Two Questions (IB and Football)

<p>1) I put my major as pre-IB, if I get accepted into the IB program (that’s after sophomore year, right?) and enroll- is it mandatory to study abroad? What if I can’t afford it?</p>

<p>2) How much are season football tickets for students? When can/should I get them? :P</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I am almost positive that it is NOT mandatory to study abroad. I say this because my best friend is IB and she has never mentioned studying abroad once, even when it has come up in conversation.</p></li>
<li><p>Students cannot get season tickets. You get tickets on a game-by-game basic and it’s through a lottery that is based on loyalty points (earned by attending games)</p></li>
</ol>

<p>So is it impossible to get tickets to every home game pretty much?</p>

<p>And this is where I found the study abroad info. on there website:</p>

<p>"International Business Majors are required to complete 15 hours of international business courses, including the following:</p>

<p>Globalization and Business IBUS 310
Select at least one of the following functional courses: IBUS 401, IBUS 402, IBUS 405 or MGSC 405, ECON 303
Select at least one of the following thematic courses: IBUS 422, IBUS 423, IBUS 424
Select one of the following regional courses: IBUS 441, IBUS 442, IBUS 443, IBUS 444
Complete with a grade of C or higher four advanced courses (300 level or above) in one of the following languages: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish. Spend at least one study period in an overseas location."</p>

<p>Oh, well then yes it seems like you have to. I mean it makes sense if you’re going to major in International Business. But honestly, some of the places are cheaper than tuition at USC. And there are things called Global Exchange programs where you pay tuition to USC and then just go to the other school. So it’s the exact same/cheaper than attending school here.</p>

<p>And no, it’s not impossible. It might be difficult at first as a freshman. Sometimes, if there isn’t enough room in the student section, they’ll offer seats in the upper deck. It’s a pain, but at least you still get a seat.</p>

<p>Hey! First off, congrats on IB. I’m in the program too and I can tell you it really was the biggest draw for me to SC, being from Colorado as I am. </p>

<pre><code> Two quick things: One, is IS mandatory to study abroad if you’re in the IB program. Moore does this so that you can gain work experience overseas, and consequently, foreign language fluency. Moore wouldn’t have the best IB program in the country if their students didn’t have some knowledge of the cultural nuances and language of a foreign country. Since it is the most competitive major at USC, you also need at least a 3.5 to even apply to the major, and you have to take some prerequisite courses to be admitted to the business school, among these: ENGL 101 and 102, Math 122 (which is Calculus for business), PHIL 110 (logic), as well as ECON 221 and 222 and Accounting 225 and 226. You have until the end of Sophomore to earn C’s or better in all these classes.

Once you’re admitted to IB, you’re required to double-major in another business discipline, such as Econ, Finance, or Accounting. You’re also required to minor in a foreign language. From the languages you posted below, I’d highly recommend taking classes in a critical language, such as Russian, Mandarin, or Arabic. I learned Spanish during an exchange trip in high school, so I got lucky in that I learned a fairly-common foreign language early on. Critical language students also receive preference in the IB application process, so if you can manage a 3.5 and basic proficiency in one of them, it will pay dividends once the IB application period arrives.

Two: Getting tickets for football games isn’t nearly as hard as everyone makes it out to be. My floormates and I all got tickets to every game, and a lot of people will cancel their tickets the morning of the game if they stayed out too late on Friday so there are always tickets available on gameday. When you go to the ticket request website and are faced with a “No tickets available” message, just keep hitting refresh and eventually you’ll land one.

Thanks! Good luck, and PM me if you have any other questions.
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<p>Wow, thanks a lot.</p>

<p>Have you studied abroad yet? I somehow overlooked that before I selected my major, haha. I really hope I’d be able to afford to study abroad. Did you find that it was more/same/less expensive as attending USC (including transportation)?</p>

<p>And how much could you usually nab a football seat for, haha.</p>

<p>Also, how hard is it to get a departmental scholarship major in pre-IB after my freshman year (can you get one after your first semester?)? I figure I’ll hopefully be able to pull off a 3.8ish.</p>

<p>Also I have taken 12 APs in HS, do you think it’d be possible to graduate a year/semester early (to help my parents from paying all that extra money?). Thanks!</p>

<p>Sorry this is a lot more than 2 questions, lol.</p>

<p>Note. They might be changing the Football Ticket system this coming year, and I believe you would get student tickets for the whole season rather than for each game.</p>

<p>[Student</a> ticketing proposes reforms for 2012 athletic season](<a href=“http://www.dailygamecock.com/component/k2/item/3438-student-ticketing-proposes-reforms-for-2012-athletic-season]Student”>http://www.dailygamecock.com/component/k2/item/3438-student-ticketing-proposes-reforms-for-2012-athletic-season)</p>

