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| | Clothing / Weather | | |
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Clothes are expensive here. However, during Clearence Sales and during the holiday season (Thanksgiving and Christmas in particular) prices drop considerably. You would definitely be better off if you brought with you a lot of clothes. The weather in Corvallis is very pleasent and beautiful (if you like rain). It rains for the most part of the year so definitely get some good quality raincoats. Winters are pretty cold with temperatures occasionally dropping to -5 to -10 degrees C. It does snow sometimes, but not heavily. Also, it does get fairly hot in summer - as high as 25 deg. So bring along some cool comfortable cotton clothes (cotton is expensive here). For a more comprehensive weather report of Corvallis, visit the Yahoo! Weather center. A pair of ethnic wear is useful when attending ISA organized parties and functions. | | | | | Travel | | |
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Shop around for a good deal on your ticket. Try to ask more than one travel agent for deals. Find out which Airline is offering student discounts. Another important thing to remember is to carry all your documents (passport, I 20, cash and travelers cheques) on your person or as your handbaggage; these documents are everything to you from now so be careful. Do not put any cash in your check-in baggage. Incidentally, you do not need more than $100.00 in cash during your travel, with upto $4 in quarters for trolleys, phone calls et al. Carry the rest in US$ Travelers' Checks. Try to carry a set of clothes in each of your bags, in case any of your bags gets lost. A comprehensive review of the do's and dont's of internaional travel are beyond the scope of this column so definitely ask those who've travelled before or ask your travel agent to give you a run through (like boarding passes, tickets, baggage weight limit, checking the baggage through to the port of disembarkation etc).
If you have any problems during the flight (say you miss a connection, or you have to change airports), ask your airline personnel to help you. If your travel plans change as a result (say you have to travel by a different flight), you can request them to inform us (ISA) about your new plans. If you are stranded in say, New York, and want to call your friends/relatives or us, remember that long distance calls are made by dialing 1, followed by the area code and the 7-digit number. Or you can make operator-assisted calls (operators can be called from any public phone by dialing a 0). Local calls (within the same city) cost 25-50 cents each. | | | | | | | | | | | Food / Groceries / Cooking | | |
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Food is relatively cheap here. It works out cheaper if you buy in bulk. The post popular store for doing weekly groceries is WinCo. You can reach Winco by bus or take a ride from a friend who has a car. Typically it will cost around $65-$75 for a good big load of groceries to last a week (subject to the appetite levels of your roomates). Devi Indian Groceries & Spices, is the new Indian store that opened up where you can get almost any of your fovourties from Priya pickles to Maggi to the latest movies. There are also some Asian stores where you might find some interesting items. Cooking vessels are best bought here (microwaveable stuff esp), but we recommend that you get a good pressure cooker (remember to bring spare gaskets and valves) with you. If you are bringing mama's specials (like her patented brand of pickles or her magic podis/masala powders) make sure that they are properly packing and sealed (popularly reffered to as US packing) - all food that is improperly sealed will be confiscated at the US customs on arrival. Only condiments and dry ingredients are permitted into the country. The only thing that will not be available here is your mother's culinary expertise. So, before you take-off from home, learn, at least, the rudiments of cooking. Best would be to ask your mom to jot down a few easy to cook, great to eat recipes for you. Eating out on a daily basis is expensive here and can get quite boring. Within a month...no matter how bad you were at cooking before, mother necessity...will force you to cook up a reasonably good meal or two.(Rajma,Chhole and Egg burji -the staple student fare!). There is a Indian restaurant, Evergreen Indian Restaurant, that offers a very good and very reasonably priced lunch buffet ($5.95). | | | | | Text Books | | |
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The prices of text books here will pinch you, they are very expensive at the OSU Bookstore. There are other places where you can get them like the library (they only have a copy or two), or borrowing from friends. Find out from the current students here about the books and buy them in India, it will work out much cheaper. You can also buy books online for cheap.
