Two and a Half Months of Exchange in the US: At UCSB

In the second semester of my junior year, I participated in the school's collaborative international visiting scholar program, UIP (University Immersion Program), studying at the University of California Santa Barbara for two and a half months, and wrote this article to simply record the journey.

First Arrival in the US, Santa Barbara

This was my first time living and studying in the United States. Arriving for the first time, to live and study alone for two and a half months, I still felt a bit uneasy. The development and convenience of the internet gave me an initial impression of this place before I arrived on the West Coast. However, online information sources are diverse and hard to distinguish between true and false; only actual experience can reveal some insights.

The journey to the destination was a direct flight from Shanghai Hongqiao to Los Angeles International Airport, totaling approximately 16 hours of flight time. To be honest, it was indeed the longest route I've ever taken (the next longest was when I went to Australia in junior high, about 12 hours, though the return journey was even longer). Upon arriving in Los Angeles, the collaborating exchange agency arranged for airport pick-up to Santa Barbara.

After arriving in Los Angeles, the drive to Santa Barbara took about 2 hours. My first impression upon arriving there was spaciousness, exceptionally spacious. Although Los Angeles is a big city, from the airport to leaving Los Angeles, I barely saw any high-density housing clusters. The main roads were very wide, often with 5 lanes in one direction for through traffic. There were many cars but it wasn't crowded, and almost all buildings had vehicle access and parking spots, making one exclaim that it truly is a 'country on wheels'. However, compared to the motor vehicle lanes, pedestrian walkways were not very convenient. Pedestrian traffic lights change independently of motor vehicle lights, and after pressing the crossing button, you often have to wait for a full cycle of motor vehicle lights before it changes (I'm not sure if this is the design, but from my experience, it certainly takes longer than in China). Moreover, many main roads basically have no pedestrian sidewalks, and some intersections only have sidewalks on two sides (if you need to cross to the other side, you have to go one intersection earlier to get to the opposite side). The saying 'can't move an inch without a car' is certainly true.

Santa Barbara is a seaside town, with nice scenery along the way.

Campus, Accommodation, and Surroundings

Two days before the semester started, I toured the teaching area of the campus. I heard that the UCSB campus is one of Santa Barbara's iconic attractions. The entire school, when viewed from above, resembles an inverted concave shape. The southeastern side is the main academic area, right by the sea, and includes the main bus stops for the region (my transportation for these two months relied on buses). The horizontal street above is the dormitory area, with accommodation on both sides of the street. The other side is essentially natural landscapes and a nature reserve (actually a large stretch of undeveloped land). If only counting the main academic facilities, the campus isn't actually very large (compared to better universities in China). The campus is beautiful; you can walk straight to the beach from the physics and engineering buildings, and many locals enjoy cycling and walking their dogs along the seaside street.

The busiest place on campus is the main walkway in front of the library, where the student union hosts various activities. Especially at noon, many students lie on the grass, sunbathing or studying. The local sunshine is excellent, and it's not hot at all (in fact, the temperature barely changed during my nearly three months here, staying around 11-23 degrees Celsius, truly a Mediterranean climate).

My dormitory area is located in the middle of the upper horizontal street, Santa Ynez. The dorms are detached apartments. One apartment building consists of 4 suites, and each suite has one living room, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. Because I specified the Asian section when booking my accommodation, I found that my roommates were all Chinese, with only one being Vietnamese (I had originally hoped for three months of intensive English practice, but now I'm mostly speaking Chinese).

Since I had neither a two-wheeler nor a four-wheeler, I had to rely on public transportation for getting around. There's no subway in this small place, but that also means buses can essentially take you everywhere. The main bus routes between the school and the dorms run approximately every 15 minutes, and since almost all routes cover both the school and Market Place stops, it's very convenient for daily travel.

Market Place is the commercial district. In the US, apart from densely populated small towns, you typically won't find the kind of 'roadside shops' we're used to; you generally have to go to specific large commercial areas. Getting on the bus from the dorm entrance, it takes less than 10 minutes to arrive. This commercial district is very large, feeling more than twice the size of most shopping complexes in China (though a large portion of it is open-air parking). Besides restaurants and McDonald's, there are also large supermarkets (Costco, Target), general merchandise supermarkets (Albertson), clothing stores, electronics stores, building material markets, cinemas, and more.

Opposite the dorms is a neighborhood (Isla Vista, or IV), which is the residential area surrounded by the university campus on the map. Besides some restaurants in the town, every May there's a beach party for all students and outsiders (which is why UCSB is known as the #1 party school in the US). I also went to observe it. Houses and yards on both sides of the road by the sea were holding various activities, and the entire street was filled with cheers from people in swimsuits (does this count as an alternative swimsuit party?). However, the atmosphere there was quite different from what an old homebody like me is used to, so I took a look, felt the vibe, and then escaped (..@_@).

Study and Classes

As described above, UCSB's library is located quite centrally within the academic area. The library is often busy, and because its location is between the main walkway and another academic building, many people pass through the central hall during breaks.

This was also my first time experiencing undergraduate courses at a US university. UCSB's major course codes are composed of "subject abbreviation + course number." For example, the computer science courses I took start with CMPSC (or CS). For the course numbers, the higher the number, the more advanced and specialized the course; generally, single-digit numbers are introductory courses, two-digit numbers are intermediate, and three-digit numbers are advanced. Considering credit transfer, I chose one course from each of the three difficulty levels to experience. According to my roommate, the first two years of undergraduate study at UCSB are essentially open enrollment, without distinguishing between so-called major students; as long as the course prerequisites are met, anyone can take them. However, to enter a specific major later on, you need to meet the major's course credit and GPA requirements. And generally, for humanities-oriented majors, or majors with more students, professors tend to be stricter with grading for their specialized courses. For instance, in Finance, UCSB's second most popular major, professors directly cap the percentage of students for each grade (meaning that even if everyone gets a so-called passing grade, the bottom 5% will still fail the course). In contrast, STEM fields are different; for my computer science courses, the average GPA for the first few quarters was basically around 3.7 out of 4.0, and most people could get an A- or higher. This gave me the impression that many Americans are reluctant to study STEM fields; many students in the CS154 course were Chinese or Indian (very good at getting scores). However, if you can get into computer science, the level is generally very high (one American TA graduate student in 154 reportedly published a journal paper with IEEE in his sophomore year).

American courses consist of a 2-hour lecture + a 50-minute section. Lectures are large classroom teachings by professors at a fixed time each week. Sections are where students can go to designated classrooms for discussions according to their own schedule, where TAs explain course and lab assignment content, or answer questions. Overall, the weekly tasks for the CS major felt relatively relaxed. The weekly labs or homework were actually quite challenging (another classmate and I often met to discuss and solve problems together, and each time we solved a problem, it was very rewarding). If we truly encountered difficulties, asking the TAs always helped resolve them.

Downtown

Although I attended classes at UCSB for three months, UCSB itself, or rather where I mostly spent my time, was not originally the true Santa Barbara. In fact, the city where UCSB is located is called Goleta, and the adjacent Santa Barbara Downtown is what's truly meant by Santa Barbara, though both are now under Santa Barbara County. It happened to be a US holiday, so I took the opportunity to visit Downtown and experience the charm of the coastal town. My writing skills are not great, so I won't attempt to describe it with insufficient language. I'll leave it to the photo album of this Santa Barbara trip.

Perhaps more updates to come......