocuments and some copies with you. (Passport, Visa, DS2019,Thai ID, Thai driver license (if any), International driver license,transcript)• Medicine - buying the medicine there is irritating. Most of themrequire a prescription. As a result, we would suggest you to bringthem with the English label from Thailand.• Food - Since you are going to LA, you will be able to find variousThai food in Thai town which is about 20 minute by driving or 1hour by public transportation from the campus. Do not pack anyfood that has pork as an ingredient since the US does not allowimporting it to the country.• Clothes - Because of the weather in LA is mostly around 13-23C,you can wear the clothes you normally wear in Thailand with ajacket or cardigan.Reserve Hotel & Airport shuttleWe all decided to go and searched for the apartment by ourselves ratherthan to apply for the university apartments online from Thailand. Hence,for the first few nights we needed to stay in a hotel. We stayed at BestWestern hotel in Culver City, which is 15 minutes by bus to UCLA.Also, it is better to reserve for an airport shuttle online before you arrive.(Prime time shuttle or Super shuttle are recommended)When we first arrivedBank accountThanks to one of the Thai students in UCLA, he guided four of us to thebank near UCLA. Bank of America is recommended here since thebranch is nearest to the campus, which easier for open or close theaccount, there is also a lot of Bank of America ATMs on the campus.Moreover, most of Thai people in UCLA have Bank of Americaaccount, so it is convenient transferring money to each other with noextra cost.Phone planThere are four main networks in the US, which are Verizon, AT&T, T-mobile, and Sprint. We chose T-mobile since it is one of the 2 networks,AT&T and T-Mobile that are compatible with the mobiles fromThailand. Thus, if you want to buy a new phone in the US and bring itback to Thailand afterwards, you must buy from only these 2 networks.Another reason is that lots of Thai students in UCLA use T-mobile. Inthe US, the network will charge you for both incoming, outgoing calland text. However, you can call or receive call for free if there are to or

UCLA Study Report 5UCLA Study Report 6from the same network.We recommend you to share family plan with your friends since it savea lot of money. We also recommend unlimited text because you cancontact your friend if you are in library or classroom.ApartmentWe spent a whole day walk up and down hills around the campus(UCLA has tons of hills!! do not buy a bicycles unless you are fine withriding up hill). Even though we had made an appointment with some ofthe owners online but we were not satisfied with the room condition.Finally, we all stayed on Strathmore drive, which is pretty close to thecampus that we normally walked to class every day. Other area that isrecommended is South Wilshire. The apartments in this area arecheaper, newer and more peaceful compared to those are really close tothe campus. The only draw back is that you need to take a bus to thecampus (Still, there is a university bus stop in this area so you can use itfor free)FurnitureMost of the apartments around UCLA are unfurnished. Therefore, wehad to go and buy furniture from IKEA in Burbank.Electricity/GasYou need to contact both departments by yourself! Also be ready to pay$200 and around $50 as the deposit for electricity and gas respectively.UCLA Student cardIt took only 15 minutes to get one on the campus. Our suggestion is toget it as soon as you can since it can use as a student discount for manyrestaurants and tourist attractions.InsuranceMedical care is extremely pricy here so as the health insurance. Weopted for the University insurance even it is a little bit more expensivebut we would be eligible to use the service in the Ashe health center onthe campus. The insurance fee is about $350 per quarter.Prepare for classQuarter SystemSince UCLA is operated under quarter system which is totally differentfrom Thammasat System. There are 4 quarters (Fall, Winter, Spring, andsummer) each year. However, we can enroll for only the first 3 quarters.In each quarters, you must enroll at least 12 credits to maintain yourVisa status and the maximum is 20 credits. Usually, each course is equalto 4 credits. For BBA program, you can transfer back 12 coursesmaximum. 4 classes per quarter may sound easy since we used to study5 or 6 classes per semester in Thailand, however; each quarter you haveonly 10 week to study (not include the final weeks) plus some coursessuch as Math and Econ usually have 2 midterm exams. That means youneed to take an exam once every 3 weeks!CoursesThere is nomanagementdepartment forundergraduate hereat UCLA. So, theremight be someproblems with BBAstudents, especiallythose who are infinance or marketingmajor. However,you still be able tocomplete your freeelectivecoursessince there are a lot of interesting courses here, which are not offering inThammasat international program. Some of us did enroll in Acting orMath classes and had a great time learning something other than puremanagement theories.How to enroll?Students can choose to enroll classes from ursa.ucla.edu or my.ucla.edu.We normally use the later one because we can create our time tables foreach quarter online before we actually enroll for the subjects. ForEconomics courses, you have to send an e-mail to the department’sadvisor in the register period and ask them to enroll the courses for you.For management classes, you have to send an e-mail to department’sadvisor before the register period and ask for PTE to enroll the courses