<p>And it can be difficult to get tickets to the first couple of games. I didn’t get a ticket to the first game through Ticket Return, even though I went through the lottery process and did the whole midnight thing. It was the third or fourth game before I got one through the lottery. For the first few, I ended up having my mom get my tickets for me, because the USC internet was just too slow.</p>

<p>There are some cheap Study Abroad options. For example, I got this email the other day:

</p>

<p>You can also get additional scholarships for study abroad.</p>

<p>Nah, no worries. And yeah, I’m headed to Sydney this summer to do an internship with a company there. I applied for and got in to the whole program through USC, and it’s really more affordable than you might think. I’m paying $3k to go to Sydney, including airfare, which is actually cheaper than what I would pay to take summer classes in Columbia. I’m there for only two weeks, earn 3 credits, and everything is paid for, including accommodations, meals, in-country transportation, even tips. Though it should be noted that I’m in Capstone and received quite a lot of scholarship money here. So rather than sell myself on the streets of LA to pay for UCLA, I chose here instead so that I could finance study abroad stuff with the money my parents are saving. Study abroad is one of the most marketable things you can do for yourself. That’s not to say that every study abroad program will land you a stellar job offer on Wall Street though; some programs are better than others, which would be better-classified as “party abroad” rather than study abroad. Just look into which one really requires you to do something concrete in order to receive credit. Bottom line is that the $3-$4k you’ll spend to study abroad for one or two semesters is worth the work experience and adventure that it provides. It also tells future employers that you’re a risk-taker, open to foreign cultures, and well-versed in global matters. </p>

<pre><code>As far as football games go, tickets are free for USC students. Just request it online, print it out, and bring your Carolina card with you to the game to get in. You’ll also get a ton of free shirts, towels, cups, all that good stuff when you go.

To your point about the departmental scholarship opportunity, it really depends on your major. My advice would be to get involved with undergraduate research. You apply for a $1,00 grant to do research on a topic of your choice, and most kids I know who’ve done it just pocket the money as a salary of sorts if they haven’t spent it on airfare or research materials, aka, your computer, a pencil, and a few weeks writing an experiment analysis. As far as real scholarship money is concerned, just visit the study abroad office. Put in the time to write a few essays for scholarships and grants for study abroad. Many of the scholarships go unused, since not everyone has the initiative to thoughtfully apply for them.

Finally, just speaking from personal experience, I came in with 24 AP credits, which definitely helped bypass the standard freshman courses. If you know you wanna do IB though, and you have a few prerequisites to fulfill for Moore still, I’d recommend taking classes at a community college the summer between freshman and sophomore year. The academic advisers have a computer program which will match up any community college course with a USC equivalent. So long as the courses are 80% similar, they’ll accept the credits.
If you can knock out as many of the freshman general education courses as possible AND get credit for two or three of the typical sophomore classes like Accounting and Management Science (Acct 225 and MGSC 291) over the summer, you’d be well on your way to starting work for your two majors at the beginning of Sophomore year, then you can save the foreign language minor credits for a study abroad somewhere later on. A word of caution however, the sophomore classes are no cakewalk. Acct 225 kicks the hell outta a ton of students, so pad your sophomore Fall schedule with a few GPA boosters like Phys. Ed classes and the easiest classes you can find on RateMyProfs.com. That way, all you need is a C in Acct 225 and your GPA won’t suffer too much. The GPA requirement for IB only accounts for GPA up to fall semester, sophomore year. So save the harder prerequisites for 2nd semester, sophomore year. That way, if you somehow **** the bed that semester and pull a 3.0, it won’t apply towards the GPA you apply to IB with.
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<p>Dude, you’re a boss.</p>

<p>I might as well flood this thread with a few more questions and see if anyone answers lol.</p>

<p>1) What if you don’t get into the IB program, can you just pick a different business major (finance, etc) and still graduate on-time?
2) Are jobs hard to find on campus?
3) Do you think as an IB major you’re working significant;y more than other majors?</p>

<p>Jobs On Campus, I can answer.</p>

<p>If you have Work-Study, they’re super, super easy to find. I got the second one I called for and didn’t have to provide any recommendations or anything.</p>

<p>If you don’t, it is much more difficult, but there are a lot of places near campus that hire in August/September. There’s a job fair during Welcome Week. Some of the places in Five Points, the Vista, the USC area, etc. hire more people during the school year just because they have more customers during the school year and need more help. So if you want to find a job, you can probably find one within walking distance of campus if you can’t find one on campus.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer all my questions. Hopefully the fact that I’ve never had a real job doesn’t hurt my chances too much (not as if I sat on my arse all of HS, I just got all my money from grinding out online poker, though that’s no longer a viable option. Made ~17,000 in two years just playing a few hours after track each day and I still have a little in the bank).</p>

