Name: Mihajlo MilicevicYear: Junior
Sport: Men's Water Polo
Position: Utility Player
Major: Business Administration
GPA: 3.71
Aubrey Kragen (AK): You went to college for a year in Serbia, right? What made you decide to make the move out here?
Mihajlo Milicevic (MM): Well in Serbia, it's very hard to combine water polo and school together --- to play on a very high level and at the same time to have a good education. So that's the No. 1 thing. Also, I heard about USC, I knew that school and water polo were great here, and this was just a great chance for me.
AK: How had you heard about USC all the way in Serbia? Did you have friends or know someone here?
MM: I actually met Chase Koplow, who is currently on the team. He went to Serbia to practice, because Serbia is pretty good in water polo. So he was getting ready for college, and he told me about USC. He told be about Jovan [Vavic], how he's the head coach. So I got interested, and looked it up, and then we talked a little bit more about USC and everything.
AK: For a transfer student within the United States, it can be difficult to adjust to a new college. How difficult was it for you to get adjusted coming from halfway across the world?
MM: The biggest issue was the language barrier. It was hard for me in the beginning to understand, and even to talk. But once I learned English, everything else was kind of the same. Education here is a little bit different, so once I learned the system and learned how to schedule my classes, how to find the buildings, how to read the syllabus --- all the basic stuff --- everything else was easy.
AK: What was your process of learning English? Did you know much growing up or did you come here and have to pick it up?
MM: Well, before I came here, I thought I was pretty good at English, which is kind of sad. In Serbia, I started learning English since fifth grade in elementary school. But we would just study grammar and we wouldn't talk in English at all. It would be just writing, and it would be just a couple of phrases, so it wasn't that useful. So once I came here and tried to talk, it was completely different and I was confused and kind of embarrassed. I didn't want to talk that much, but then I just realized that I have to try. After a month, I think, I felt more comfortable.
AK: You started here as an economics major but you switched to business administration. What made you decide to switch?
MM: Well, my primary goal was to get in business school. The econ major was just because academically I was a junior last year, so I had to choose a major, and econ was in Dornsife, and I was undeclared in Dornsife, so that was the easiest option for me ... And then after that I applied to business school.
AK: So why is business the field you want to go into?
MM: Well, I love math, and I love problem-solving and decision-making, and I think I'm pretty good at that. So I see myself in that area, and I would like to work one day in finance. Mainly because it's very competitive, and I was an athlete my entire life, so I love to compete. And I love problem solving, so I think I could find myself in that area and just continue my lifestyle in a little bit different industry.
AK: How difficult is it to maintain such a high GPA when you're on a team that consistently has such high expectations athletically?
MM: Well, what I think in my opinion is it's not about how intelligent you are, it's not about how smart you are, it's all about organization and discipline. So, if you're very organized, even though you have a lot of things to do during the day, in the end, you will know, 'Now, I'm studying. Now, I'm going to take a break, I'm going to get ready for my practice, I'm going to class.' Or at night I know I have to finish this paper or get ready for a midterm. If you have that attitude that you know you have to do it, then it's possible.
AK: So do you schedule your day out like that? Do you have a planner where you block times out for certain things?
MM: That's weird, because I don't have a planner. That's kind of bad. But I have a planner in my head, so I basically have the entire plan for the entire week in advance. I already know that I have to study, for example, on Tuesday night ... So I kind of make a planner in my head, which I know is not good --- I have to start writing, because in the future I will forget a lot of things.
AK: Lastly, I have to ask, what are the worst pronunciations of your name you've gotten from professors?
MM: Oh yeah. I got so many. I don't understand why, but they always put a 'K,' so they will always say "Mi-Ki-Lo" or "Mi-Kay-La." I would end up with a lot of different names ... it's "Mi-Hi-Lo." So you can put it as "Me-High-Low."
