Indian Graduate Students Association

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Stuff to do after u land

Hi folks,
the following document details things that you people will have to do the next few days after you land in Chicago.

A few pointers before we get onto the actual stuff, Make sure u print a copy of the UIC map and have it with you for the first few days atleast.

In US you have to know directions very well. You will hear people talking about go east 2 blocks and turn south for one block. That is quite confusing for most of us. As a rule of thumb as long as you are in campus the direction of downtown(that's where sears towers is.. I am pretty sure u cant miss that) is east. So navigate accordingly. Familiarise with the roads and stuff. The other important thing is the shuttle service. UIC runs a shuttle, a white bus that goes all over the campus. Its free to ride if u have an I-card. In the first few days u will not have an I-card, so tell the driver that u are a new student and he will let u in.

The other important thing is you need to familiarise with the building names. They are in the maps. Some of the most common buildings that you will need are mentioned here. The street intersections are inside parenthesis)

SSB - Student service building (Harrison and Racine)
has OIS, I card office and general admin offices and depts

UH - University Hall (Harrison and Morgan)
tallest building on campus, lots of LAS depts, grad college, MBA

SEL/SEO/ERF - Engg and sciences buildings (Taylor)
mostly engg/physics/chem/bio depts and labs

CCC/CIU now called SRC east and west - recreation centers (one is in Halstead and other is Wolcott)
has swimming pools, gyms, food courts

BSB - behavioral sciences building (Morgan and Harrison)
One crazy building to get lost in. Mostly LAS depts

Apart from this there r college of medicine,dentistry,pharmacy,nursing and lots more in west campus. Basically these building have GAs. So note them down properly.

Look online for the info and a link to the map is http://tigger.uic.edu/index.html/maps.shtml

Lets get down to details now

1. First thing go and eat someplace with the people who host u, or probably eat in their house if they have cooked. And then grab lots of sleep to get over with the jetlag. Most of us sleep as soon as you come, so it gets crappy and u get up at mid night when most of us would be sleeping and go without food. Don't do that. I know a lot of u people would not have slept on the plane for it would be the first time you go on a plane(atleast for most guys). Try to sleep, eat, don't drink much.

2. The first day in US if its a weekday you got a lot of things to do.
#1 go to OIS(office on international services). This is located in the SSB.
take ur originals - I20/passport/i-94(u will be given one when u land here)
fill up the forms there and they will give u details on how to go for orientation and a letter to request ur SSN. All students have a registration hold with OIS so make sure u clear it.

#2 Admissions office
its right beneath OIS, here get ur certificates verified if u have not. Make sure u get ur docs as official transcripts. If u cant get it from the university make sure u get them each sealed and attested and put in a envelope get that attested atleast from ur principal and get it.. University is better but just in case u don't have time....

#3 Immunization
this is also in SSB. Go there and get ur hold cleared.

#4 ACCC lab
This is on the same level as OIS. Basically people who have not gotten their net ID's and enterprise aids. Go there and get it. Its very simple. If u don't know how to do it ask someone for help, a desi senior would be lot better than the support staff there though.

#5 Bank
we recommend u have an account with credit union 1. There r 2 branches one in the basement of UH, other in CCC and third in AOB(find this...). They do not need ur SSN, but take ur passport with u and encash all ur TCs here for sure. And have at max 50-60$ cash with you and put the rest in the bank. There are a few things to note. Here the savaging account does not mean the same as what we have in India. The checking account is where u should put most of the money in. U can always transfer and stuff. And do make sure to request a debit card instead of an ATM card. U can use the debit card like a credit card. I guess u might have to wait until u get a SSN before u get a debit card though.

#6 Department
go to ur department and tell the grad secretary or someone in the dept office that u have come to join this year. They will have some forms for U. Fill them up.


Probably that should keep u busy for atleast half a day. Head for lunch. One of the most important thing that u should come in terms with is spending money. Of course spending 1$(45 rupees) is a lot for a single can of coke. But when u come here stop converting money. U will after a few days but until then, don't bother too much. There are a lot of places around. The CCC food court might be closed in summer, so probably head to a subway for a cheap meal or one of the numerous restaurants.. U will meet a lot of new people try to remember them. These people will be ur best friends and ur worst enemies in the following days...
friends because they might become ur roomies, ur classmates,...Enemies in the ironic sense that when one guy gets a GA the other one looses it. Its a rat on rat situation. Make the best out of it.
If you haven't given out a single resume for a GA till now, think again u lost half a day in ur hunt. So start giving out resumes asap. We hope u have prepared one by now. If not look at the sample resume online and get it done. You will all have a good printing allowance (about 150 sheets before the start of school, use it if that's over ask us, we will get u more).
Feel free to discuss abt ur resume and GA positions with any of us here, we will definitely help u with that.

