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...