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Boston College

Spring 2019

Shuangrui Liu

BSC in Quantitative Finance

Class of 2020

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I. Monthly Activity Log

January

I studied abroad at BC with Leo and Lilly. We landed in Boston on the night of Jan 8th. The temperature

was about zero, and it suddenly rained heavily. Boston showed how harsh its winter could be. It is not

unusually to experience minus 20 degree in January and February.

I lived with Leo in an apartment 20-minute walk from BC campus because BC’s on-campus housing is

much more expensive.

I was looking forward to my campus life. BC campus was magnificent. As a catholic-affiliated

university, the architecture in BC all followed Gothic style like some grand cathedrals. During the two

orientations for exchange students, I was fortunate to meet Luis an exchange student from Ecuador who

became my best friend from my exchange.

Classes started on Jan 14th. Professors in BC were passionate about teaching, which I could tell from

the way they prepared their lectures carefully. Professors had very long office hours every week. The

workload at BC was more evenly distributed through the semester, which meant we should never only

study during exam periods. I had to work until 4am in order to finish all homework one day in my

second week. After that I would always start doing homework and writing assignments early enough.

Lilly, Leo and I had many opportunities to explore Boston. BC was 40 minutes from downtown by

subway. Boston is the oldest large city in US. We started Freedom Trail which told us the glorious role

people of Massachusetts played in American independence. We visited the inside of Massachusetts

State House near Boston Common, where we learned about how interactions between government and

the state congress shaped the welfare of Mass people.

I love my culture experiences in Boston. Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is among top ten

orchestras in the world. They sold student card for $25 which gave me access to more than ten concerts

in the season. Visiting BSO every Thursday had become my routine. Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) had

very broad collections of artworks around the world. MFA also had collections of Claude Monet, which

I personally thought was better than Monet’s collection in Metropolitan Museum in New York.

February

Spring festival was on the first week of February. Boston had a large Chinese American community,

On the new year eve, we went to the Chinese New Year Gala organized by BC Chinese Student Society

and have hot pot in China Town after that. On the fifth day of new year, my friend in BC invited me to

make dumplings in her suit at BC where a lot of other Chinese and American students joined.

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February is usually the coldest month in Boston with a lot of snows and heavy wind. A crazy wind in

February brought down the window of my room on a stormy night. Luckily, I was not there when the

window fell down. According to Thoreau however, the best way to adapt to the climate in Boston is

not to avoid it but to face it bravely in the outdoor. On a chilly weekend I took the train from North

Station to Salem with my friend Scott, a quite New England town on the Atlantic seashore in the North

of Boston. We went to see Museum of Salem Witch Trial of 1692. The history of Salem Witch Trial

suggested how fear and seduction can lead to mass hysteria even among intelligent and rational people.

On another weekend, I went ice skating on Frog Pond in Boston Common, which was the first time for

me a southern to skate on a lake.

Boston is the best city for sports in US. In February, New England Patriot won the super ball again. Red

Sox just won the 2018 world championships. Having won 17 champions, Boston Celtics is the most

successful NBA team. I went to watch Boston Celtics and enjoyed the crazy atmosphere at TD Garden.

At the same time, I had three midterms in February. The exams generally tested our understandings

with no questions designed to trick students. The most important thing to succeed in exams was to

attend the lectures, did the homework carefully and went to professors’ office hour for questions. I

found out it was more reasonable to shift workload to every week so that students could keep calm

during preparations for exam. On weekdays, I spent most of my time after class on the Third floor of

O’Neil Library preparing for my course work. Every day I went to gym in the morning and in the

evening, which was important for me to keep concentrating on my intense studies. I did not feel too

much pressure during midterms because I had studied a lot before the exam period.

March

The first week of March spring break was coming. Six QFIN students, three of us from BC and three

from University of Michigan Ann Arbor embarked our journey to Cuba. It was a great time to reunion

with old friends and explore the mysterious Cuba together. Sunshine, breeze and a bit dampness, Cuba

was in a different season, the spring. The weather was brilliant in Cuba so that I did not want to go back

to Boston during spring break.

We travelled to Havana, Trinidad and Varadero, which represented different aspects of Cuba. Havana

is capital and has the more vibrant and eclectic feeling of a big city. Trinidad together with its sugar

plantation and Baroque architecture represented the Spanish colonial era. Varadero had the best

seashore and a 20km uninterrupted beach in Caribbean. Everywhere in Cuba there is rum, Caribbean

music and very enthusiastic Cubans.