By 2 or 3 days u should have all your holds cleared off your records, so its time u register some dummy course and get ur I-cards asap.

The GA hunt - start it asap. The biggest thing to do here.
The most simple way of saying this is take resumes and give it to every office on campus that is even vaguely related to UIC. Be courteous, and most imp thing is follow up. Almost every body will use email. So don't worry abt Tel numbers. And keep checking you email Avery hour. The minute u see a position opening up run and give ur resume. Ask seniors they r the best help again. If someone is leaving then go talk with them to see if that position is filled up. Look at Uic_incoming, uic announce. People post them all the time. Get into all this listservs that advertise it. Talk with people and find out where to give ur resumes.. i mean potential GA hotspots as i liked to call it last year. By the end of the first week, if you have not run out of ur print allowance u r not making any progress.

When u get some time go and apply for the SSN. Make sure after 15 days u land not until then. OIS will tell u abt it. Don't miss the new students orientation. The main one will be thru OIS, IGSA will also conduct one around Aug 10-14th. Make sure u guys come in before that.... Remember every min u loose in India ur GA probability is coming down.

OIS has a nice page on orientation. Visit www.ois.uic.edu for some good info.

we hope this doc must throw some light into what we want u guys to know abt. Most of this has been talked abt before... But read this and the information.pdf file.. And see you guys here soon...

Bon voyage.
p.s if u have not yet filled up the pickup form please do it asap. The more the time u give us to plan the better we can do it...

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Google Earth - Sightseeing

Google Earth - Sightseeing

All right time for some sight seeing... and its google time..
go over there and type in our addresses and see how the houses will look like in real.. of course they are an aerial shot but its still good.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Book List

Please visit the Book List page of IGSA website. Please note the following:

These books are here just to give you an idea of the books that have been used in the recent past to teach the courses. This list is NOT official list of books being used here.

NOTE:
1. Please talk to profs of various courses to get to know what books are going to be used in the following semester.
2. Usually the course book is announced on the first day of class.
3. Departments do not maintain any book lists. Things here dont work like they do in India.
4. Most of the Foregin author books are available in library in large numbers, but it's always better to have your own copy.

housing and what to do if u land on weekends

Hi folks,
Of late we been getting emails (a lot personal to our ID's too.. Please avoid it and worst is chat/IM..) about 2 things

1. Housing
2. What if i come during weekdays


let me clarify both ..

1. housing

# on an avg 2 people per room in individual houses
# there r 3 big apts on campus
1. TPA/medical district city apt - in bet west/east campus
a little costly than houses. Rent around 1200 for 1 bedroom (max 3 people, but 2 on lease)) and 1600$/month for 2 bedroom(max 5 people live, but 4 on lease). Nice neighborhood and has a pool, fitness center and all.. But is quite costly for what u get here.

2. MDA/i forgot the correct name. - in Oakley Blvd. kinda ok, in west campus. Cheaper than TPA

3. Presidential towers
costliest and also the best one. Its in downtown, closer to east campus. Not many desis live but its a really nice one.

apart from these there r a lot of houses. Most desis live in

carpenter/miller/Aberdeen streets ---very close to east campus
Claremont/western/Oakley - close to west campus
flournoy/laflin/Loomis/Lexington/Polk - in the middle.

the way u look for apts,
once u come here go around and see the apts. See what u like and then decide.
we will help u on that. Most juniors tend to become roomies of the people to whom they r hosted (for instance i did).

after an year u might want to have a room for urself. So plan accordingly.
typical rent in houses - 200-400$ a month+utilities(60-100$)
apts tend to be a little safer than houses for obvious reasons.

there will be lots of houses for rent with realities/real estate owners and adds on uic_incoming (look there if u find one talk with them) and all over campus..

We suggest that u keep looking for houses in the evenings and for ur GA in day time...
its a hard phase everybody ash gone thru here.. So will u.


