Graduate Studies in US: Some thoughts about school selection and a few useful tips for days just before and after the journey

The last time I wrote about the US grad study application procedures, I was yet to come to the US - I had just gone through the ordeal and was set to travel. Now, after being here for more than two years, I feel obliged to share a few of my realizations.

Choice of Location:

When you are still in your home country, it is possible that you imagine US as some homogenous entity that you see through the Hollywood lenses (or your friend's facebook gallery featuring the spectacular scenic shots). Well, even LA would fail to live up to that perception! It makes sense to do a little bit of research about the place where your prospective school (university) is located. For example, try to know if the place is hot and humid (like Austin, Texas) or, cloudy and rainy (like Seattle, Washington) or, remains under snow for 6 months a year (like Minneapolis, Minnesota). PhD is a 'test-match', to use the cliche. So, it is important to know what kind of life is in store for you. Being close to a big city, like New York, Chicago or LA will enable you avail a lot of variety in food (presence of differnt kinds of ethnic grocery stores, restaurants), entertainment (movies, concerts, theatres, museum visits, seasonal festivals, night clubs, pubs) as well as easy access to a bunch of useful facilities like foreign consulates (useful to get easy visa stampings done while you travel for conferences), public transport (can get away without needing to sit behind the wheel) or generally lower air-fare deals (you eliminate the cost of flying from your small town airport to the big transit points). But all this come with significantly more living (housing, food) cost, or difficulty in finding parking (once you have a car) or more distraction than some might not be able to cope with. Compare this with life in some very good schools in the middle of no-where, like NCSU or ND. With nothing against the wonderful little places like Raleigh or South Bend, your life can be trapped in an infinite loop of "apartment-department-advisor-budweiser". But, then again, it all depends on what kind of a person you are and what kind of a life you seek. Life is, after all, what we want to make out of it.

Piling it up - shopping shopping and more shopping!

Well, this exactly has two phases.

Phase 1 is before you pack your bags. In general, you are expected to receive tons of (conflicting!) advises regarding what to buy and take to the US. I will add my two cents here. I would discourage bringing cooking utensils from india, except perhaps a pressure cooker. This is assuming you have someone to put up with initially and who will be helping you in your initial shopping in the US (will discuss this aspect later) - otherwise, it is prudent to bring some minimal stuff like a frying pan, a stirrer or spatula, a glass, a plate, a bowl, a spoon and a fork. Some people bring lots rice, lentils, spices or even notebooks. While, it is definitely cheaper when you take the conversion ratio into account, it is better to start getting used to spend dollars as they are meant to be spent. On the contrary, I would suggest you try to figure out what courses you would be doing in your first/second semester and what are the probable text books to be used - and bring those text books along with you to the US. The low priced editions are not available here, and a book can cost from $40 to $100. If you are heading for a place in fall that is supposed to have shivering winters, you are better off not buying the winter clothing - partly because they may not look trendy enough and partly because you wouldn't know what to buy!

Phase 2 is after you are in the US. Though the initial incliniation is to buy stuff at the lowest avaiable price - refrain from it if you can (I know you have a limited supply of dollars and the payroll takes about a month to kick in). You actually save money buy paying a little extra for things that would last for 3-4 years rather than ones that need to be replaced in 6 months or a year. And yes, don't buy plastic 'microwave safe' boxes (buy pricey glass ones instead - I know you will thank me later :-)) or some oversized jacket (that you will wear only one winter) just because it was on a half price sale. Also, buy stuff only that you think you will need (make a shopping list before hand) and not because it might be useful. You will be surprised to find how fast things accumulate in the US.

As for furnitures, if you are picking up used stuff (either for free from the ones dumped beside the neighborhood gargabe bins or even buying at a throaway price from a garage sale) - be careful about bedbugs - they can steal your sleep, literally.

Shopping for bargain is compulsion for some - be carfeul to factor in the time you spend on saving the 2$ on shipping. However, spend a little bit of time reading the online reviews of the stuff you want to buy - and buying electronics online is cheaper.


Surviving

Doing a PhD in US is not only about research. If this is the first time you are staying outside your home, then you will realize it even more quickly. You need to take care of paying the various bills (rent, electricity, gas, internet, cable, water), do groceries, cook, pack lunches (having lunch everyday at school might be costly, or unappetizing or both, eventually), do your own laundry, vacuum your room, wash dishes (that always seem to pile up in the kitchen sink), clean the tiolet, remove snow from the front of your house (if not living in a managed apartment that takes care of the snow removal) and all this in the little window of time you get after doing homeworks (for a first few semesters), grading (as a TA) and research. For the un-initiated, this (i.e., modern life) can be daunting.

Despite the euphoria of having your own private life in a cozy little studio ("I can socialize through Facebook, not a big deal!"), sharing apartment with roomies seems smarter to me. You can share a few to all of the above mentioned chores (how much depends upon the amount of raaport that you have with him/her). Even when you are just sharing the apartment and nothing else, having a real person to talk to after day's labor or get someone to taste something special that you put a lot of effort to cook (cooking can be a stress-buster) does mean some thing in an otherwise lonely life. And of course, someone to fall back on when you are sick. For those who are used to having classmates (most under-grads), it is a warning that in graduate courses it is difficult to make friends. So, when you are making new friends, most probably he/she is either your labmate or roommate.

I may sound parochial here, but usually it takes time for people to get assimilated a new country, to understand the 'obvious' social interactions or appreciate the humor. On the other hand, it is always easy to find a person like you who has gone through the same phase of settling down a year or two ago. Hook up. Make friends. Seek help. Almost all schools have some sort of Indian grad students' groups (it might to difficult to gel with the undergrad south asian groups). And most of them has webstes - like our IGSSA @ Northwestern http://groups.northwestern.edu/igssa/index.htm . You will find loads of useful information, airport pick-ups (usually voluntary by someone like me or you, fater you are here), initial week's stay (when you can search for apartments) and most importantly contacts of people that you can talk to and seek advice even before coming to the US. (Don't bug them too much!)

With this truck load of information (how many bits?? - silly joke as an information theorist) if I have presented a sufficiently grim picture for you, then here is something to cheer you up - you are traveling to a new continent, on your own, will do some worth-while research, make some really special friends, go around lots of fantastic places, taste a plethora of cuisines, get to see people from all parts of the world and ultimately feel happy about the experience you have gifted your self. Get rid of the butterflies in your stomach. Now.

P.S. 1. If you are planning to come to US without a laptop and hope to buy a new one after you come - it's a bad idea. To buy a good laptop at a reasonable price, you need to search one over the net. Risk this, if you are sure you will have alternate mode of access to the internet.

P.S. 2. If you are joining in Fall and have some plans to go back home during the winter holidays, book the tickets now! deciding in October-November might mean extra few hundred dollars. If you are not going back home, plan a trip for the winter with/to some friend, relative in the US. It's a bad idea to keep the holidays for doing some research (as if you are gaining time over your 'competitor' - it's time get over those 'rat-race' ideas dude!) and spend the whole time holed up in your apartment changing nothing except your facebook status.