<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>I'll be pretty straight here: I am an international student [from Brazil], and have been recently admitted at UMich with plans to enrolling. </p>
<p>I have never studied at an international school and no one in my family has ever traveled abroad for academic purposes. </p>
<p>While this seems to be an adventurous scenario, it is, at the same time, risky. Imagine when everything you know about the place you are going to spend your next 4 years has come from people you've never met [in this case, my dear CC posters]. Got it?</p>
<p>Thing is: I've been admitted, but I feel insecure about what my next steps should be. Among many questions and doubts, I would like to start by asking you some very general and 'easy' ones:</p>
<p>How do dorms work? When should I pick mine? How to choose one?</p>
<p>Mind my scattered writing; I wasn't in the mood for prolixity.</p>
<p>I highly appreciate any entry on this topic so I can earn a better view of a 'college life' before diving into it (outside classroom experience).</p>
<p>Thank you for your attention!</p>
<p>my experience is almost the same as yours. never attended international schools, never left home, and none families have any advice. all we can do is follow our step and make a change.
but i didn’t get admitted yet, cuz i’m deferred from the RD. 
but i’ll never let go. best wishes for us. haha.
i couldn’t answer your questions cuz i don’t know. i would love to hear if anyone can provide any answers.</p>
<p>Sandro, you will have a very thorough international orientation that will be scheduled right before school starts (the week prior, usually) and you as an international student will also be allowed to move into your dorm early to get acclimatized to the campus and the way things are done. You will also meet a ton of people during that time and will be able to form a network for yourself. So don’t worry!</p>
<p>With respect to your housing selection, in a few months you will receive an email notice to sign up for your preferred housing. In actual practice, most freshmen don’t have a lot of control over where they are placed, so you’re just filling in priorities, eg. north campus, hill, central. There is a higher likelihood you will be placed on north campus because you are a freshmen. Slots are filled after being drawn by “lottery”. Go over to the UMich site, but go see the YouTube housing clips as they’ll show you more than the housing site. Then look at the housing rates and the meal plan rates and make sure your family is fully aware of the costs that will be due (first half) on August 31st in addition to tuition. On your preference form, you will identify whether you want a double, triple, single etc. Obviously, the single costs quite a bit more – hence the need to discuss with your family.</p>
<p>If you have your fiscal house in order (eg. family aware of tuition, residence, living costs and prepared to pay accordingly) there’s really not much else for you to do until you can sign up for your orientation IF you’re not doing a campus day visit prior. At some point, you will need to get your student visa and supply proof for immigration that your family is sufficiently solvent for you to be in the US for study. I believe the university has FAQs to assist you with this – maybe visit the site and search “international students” to see what material you can find. In addition, you may wish to discuss with your family the health care options available through the university – an additional expense that many international students forget about because they come from countries where health care is not as complex (or costly). You will definitely want to purchase health care coverage, I suspect. For example, my son was at emergency last month for a violent flu – the bill came to $3,400 from emergency and $685 for ambulance. Not pocket change.</p>
<p>To get a sense of life on campus, use the event calendar to explore different things. That will help give you a flavor. </p>
<p>Hope this gets you started thinking about the details that need to be sorted, plus the understanding that there is nothing to worry about – the school will advise you when you need to do things such as sign up for housing or register for orientation.
Best wishes!</p>
<p>Sandro congratulations on your decision! I think it was a good one!!!</p>
<p>As kmcmom says, the university will guide you through your next steps. We’ve always found them to be very organized and helpful, so once you’ve put in your deposit…they’ll tell you when to put in your preference for dorms, etc.</p>
<p>As far as preference for dorms goes, look through other threads here on CC about them. I’m only familiar with East Quad on Central Campus, which is centrally located. It houses the Residential College and I believe another Learning Community, but also other students. I think most engineering students live on North Campus near their classes, but some prefer to live on Central and take the bus to classes on North. Either way, it will be fine.</p>
<p>kmcmom13, 2forcollege and Della1993, thank you so much for your entries. I really can’t describe how grateful I am for having people as considerate as you around. I will soon start studying the dorms locations as well as health care coverage.</p>
<p>One more doubt has come up: I know May 1st is the deadline for me to answer my decision. Regardless of the ‘formal’ date, when would it be “late” and when would it be “good” for me to give them a response (I’m still waiting for some other decisions)?</p>
<p>I think it’s fine as long as you give them your decision before May 1st.</p>
<p>Sandro, in America, colleges have a governing association and set of rules to make sure the admissions process is fair. Every student has the right to wait until May 1st (mind you, don’t be late) to make an informed decision and to compare offers. Sometimes when giving scholarship money, UMich will ask for an earlier commitment. In that case, our family solved the situation by having a conversation with financial aid, paying the deposit early, but with the understanding that we would lose the $200 deposit if we canceled. You do, however, want to make sure you do NOT deposit at more than one college at the same time – that is against the rules and some schools can rescind.</p>
<p>In essence, there is no real advantage to depositing early, although every college will encourage you to do so ;)</p>
<p>kmcmom13 and 2forcollege, thank you for your advice and attention. I feel much more secure now that I know that I will have guidance to get everything ready before arriving at the school. You have answered all my questions completely, and I’m good for now. Once again, I highly appreciate your attention.</p>