2. Second question
what if i come on weekdays.
We never said we wont pick u . It will be difficult. Try to take flights that come a bit late in the evenings say around 4 or 5. So that we can pick u up easily. Even if u have to land in the middle of the day let us know well in advance so we can try to do it. Most probably we will let u know if we cannot pick u up(very rare). Just in case u don't see one of us give us a call once u land and we will figure out something.

hope this settles it all.

Madhu
IGSA board

Friday, June 24, 2005

New Fee Structure

Nikhil Jalgaonkar, IGSA President, posted the following on the UIC Incoming group...

"Hi all:

This is in reference to the queries posted recently regarding the fees structure in Fall 2005.
UIC has increased the Tuition and fees starting Fall 2005. The decision was made in March 2005. Those students whose I-20s were processed before that have the same fee structure as the old one(e.g $10452 per sem for Engg students) on their I-20s. Fall 2005 onwards it'll be more(for Engg students and most of the other branches it is $11,184). The exact details can be found out on the UIC website. Also people who have recently got their I-20s might have the updated details on their I-20 itself).Do take a note of this and make changes on your drafts accordingly.
Regards
Nikhil
IGSA"

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Books

Hi,
Of late we have been flooded with a lot of mails regarding the books to bring.
well we have not been able to collect that information very well. however i would like to point out a few things so that u guys can decide it urselves.

1. to start with go over to these 2 websites

http://www.uic.edu/depts/ims/classschedule/
this one has the list of courses in various dept that will be offered this fall.
http://www.uic.edu/ucat/courses/
this site has a description of the various courses that r offered. so read thru both of them and think what will be the list of possible courses that u will take.

how should u decide on the courses. grad students get credit only for 400 and 500 level courses. most engg depts have a requirement of 3 500 level courses from the dept and abt 3 more 400 level courses inside the dept on an avg.

btw if u have a nice advisor u can take even weird courses such as Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy or advanced french...


anything is possible but usually advisors will restrict u. but u can take. the point is u can take the course of study that u want to do. if u r a grad student in mech u can go ahead and
take typography no one is going to stop u.

research and try ur best to constrain urself to the courses that u will benefit ur career which is the most important.
first semester i would encourage u folks to take one 500 and atleast 2-400 level courses. try to finish ur requirements asap.

once u decide on these courses then think of books. with regard to them u can mail the prof and ask him what book he is going to use. it will usually be a costly book and most will not be available in india. even if u get it, they r usually costly. instead pick books from which u learnt ur basics. for example i would say grab grewal for math(esp engg guys u need a math book.. and esp to madras univ folks if u can get singaravelu that will be gr8 for u) just becuase u r used to using those books.

probably the main diff here is the units. u would have all along talked in kmph u come here it is mph. that kinda is freaky but u will get used to.

u could also look at course websites and see what books they used the previous semesters. it will usually be the same this year too.
http://www.uic.edu/classes/

PS not all courses will be there. but u should find a few.

to summarise
1. see those 2 websites
2. get books that cover ur fundementals
3. if possible a good calculator helps
4. mail profs for the books, they r the best bet.

pickup and accomodation

Just a remainder

fill up pickup forms asap

a few things to remember

1. we do not have a confirmation mail. if u see a confirmation page it means we got it. someone in the due course it could be 1 hour or several days but before u leave india will let u know
who will come to pick u up. Even if we dont tell u dont panic. u come down here, u can be 99.9% assured of pickup if u filled the forms atleast 2 weeks in prior.

2. please co-operate with the folks with whom u r hosted. in the comments try to specify where u r from and if u r flying in along with someone let us know. the reason we ask where u r from is to try and place u with people from the same place with seniors from the same place so they get to feel a little at home.

3. and girls dont worry u will be made to stay with girls only unless u mention that u want to stay with a guy maybe a friend or relative.

4. try to pack stuff in such a way that all ur essential dresses for a week are easily accessible, so that u need to open ur big suitcases the day u land.

5. try to arrive on weekends. if u do arrive on a weekday try coming in the evening say after 3 or 4. most of us are working and it might be a little difficult for us to pick u up if arrive in the mornings. In the worst case we will let u know.

Please have this info handy.

1. address of atleast one person.
myself/nalin/nikhil someones. and our telephone numbers. If u know the person who is going to pick u up make sure u call have his tel no and address.
in the bags for safety as a standard have one of the addresses for sure.

