Never been to rutgers, but attending HELP!

<p>Well im a foriegn student and was suppose to attend an upcoming orientation session but will not be able to due to passport issues.</p>

<p>I have already contacted rutgers and they basically told me I should be fine but im VERY nervous. I have been to the states numerous times but never to rutgers. (Long story why, its irrelevant though)</p>

<p>How hard will it be for me to figure out the whole bussing thing? I read somewhere that its confusing. I plan on just exploring the campus the first few days to find my classes. Im guessing I will just ask alot of strangers how to get around, is everyone friendly?</p>

<p>Do you think I will be fine?</p>

<p>[Department</a> of Transportation Services | Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey](<a href=“Parking & Transportation Services | Institutional Planning and Operations”>Parking & Transportation Services | Institutional Planning and Operations)</p>

<p>Do not worry. You will get the hang of the buses very quickly. Most new students have not really spent any amount of time at Rutgers besides orientation. </p>

<p>My son did not go to orientation but he went on the buses as soon as he could and pretended he was doing his actual schedule. This way he knew where his classes were and how far he had to walk, which bus to take back, etc.</p>

<p>The first week or two of buses will be chaotic as people work out their schedules. Everyone will be in the same position as you but you will all learn quickly. It is not hard!</p>

<p>The buses will be easy here is some quick info</p>

<p>A and H go between College ave and Busch. One goes in one directions while the other goes the other direction on busch campus. </p>

<p>B is bus from livingston to busch and back around</p>

<p>LX is from livingston to college ave</p>

<p>EE F go to cook/douglas from college ave.</p>

<p>RexB goes from cook/douglas to busch</p>

<p>RexL goes from cook/douglas to livingston</p>

<p>C is commuter bus on busch campus which goes in a circle from the stadium to ARC on busch and then back around.</p>

<p>If you don’t know where to get off and need help, ask another student. They will help you or even a bus driver except they might not know exact buildings they will know the router the best</p>

<p>Oh thank you.</p>

<p>One more thing,</p>

<p>my parents will be giving me a credit card (Im from Turkey and its not very common here) and Im just wondering how often I will use it. Also how do I pay for the food I get from the Dining halls? Is it where most kids get their food on a daily basis?</p>

<p>Oh and will rutgers send some sort of ID to me soon?</p>

<p>Thanks I know im annoying</p>

<p>You will get your ID when you get to campus; they have to take your picture (you would have gotten it at orientation).</p>

<p>Your dining plan charge is included in your term bill, if you selected one. Are you living on campus? Did you select a dining plan? </p>

<p>If you did select one and paid the fee, you just swipe your Rutgers ID to get into the dining hall. If you will be paying separately, you can pay cash or charge, or your parents can put money on your Rutgers Express (part of your Rutgers Student ID) via the internet. When it gets low, they can add money to it from another credit card. They you just swipe your ID at locations that accept RU Express (dining hall, bookstore, various places, etc) and the money will be deducted.</p>

<p>RU Express
Rutgers University Dining Services designed RU Express, the official university debit account, to be the ultimate complement to your campus lifestyle. RU Express is a debit account administered in both the Rutgers Camden and New Brunswick/Piscataway campuses. RU Express offers a convenient cash-free alternative that allows students, faculty, and staff to use their university ID card like a debit card.</p>

<p>More than 100 on-campus and off-campus locations are accessible through the swipe of your university ID card!</p>

<p><a href=“http://food.rutgers.edu/ru-express/[/url]”>http://food.rutgers.edu/ru-express/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If you’re living on-campus, you definitely have a meal plan because it’s required when you sign up for housing, so I wouldn’t worry about paying for food at the dining hall. For off-campus, RUexpress is accepted in most places, but I personally preferred to just take out money from the atm and pay with cash. Credit cards are fine too, but I know some of the smaller businesses don’t accept them and only accept cash. </p>

<p>The buses really aren’t that bad, and you can always just ask someone waiting at the bus stop which one to take. The real key is just making sure you leave enough time before class to get there by bus. There’s also a website that tracks the buses so you know exactly when they come and make it really easy to plan when to leave your dorm once you get the hang of things. Just make sure in the beginning you leave at least half an hour for busing time especially because so many people will be confused about where they’re going.</p>

<p>outside vendors usually require a 10 dollar min for credit cards. stores in the student centers have no minimum limit for cards. Also i would recommend you open up a college checkings account with Chase since all Atms on campus are Chase atms. You don’t want to get charged 2 dollars or so for everytime you look at ur balance or you withdraw money.</p>

<p>Your parents can also wire money to your account if you need it. The college checking accounts are free and have no minimum required amount needed in the bank(so essentially you can have 0$ and you wont get charged for not having a certain amount of money unless you overcharge the account).</p>

<p>If you have an iPhone or even an android phone you can get the app called RU Lost. It was a huge help for me. All you need to do is figure out the bus stops where your classes are near and it’ll give you live time of when the next bus is coming. Do not worry about the busses took me a week to figure them out. </p>

<p>From the looks of it you seem to be a freshmen, a mandatory 215 meal plan will be assigned to you which is nearly impossible to use all of. I ended up with 8 swipes at the end of the semester and I swiped constantly for friends even my ex-girlfriend.</p>

<p>Do not stress out, make sure to reach out, and get help if you are struggling. You will probably find some other students that are internationals as well. A good friend of mine is Turkish and is from Syria.</p>

<p>As far as friendliness goes you will be fine. RUmaps is another good resource for you. the location of your class can befound by clicking the 3 letter abbreviation e.g. HCK-216 and it will send you to a page discribing the building and it will give you an option to click on a map.</p>

<p>I hope the first bus he gets on is an LX and Stan the Man is the driver lol, that guy is awesome.</p>

<p>Rutgers also has a credit union onsite as well which I hear is pretty good.</p>