things that i wish other international students may notice when studying in America

this will be an ongoing and continuously updating thread where i take note of the thing that the student should take notice of:

(1) take notice of the major code.

some major with the same name may actually have different major codes, which impact to their STEM status

(2) Amazon Prime has a 6 month PRIME free student discount for one time only.

so if you know other student, you may want to share your Amazon Prime account.

(3) most of the apps and services is the US has referral code, when thinking of applying to something, from banking, to ecommerce, ask your friend if they have one, and get exclusive service there.

(4) don’t go to Walmart or Target for items first, check out TJ-Max or Ross Dress For Less, if you don’t find things there, next stop should be Walmart and finally Target.

(5) Black Friday and Christmas is a real thing in the US, save your money for those special occasions.

(6) if you are living off-campus and you are an Asian girl, try to avoid meal plan at all cost. It’s very likely that you it very little and the cost for meal plan can be so much more comparing to your cost for cooking at home.

(7) if you are going for graduate school, you don’t need to care that much about that school being a party school or not. graduate students are usually very focused on their academic and professional life.

(8) if you are lucky enough (like me) to live in a college town, make sure that you leverage the Facebook Marketplace or student communities for your essential/decorative stuffs. most of the students will move from college town for work and will leave a tons of things behind. i myself got several beautiful hoodies thanks to this.

(9) get a pepper spray and make sure that other people see you have one, either wearing it or always holding it firmly while travelling.

(10) the most optimized journey is first to get an on-campus job (because it’s easy), then acquired a SSN, then get a credit card, then get a driver license, and then internship/job.

(11) always get a referral for a credit card!

(12) as an international student, you basically can not win if solely applied through Linkedin, try your best go get referral – referral – referral.