<p>Haha thanks man, I certainly try.</p>

<pre><code> To your first point, yes. If you don’t get into IB, there’s still plenty of other majors to choose from that are well-respected like Finance, Accounting, and just general Business Administration. Most students really don’t start their major classes until Junior year anways, so you’d be good. If you come out of Moore and have good internship experience, a good GPA, and a GMAT score above, say, 680, you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting into a good grad school. Most upperclassmen I’ve met in the business school have no trouble getting into good grad programs, but keep in mind it’s relevant to the region.
Lotta kids go to Charlotte or Atlanta to get the 3-5 years work experience and then they’ll gravitate towards MBA’s at Emory, Duke, Vandy, UVa, Georgetown, etc., this is just assuming that they have a good GPA and a GMAT score of at least 680, but above 700 would obviously serve you a bit better. The further North you go for MBA’s at, say, NYU, Columbia, or Harvard, the tougher and tougher it gets, thus you’ll need a higher GPA (at or near 4.0 in your major) and a GMAT score definitely above 700 to be in the hunt for admission. You’ll hear time and again about Moore’s grad programs, but being from out of state, it’d definitely be smarter to invest in that “brand name” for grad school. It’ll cost more, sure. But with the money you save at SC, you’ll at least be able to keep your head above water. Everyone knows the “brand name” MBA’s are brand names for a reason; higher starting salaries, job prospects in more bustling urban locales, and stronger connections. Moore is good, don’t get me wrong, but if you wanna live and work outside the Southeast, it’s better to invest in an MBA with a stronger reputation nationwide.
Finally, as far as workload goes, I wouldn’t say that I’m swamped with work. Plenty of kids in the Nursing and Pharmacy schools have what seems like unreal amounts of work compared to IB. That said, it is a high-pressure situation to be IB. You absolutely MUST maintain a 3.5 or higher, and coming from far away, it’s definitely daunting, especially when you come into the Sophomore level classes and Logic. The majority of my homework comes from my Arabic class, which is only level 122 (basic proficiency). Not that you shouldn’t expect that with language classes though; after all, you only learn by doing it over and over again every night. I’d say, as long as you have a decent amount of self-motivation and keep your aspirations for IB in the back of your mind at all times- yes, even when you’re deciding whether to study for a morning quiz or go out to $1 pitcher night at the Village Idiot- you should be fine. I’d qualify myself as an above average to exceptional student, especially when it comes to English, and thus far, I’ve not felt particularly overwhelmed in the slightest.
Plus, having that constant pressure to succeed will do wonders for your schoolwork. Put in the time, and I guarantee, it will pay off. Treat your freshman year and first semester of sophomore year as a marathon: you’ll be sick, you won’t want to study, you’ll be tired, hungover, sore, the works. But if 1.5 years can determine whether or not you get into the #1 IB program in the country, well **** me, it definitely seems worth it.
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<p>hr, that was the best explaination of a college experiance and advice that I have ever seen.</p>

<p>Thanks for posting that.</p>

<p>I love you hrfalcons my man</p>

<p>Thanks bros. Figured this site needs someone who actually deals with the real world and isn’t as focused on being an elitist snob. Why people who get tons of scholarship money to USC and yet still choose not to come is beyond me. Like I said, I could’ve gone to UCLA, where I would be paying a small fortune to shelter myself from the real world for four more years in a nearly-bankrupt state university system. I’m sure you’ll both agree with me that nothing says, “COLLEGE!” like stumbling ****-drunk into Grilled Teryaki on a Friday night (since you’ve done well on your morning tests and can afford to cut loose a little bit), feasting on a $5 plate of fried rice, chicken, and shrimp sauce, and then continuing the festivities at Pav’s before passing out on your dorm room floor at 4am.
Believe me, I’m not saying that a school’s reputation doesn’t matter. If you go to the local ITT-Tech, odds are you won’t be CEO of a Fortune 500 anytime soon. At the same time, as long as your school is well-known and you do well, you’re just as well-off graduating with money in your pocket than you would be blowing your life savings on a prestigious undergrad.
If anyone has any other questions on USC, feel free to PM me. My Econ professor is currently rambling about how being a prostitute doesn’t contribute to unemployment rates and I’ve pulled an all-nighter to finish an analysis paper on conventions of love and marriage in the Regency period…</p>