UCLA Study Report 7UCLA Study Report 8via ursa.ucla.edu or my.ucla.edu by yourself. For classes in otherdepartments, you can enroll online as soon as the register period begins.Where to buy textbook?The bookstore on the campus is the last place you want to go since theprice is highest here! Try to buy from the internet such as half.com,amazon.com or even go check used books from some bookstores inWestwood. If you want to save money, you might search for theinternational edition from ebay.com. Despite the international edition is50% cheaper than US edition; it’s harder or even impossible to resell.Also keep in mind that you should consult the professor before buyingthe version that is different from what he/she asked for i.e. the olderversions or the international edition.SocializingIt’s true that UCLA has a lot of Thai students. Hence, if you want toforce yourself to speak English 24/7, you may consider going to the otheruniversities that are not situated in LA. However, it does not mean that youwill not improve your English at all here. You have choices to participated inmany clubs or fraternities or even make friends from the classes you take.Here is the list of people/clubs that we were normally hung out with.Simply Thai - It is a group for Thaistudents who were born in Thailand butcome to study/work in LA. Most of themare graduate students. Hence, they areour respectful and helpful Roon’Ps whoare more than willing to take care all ofus. They gather together pretty often,sometimes just for a meal outside ordoing something bigger likepotluck/barbecued party. Being in thisgroup provides a feeling like being amember of a huge and warm family. Wecelebrated each other birthdays,Thanksgiving or even Songkran daytogether! Though we spoke Thai all thetime when we hung out with thesepeople, it was definitely worth the lovewe would never get from elsewhere when we stayed that far away from home.Thai Smakom - Eventhe name of this club is“Thai”, only a few ofpeople here can reallyspeak Thai. Most ofstudents in this club areThai students who wereborn and raised in the US.Thus, if you want tocommunicate with them,English is preferable. ThaiSmakom helds an event called “Thai Culture Night” every year. It is a playcombined with some Thai traditional shows. If you are interested inrepresenting Thailand, feel free to let them know, they would appreciate yourhelp!

UCLA Study Report 9UCLA Study Report 10DashewInternational StudentCenter - Thisorganization holdsevents for internationalstudent on regular basis.We participated in someactivities and gain someinternational friendsfrom other countriessuch as Korea,Hongkong, China, Japanand many more. There is also a buddy program called “Global SiblingProgram” which paired international student with domestic student. Byjoining this program, we have sharpened our English skill and learned someAmerican lifestyle.• Universal• Disney LandTravelOne of the best parts of being abroad is that you have an opportunity totravel to hundreds of interesting places. Our suggestion is to budget yourtime/money wisely. Go check for some special deals through various travelagents’ websites such as www.priceline.com or www.expedia.comOne day trip - Go check these places on your weekends!• Hollywood• Thai town• Santa Monica• Getty museum• Getty villa• Downtown LA• Bevery hill• Sixflags• Korean Town• City Center• Griffith Observatory• Huntington libraryOvernights Trip - If you do not know where to spend your winter/springbreak, here are some popular choices that you may want to consider!• Orlando• San Francisco• San Diego• Yosemite• Lake Tahoe• Las Vegas• Grand Canyon/ Bryce Canyon/ Antelope Canyon• Others: NYC/DC/Boston/Chicago/Mexico/Canada