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Spanish is not a problem in getting around Cuba because Cubans were very patient when they read our

body language. Cuba society was very slow as Cubans were never hurried to do their jobs. Instead they

spent more time greeting people even with foreign travellers like us. When preparing us the mojito, our

hotel manager in Havana stopped every single moment and talked about everything from his jobs to

passions about Chinese Kung Fu. Had we not decided to stop chatting with him, he would never have

finished our mojito.

Other than being a very human society, most Cubans live a less desirable livelihood although the

economy was getting a bit better with tourism. We saw people like the hotel managers who worked

with rich foreign travellers (not us poor students) were getting wealthier than people in other sectors.

There were some unseemly and greedy parts of that development. At the government-run money

exchange, the officers cheated and seized us 100 CAD and 50 EUR secretly while they were counting.

A group of Cubans almost succeeded in misleading us to purchase cigars at very high price from a

private house. They told an interesting and convincing story about a special discount for the 500th

anniversary of Havana, which we almost believed. Those incidents could have ruined our enjoyment

of the journey and appreciation of Cuba, but I would like to thank my awesome friends who always

stayed positive about the journey and Cubans even when we felt cheated badly.

April

A good thing to study in a Catholic university like BC was that I had more holidays for Easter. From

April 12th to 22nd, I spent my Easter break in Peru for my dream trip to Machu Picchu. If you want to

take advantage of Easter and have a real big trip during the semester, do plan ahead especially

academically when you have to skip classes. Before my trip, I started my essays and homework early

enough and studied studiously for my Real Analysis exam. Luckily when I came back to school, I found

our I did not compromise the quality of my essays and exams.

I landed first in Lima and flew to Cusco the ancient capital of Inca Empire shortly. I spent two days in

Cusco walking around the city’s museums and cathedrals, visiting relics in Sacred Valley, and most

importantly adapting to the altitude in Andes Mountain Range. Cusco had many stores for quintessential

Peruvian Alpaca textiles such as blankets, ponchos and sweaters with unique patterns of Incas, which

were good souvenirs.

After two days in Cusco, I embarked my 5 days Salkantay Trail to Machu Picchu. Since I travelled

alone from Boston, I joined a local hiking group with one British and a pair of Australian couple. Our

group had two guides, two chefs and one horseman accompanying us. Salkantay Trail was named after

the sacred snow mountain Salkantay. The highest point of the trail was called Salkantay Pass at an

altitude of 4600m, which we conquered in the morning of the second day. What was special about

hiking in tropic mountain range was we got to see the drastic change of the plantations vertically. On

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the second day, we saw glacier, avalanche, and jungles within four hours, and we could even take a

picture with both the jungle and the glacier. In the first four days, we hiked about 80kms to Agus

Calientes, the town under Machu Pichu Mountain and half an hour from the heritage.

On the fifth day, I saw Machu Picchu. I had imagined how it looked like thousands of times, but at the

first glance Machu Picchu was way beyond my imagination and expectation. It was pure miracle and

beyond my ability to praise it. There are few miracles about Machu Pichu I wanted to highlight for

people to better understand it. First, it was a miracle for Incas in 14th Century to build such a grand

construction on the top of a steep mountain where rainfalls in tropic jungle could easily bring down it

by a landslide. Second, it was a miracle that Spanish never discovered Machu Pichu otherwise it would

be destroyed like other relics in Cusco region. Third, it was a miracle that Machu Pichu was

rediscovered by a Yale professor Hiram Bingham in 1911 after it was forgotten by everyone including

local Peruvians. Fourth, it was a miracle how local Peruvians in Cusco still admired Machu Picchu as

a manifestation of their Inca blood which had been marginalized in Peru a pious catholic country.

May

May was the end of this semester. At BC, the final exam week was much shorter than that in UST,

which meant everyone had tight final schedule. I spent my whole day in library during final period.

Exams like midterms were very reasonable with no tricky questions. If you really understand the

material, you should not have any problem with the final.