1. Madhu Venkatesan,
901 S Ashland Ave #310A, Chicago, IL 60607
Ph: (312)-404-7110

2. Nikhil Jalgaonkar
1516, W Taylor St Apt#2, Chicago, IL - 60607
Ph: (312)-479-0503

3. Nalin Makar
726 S Oakley Blvd, Garden Apt, Chicago IL 60612
Ph: (312)-479-8390

2. have quarters to make telephone calls. it is usually 50 cents a call.

once u r done with the security clearance part and pick ur baggage up come out straight and if u see a indian face mostly a student it will be one of us.
u can look at our faces in the igsa website just in case u know who is gonna pick u up. and if possible if u know that guy send him/her ur pic so we can spot u easily. its upto u.

3. worst case the directions from the airport.

u have two options to get out of the airport. almost most of u will arrive at o'hare. btw there is one more airport called midway but usually thye handle domestic flights.

a. take the CTA. chicago transit authority
---> take the blue line train from the airport towards the loop. if possible try to get onto to the 54/cermak trains and get down at polk. its a long ride more than 50 min. once u get down there, come out of the station and turn right and walk for 2 blocks until u hit ashland avenue. right in the corner of ashland and polk streets u will see medical district city apartments. come to the lobby and look for my name madhu in the list. before u do this try to give a call. and remember this is the worst case thing. so u need not worry but do have the directions as u never know.

b. take a taxi
---> simple thing walk out and take a taxi to any of the 3 addresses after giving us a call.

one more thing. the taxi ride will cost u about 50$ from the airport and please do not expect us to pay for it. we are doing this as a courtesy and u guys have to pay for it. if 2 of u share it u can split the cost. else be prepared. u have to tip the cabby usually 10%.

in case u loose ur baggage and u got travel insurance u can claim upto 500$ for every checked baggae so dont forget to get a claim cheque. there will be a claim counter in the terminal go there and lodge a complaint and let the guy waiting for u know abt this. give him a call.

again please fill the forms asap

Madhu
IGSA Board
http://igsa.pages.uic.edu

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Information for New Incoming Students

Hi,
Well, I just wanted to tell you all a couple of things that are being talked about/over in the last few days.

1. Net IDs
Please visit the ACCC website and goto the links under the heading "New Accounts". Here you can get to know what your netid is and how to activate it. Also, there is a link to activate the Enterprise ID which is used to access your records and registeration information.

You will also get some info at the IGSA website here.

Please understand that all this is NOT needed before you land here. If you cant figure things out, then dont worry about it.

2. Living here
We have provided information on IGSA Website about housing under the "Current Students"section. It has been done for a reason, which is, that the incoming students dont have to worry about housing till they are here in Chicago. It's no use trying to finalize an apartment etc before you land here because you might end up feeling that the place wasnt meant for you. If you know the person you plan to stay with, then please go ahead.... otherwise, stick to finding room-mates for yourself.

I am saying this because, houses and living conditions here arent the same as in India and you need to be here to decide what is the best kind of accomodation for you.

Hope this helps,
Nalin
IGSA Board

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Movie Time!! NAINA - Friday, June 17th 2005 @ 5:15 pm CIU

Hi Guys and Gals:
IGSA will be screening the movie 'NAINA' on Friday, June 17th 2005.
The details are:
Venue: Recovery Room, Student Center West (Formerly CIU)
Date: Friday, June 17th, 2005
Time: 5:15 pm sharp (Please note that the room has to be surrendered at 8:00
pm).
You can have a look at the reviews at http://www.nainathefilm.com/

Looking forward to see you all there!

Regards,
IGSA Board

Reminder to all the new incoming students

Hi,
Congrats to all those who have received their VISAs. Well, the time to leave for Chicago is getting nearer n nearer.

I just wanted to remind you all to go here and then fill up the pick up and acc form once your plans are fixed. We will need all the info on that form to help you arrival and intial few days as trouble free as possible.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Address for the DS156 and similar forms

All the new incoming students,
We have made a small change in our policy (sort of a policy). We suggest that you use OIS address or address of the department you have been admitted to. Up until now we had been suggesting you to use our (Madhu, Nikhil and my) addresses. Please keep those addresses with you for emergency cases only.

For more information on this please read goto IGSA website and/or download the information document.

Monday, June 06, 2005

Books List

I have disabled the link for Book Lists as I havent been able to gather enough information on that yet. I am waiting to get inputs from various members for making that list so that the new students have a sort of a reference when planning to buy books.