UCLA Study Report 11UCLA Study Report 12Car• Hourly rental cars - If you want to rent a car for few hours or 1 days, werecommend you to use Zipcar since it charges you approximately $9.00per hour and $72.00 per day. Price includes gasoline (limited miles),insurance and no underage fee. You can applied for he membership forfree.• Daily rental cars - Normally if you rent the car in US and you are under25 years old, you have to pay underage fee approximately $25 per day.However if you rent a car from AVIS, Wilshire blvd. branch, you will beable to waived the underage fee as a UCLA student. Also, sometimeother rental car companies launch a promotion that charges no underagefee for a certain period of time.• Buy a car - if you plan to travel a lot during your stay in US. Buy asecond hand car might be an interested option since it cheaper thanoccasionally rent a car. However, before you buy a car, you must obtainCalifornia driver license first and there is a lot of documents to beprepared for buying and selling transactions.TransportationBus• Bruin bus - University operated bus has 3 lines which runs betweencampus and undergraduates dorms, campus and graduates apartments,and campus and South Wilshire Blvd. The bus is free for all UCLAstudents and faculties.• Metro - Bus to Downtown LA, which include Hollywood and Thaitown. Bus fare is $1.50 - one way, you need to prepare exact amountbecause the driver does not carry change• Big Blue Bus - Bus to Santa Monica, show Bruincard to get studentdiscount. Normally you have to pay $1.00 for the bus but if you haveBruincard, you pay only $0.30• Culver City - Bus to Culver City, show Bruincard to get studentdiscount. Fare is equal to Big Blue Bus.Contact InfoFeel free to contact us if you have any further questions. As the formerexchange students at UCLA, we are more than willing to provide you anyinformation that would facilitate your life there!Kittikiat Tantivuttikit (FB) idsara_code@hotmail.comSirikarn Asawasudsakorn(FB) karn_gelato@hotmail.com

ActivitiesThere are so many activities that you can enjoy both on and off campus. At the verybeginning of the fall quarter, there are many clubs open for students not only for academic purposebut also entertaining, socialize, religious, etc. You can just simply attend the club a couple time tosee if you like it or not. It is a very fast way to get to know local students and learn more about theirculture. Moreover, there is a John Wooden Center on campus, which offers a wide range ofrecreational activities and services such as guitar class, dance classes, Thai boxing class, etc. AlsoUCLA has a gyms that has all kinds of sports you wish to play such as basketball, yoga, batminton,etc, There are also open-air tennis courts and swimming pools.instrument, thai boxing, etc. for local students and people from somewhere else. Also, you can askfor a mentor, who can help you throughout the exchange year and give you advices. You can searchfor “Samakom Thai” group on facebook.For the holidays, there are so many things you can enjoy such as go hiking to see theHollywood sign, go to Griffith observatory center to see the stars and LA city at night, shopping atSanta Monica, visit Venice beach and see the sunset, visit famous Getty museum, visit LACMA, orrun into Hollywood stars on rodeo drive.If you are interested in arts, there are two UCLA museum namely Fowler museumand Hammer museum. Fowler museum locates in the campus and has collections of ethnographicand archaeological objects. Hammer museum is also in a walking distance from the campus and hasvery interesting exhibitions and lectures.By..Montinee ArjariyanondThere are also some crazy activities to do for only UCLA students such as undie runand screaming night. The undie run is the night that students will wear only underwear and runaround the campus because they are very stressful about their coming final exams. The screamingnight is the night before exams that students will come out from their apartment’s balcony andscream to release their stress. So if you are goingtoUCLA and couldn’t handle your stress, joy them.Jariya JaruratmongkolUCLA Exchange Student academic year 2010-2011There is a Samakom Thai, which is a club for Thai people to get to know each other.This club is very helpful if you are new to LA. You will get to meet Thai people from many places andalso Thai who were born there. The club creates events for Thai people to do something togetherevery week such as go to Wat Thai and teach Thai students, go hiking, go get something to eat, etc.There is a Thai Culture Night which all Thai people will perform thai dance, thai lakorn, thai musical