After the final, I had a short 3-day trip to New York with Celine. New York is more vibrant and diverse

than Boston. Celine and I were both museum lovers, so we spent most of our time at Metropolitan

Museum (MET) and Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). MET was so magnificent that it collected the

most famous oil paintings by Monet, Renoir, Matisse, and Van Gogh that I could only see in textbooks

before. I did not quite understand contemporary paintings at MOMA, but it was a must-see museum for

the sake of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

Summer finally came after a 4-month winter. Our exchange student community had a farewell lunch

together. After the final, the younger brother of my friend Luis flew from Ecuador to Boston to visit his

brother. Luis invited me to join them for a trip to downtown Boston. I finished the remaining part of

Freedom Trail with them. We walked 22km on that day. Luis an exchange student in BC for one year

had worked part-time in BC cafeteria for the entire year to save money for his brother to come to visit

him. I genuinely admire Luis who is always sincere, hardworking and caring. I hope we can reunion

soon in either China or South America.

Leo and I had a short hike near Walden Pond in Concord, 30 minutes’ drive from our home near BC.

Walden Pond was smaller than our expectation but the peaceful scene there helped me appreciate many

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parts of Thoreau’s book that I failed to understand before. There were not many tourists. It is worth

visiting if you have some interest in Thoreau and his eccentric life experiment.

I could not be more grateful to Boston and BC. If you ask me to rank my top 3 experiences in my study

abroad semester, I would say BC campus life, concerts at BSO and my trip to Peru. I spent more time

travelling, attending concerts, visiting museums and socializing with friends than my previous

semesters in UST. However, I still absorbed a lot of knowledge and wisdom from each of my course.

My study abroad semester at BC helps me be a better man: I understand I need to work hard and

meanwhile never lose sight of what I am passioned about. Only a city like Boston could teach me such

a valuable lesson with its history and art tradition. I also learn to embrace uncertainties as I became a

more independent and confident man by travelling to Cuba and Peru and coming back safely. It took

me a semester to finish Freedom Trail in Boston, but it would be a life-long journey to become a man

of genuine freedom. I wish I can continue for the remaining of my university and my entire life bestowed

with the wisdom and courage from Boston, BC, and my entire study abroad experience.

II. General Exchange Information

Visa Procedures

To apply for a F-1 Visa, an I-20 Form sponsored by BC is most critical. For spring semester exchange,

my I-20 arrived in mid-Oct. I applied online for my F-1 Visa immediately and scheduled an interview

in early Nov. Remember to bring any old passport with you especially you have old US Visa on it. The

photo which is supposed to give to the US Consulate on the interview date must be taken within six

months and strictly match the requirements on US Consulate website. The officer also asked for my

proof of fund to support my exchange expenses. I obtained a bank letter from BOC HK for 300 HKD

which certified the balance in my account. BC required a minimum balance equivalent to 12000 USD.

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Orientation Activities

There were two orientations for exchange students in spring. One was organized by Office of

International Program (OIP), and the other was organized by Office of International Students and

Scholars (OISS). The OIP one gave essential information about course enrolment, and life in BC and

Boston, whereas the OISS one was a socializing event for the IA program. I strongly recommend joining

both and actively interact with as many students as possible.

International Services and Activities

Like UST’s exchange buddy program, BC has its own IA program. Each incoming exchange student

will be matched with one BC full time student as his or her international assistant (IA). Exchange

students are free to ask their IAs any questions about BC campus life. There is another reason to join

the OISS orientation which is to meet your IA for the first time. OISS will also sell NBA and NFL

tickets to international students sometimes at a discount.

Accommodations

Exchange students in spring semester are guaranteed to have on-campus housing, which can easily cost

you 1500 USD per month. But off-campus housing is more affordable. I lived in an apartment 15

minutes’ walk from BC on Commonwealth Avenue near MBTA Chiswick Station. BC shuttle usually

take 10 mins from our apartment to BC campus. But I would not recommend students to stay off

campus unless you have a very good contract. Because most landlords prefer long-term contract, we

leased together with two fall semester exchange students and our contract expired after July 31st. We

had to work hard to find people to pick up our leases to avoid paying for June and July rents. If we did

not find people for the remaining period of our lease, we would pay almost the same as on campus

housing.

Course Registration

BC asked us to fill ten preferences for courses and would enrol us in five of our ten preferences. You

can check the result as early as you get your Agora Portal access, where you can find your enrolment

result. BC does not have a modern course swapping system like UST. Students can swap their courses

at OIP office after the OIP orientation until add-drop period. An alternative is you can add or drop

course on BC UIS for Course Registration, which can be downloaded from BC website. It has a 1980s

style interface and swapping courses is like coding. But I recommend that students should get familiar

with it and use it instead of going to OIP for swapping courses. I swapped my courses a lot through the

UIS system. It is important to notice many courses will be closed if the quota has been filled, so you

need to write to the professors if you still want to swap to such a course.