Here is link that gives a list of books for CS, CE, EE, Mechanical, Civil, Industrial and Chemical Engg students. | | | | | | | | Driving in the US | | |
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If you already have a driver's license, bring an International Drivers License as well as your State License with you. Your Indian (and International) licenses are valid in the state of Oregon (and some other states) for a period of one year after arrival, by which time, of course, you are expected to get your US driving license. If you have not learnt driving, it may be a good idea to learn and more importantly, get lots of practice) before coming here. Public transportation is usable and the bus service is available to all OSU students free of charge. However, it may be inadequate for all your needs and you will have to start driving sooner or later; and the rules are such that it is hard to get cars to learn on. Moreover, learning in a driving school can be expensive; in fact, a single lesson here can cost more than the cost of an entire driving course in India. | | | | | Medical checkup / Medicines/ Vaccination | | |
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Have your teeth, eyes, body checked thoroughly and have any abnormalities set right before heading out. Tests/surgery of those sorts can be very expensive here, and are not covered by OSU health insurance. For example, people have spent as much as $1500 on dental check-ups and treatment alone here or better still found it more sensible to go back to India and get their teeth in shape...and still saved! Also, get extra pairs of spectacles/contact lenses. Prepare and bring along a small medicine kit (example crocin, amrutanjam etc.) to tide you through the acclimatization period. As an international student you will be required to get along with you proof of the MMR vaccination. Also get vaccined for Hep B (normally takes 6 months for 3 doses). Once you are on campus, you will be asked to take TB test, which is mandatory for all international students. | | | | | | |  |  | | Money/Finances | | |
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Bring as much money as you are permitted to -- startup expenditure can be quite high. If you are on University Fellowship, your first pay-check will arrive on September 30 itself, but other Graduate Associates will get their first pay-check only on October 31. In such a situation, you may need about $1000 - $1500 for the first two months. These expenses include intial deposit and first month's rent ($200-$500 ) + books ($100-$200) + some initial start-up purchases etc. However, since most of these costs will be shared by roomates the burden is not that much and as the term goes by expenses will be around $275-$300 per month depending upon number of roomates, rent of apartment and your life style. To list the details of all initial expenses is not possible as it varies from person to person but to be on the safe side get along $1000-$1500 apart from you tuition. | | | | | Utensils/Food items | | |
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Most graduate students cook in their apartments. So you will need all the basic stuff needed for cooking. A large (for 3-4 people) pressure cooker with spare gaskets and safety valves is probably the most important kitchen item you can get. A 3 liter one should be sufficient but you might want to consider a larger size. A few steel or non-stick vessels to cook vegetables in. There is a lot of non-stick cookware available here but it is not very cheap. Dinner plates, small plates, bowls, spoons, tumblers, knives, forks (all these either 1 or 2) cooking tongs ladles for serving, sauce pan, frying pan,strainer.Get tea/coffee if you are a regular drinker (until you shift to Beer ;) ) Get a couple of bags each of haldi, red chilly powder, garam masala, dhania powder, pickle bottles (preferably sealed ones),pav bhaji masala, biryani masala etc..etc.. Bring approx 1 month supply of masalas Some quantity of rice, dal, pulses etc. You can purchase these items from the local indian store or from Portland. | | | | | | | | Cosmetics | | |
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Shaving blades (get a good stock), brushes and toothpaste, soap (get a couple of bars of bathing soap till you go for your first groceries here),combs and hairoil, small mirror (just in case), nailcutter, small scissors, safety pin bunch, and mini-sewing kit with some buttons. | | | | | Linen | | |
| 1-2 double bed sized bed sheet. Blanket (These can be left if space/weight is a consideration). Do not get too much linen. The beds here are usually larger than the beds back home, and the bed sheets and bedspreads that you get from home fit very poorly (i.e if you buy a bed). Its better to buy these items here. | | | | | | |  | | | | Footwear | | |
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Sneakers (they are used a lot), good formal leather shoes (Not necessary, but are much cheaper in India). Chappals / sandals (Again depends on what you feel comfortable in), and 5-6 pairs of socks. | | | | | Miscellenous Information | | |
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Get a set of transcripts in case you apply all over again for a Ph.D.. BE / B.Tech. Degree Certificate (laminate it in thin plastic if possible) some of you might not have received it, so don't worry you can make do with a provisional certificate until you receive it. Get 2-3 passport-size snaps Get an address/phone diary with all important contacts Have a set of copies of visa, passport and I-20 in each piece of luggage. Get an umbrella as it rains quite frequently here Have an RBI permit ready for the dollars you are carrying on you. Take all your Hindi/other song cassettes Get a good leather wallet/purse that has several sections of 'visiting card' size. You'll need those for the bunch of credit cards/key cards/id s etc. you'll accumulate in no time here. You will definitely have 5-6 different cards in your wallet at all times Carry medical prescription for all medicines you bring If you have glasses, get a thorough eye-check-up and get 2 extra pairs of glasses. Good spectacles can cost anything upto $100. Keep passport, visa and i-20 and other admission documents in the handbag you'll carry on your shoulders all the time. Confirm your ticket a couple of days prior to the flight directly through the airlines you are flying no matter how reputed your travel agent is. Let me repeat this, get a driver's license and an IDP. Learn good driving. This is very important. You cannot live in the US unless you can drive and you have a driving license. Things you should not get: Clothes hangers (you might get a couple for starters, but they are of a different size here), electrical appliances, blank note books etc. Get all kinds of first aid medicines, with prescriptions. (actually, we never get to use them, but its good to have around.) Remember it is 110 volts ac here. So electric appliances will not work here. | | | | | | |
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