Teaching/ Assessment

Course Code Course Name Professor UST Equivalent

BSLW1021 Law I/Intro to Law O’Brien, Christine N SOSC CCC

ECON3367 American Economic Policy Kimelman, Nancy ECON Elective

MATH3320 Introduction to Analysis Orson, Patrick H MATH2033

MATH4426 Probability Wolf, Jamison B MATH2421

MFIN2250 Fixed Income Analysis Peters, Helen F FINA4303

BC class is small-sized. None of my class has more than 40 students. Professor would recommend every

student. The BC courses I had taken did not have tutorial sessions, even for math courses. Instead, all

professors had extensive office hours which many BC students came to ask questions. I would strongly

advise students to go to professors’ office hours for any questions they do not understand in class.

Professors’ handouts are not as important in teaching as in UST. Professors prefer to not go through

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their handouts but instead only highlight some important concepts or examples as supplements to

handouts. Two of my math professors never distributed their handouts, so that students must take notes

of each lecture.

Classroom discussions were highly encouraged by professors. Americans students were never afraid to

speak about their opinions even if it might sound immature. I believed Asian students should also be

more willing to participate the discussion because sometimes we had better ideas.

BC’s Finance Department has many professors with abundant industrial experiences. Prof. Helen Peters

of my Fixed Income class is a legend as a former Wall Street Banker. For most part of her lectures,

she would relate a particular class of fixed income securities with her experiences in Wall Street. I

learned important lessons about risk management, due diligence and fiduciary duty. Prof. Christine

O’Brien of Business Law Department is a caring, humorous, and organized professor. She is very

knowledgeable of business law and she always discussed cases and precedents in class, which really

improved my critical thinking. I recommend business school students to consider taking an American

business law course at BC because many topics are very relevant to the business environment and our

everyday job. Prof. Jamison Wolf of Math Department is the most passioned math professor that I have

ever seen. He could break complicated probability theories into comprehensible steps and illustrate

them with carefully crafted examples. I made a lot of progress understanding difficult concepts with his

step by step illustration.

Sports & Recreation Activities

I frequently used facilities at Plex, the BC’s gym. As Americans had a strong gym culture, you could

imagine there were more facilities in Plex so that the Plex was not as crowed as the gym in UST.

Because of the weather in Boston, tennis courts, basketball courts and even runways were parts of the

Plex. To use the facility, students should purchase a one-semester membership for 150 USD. The BC

insurance plan will reimburse 120 USD at the end of semester. OIP will send e-mail about when to mail

the request for reimbursement to the insurance company. Remember to do it as soon as you receive the

e-mail because it may take one month to receive the check.

Finance & Banking

I opened a checking account at Bank of America, which allowed me to deposit cash and wire money

from China. I would recommend to first bring a smaller amount of cash such as 2000 USD. It is safer

to transfer the rest of the money after the bank account is opened. In total 12,000 USD should be enough

for one semester not including travelling expenses. I also opened a BOA credit card which gave me

cash reward for every purchase I made. It was worth it as long as you remember to pay off your balance.

Social Clubs & Network Opportunities

There was a student club involvement fair in early February. I recommend talking to representatives of

clubs and sign up for as many clubs that interest you because it is free to join clubs. I joined Word of

Month (WoM), a public speaking club. Member of this club is supposed to give a 3-minute speech each

week. I could now confidently give a well-structured English speech without many preparations.

Many Wall Street firms have their information sessions on BC campus. As an east coast target school,

BC has many alumni in those firms. If you are looking for jobs, there are many career-oriented clubs

such as investment clubs, and consulting clubs which are good places to know about network activities.

Health & Safety

BC and its neighbourhood are safe. I can always walk back from BC to my apartment along

Commonwealth Avenue at midnight. However, I would not recommend students to do so because it

would be very cold at night.

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Exchange students are required to enrol in BC’s insurance plan provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield.

The cost of the plan in spring semester is outrageous at 1800 USD. The plan would cover many vaccines

and most costs at clinics. BC’s clinic is situated near the entrance at Commonwealth Avenue. With the

insurance coverage, it is almost free to visit a doctor there or off campus.

Exchange students are also required to fulfil BC’s immunization requirements. Don’t worry if you do

not finish all injections before the semester starts. You will be given one month to have all vaccines

injected at drugstore such as CVS, which are also covered by the insurance plan.

Food

I spent 1200 USD on BC’s optional dining plan which gave me an additional 300 USD as bonus. In

other words, I had 1500 USD in my dining plan. 1500 bucks is far from enough if you have three meals

a day on campus. Another advantage of living off-campus was that we could cook Chinese cuisine at

home. I usually prepared my breakfast at home. The taste of BC dinning as well as American food in

general was disappointing to every Asian student, not to mention it was also expensive. There are few

Asian restaurants near Cleverland Circle 10 minutes from campus. Harvard Avenue has many decent

Asian restaurants including Sichuan food. China Town has many Cantonese restaurants and Sichuan

hot pot.

Transportation

Boston has the oldest subway system in all America. That means the system, known as “T”, is very

slow. BC students have to take Green Line to downtown Boston. There are three extensions of Green

Line near BC. BC is the last stop on B-Line, which is also the slowest one. It takes about 50 mins from

BC to downtown Park Street by B-Line. Harvard Avenue where you can find many Asian restaurants

and a Chinese supermarket called ‘Hone Kong Market’ is also on the B-Line. D-Line which is the fastest,

stops at Reservoir Station. It is very convenient to take BC shuttle to Reservoir station from BC campus.

BC runs its shuttle service from 7am to midnight.

Uber or Lyft is also widely used if you do not have a car. Since it is very expensive, I only take Uber

when it is necessary, such as getting to Logan Airport with heavy luggage. It takes about 30 mins and

costs 35 USD from BC to airport by Uber of Lyft. But if it is during the rush hour or it is raining, God

bless you!

To travel to New York, students usually take bus service at South Station near downtown Boston. One

way ticket is about 30 USD. The bus to New York normally takes 4.5 hours if there is no traffic, which

is very unlikely.

Climate

Boston is famous for its chilly weather. It is very common to have minus 15 Celcius degree temperature

in January and February. It is also very windy in Boston, which makes the weather even more intolerable.

I remember that the wind brought down the window of bedroom on one night in late February. There

will also be a lot of snow in spring semester.

But don’t be scared by Boston’s winter. After two weeks, I completely adapted to the weather. I had

several outdoor activities including ice skating in Boston Common, which helped me to get used to the

temperature. You would never complain the weather being too cold after one semester in Boston.

Communication

I strongly recommend students who come for one semester exchange to purchase a pre-paid Sim card

and data plan on Taobao before departure. Students can choose the length of the service to cover entire

semester. Buying the plan in China is much cheaper than in US. Don’t choose AT&T the most dishonest

company I have ever seen if you want to work with an American operator.

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Cautionary Measures

BC is a really safe campus. If you live off campus, be sure to lock your door and windows when you

are away because there are incidents of burglary occasionally. Do not play with your phone when you

cross street near BC because cars can be very fast and watch out for the Green Line trolley. Keep

yourself warm when you walk outside in winter.

III. Items to Bring

• Passport

• I-20

• BC Vaccine and Immunization Form

• Dollar in cash (2000 USD should be enough for the first two weeks. Remaining money can be

wired to your bank account)

• Very very thick down jacket (for spring semester especially)

• T-shirts and shorts (please do more exercises indoors)

• Scarf and gloves and shoes (boots) for winter

• Electronic devices

• Adaptors

IV. Useful Links

• Agora Poral: https://services.bc.edu/commoncore/myservices.do

• Course information

https://services.bc.edu/courseinfosched/courseinfoschedHome!displayInput.action

• BC Map: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/about/maps-and-directions.html

• US Consulate (HK): https://hk.usconsulate.gov/

• MBTA (Boston subway system) Map: https://www.mbta.com/schedules/subway

V. Best Practices at BC

• Go to professor’s office hour and introduce yourself and where you are from

• Plan and study way before the deadline

• Join one or more of the BC clubs at student involvement fair for free

• Interact with exchange students from other countries

• Plan your travel and book your tickets in advance

• Visit Museum of Fine Arts for free with your BC id

• Go to concerts of Boston Symphony Orchestra with BSO college card

The end of Freedom

Trail near Bunker Hill

Monument. The road to a

genuine man of freedom

is far from over.