gonenative

So, I have decided to go with Doree Bonner. They have a £100 discount on USA removals right now http://www.doreebonner.co.uk/special-offers/view/122/100-off-removals-to-usa Andrew Boyd is the man to talk to there. Including the discount, their quote (door to door) was by far the lowest I saw including packing and delivery - less, in fact, than port-to-port rates (plus hiring vans both sides) from EuroUSA. Oh and to be clear, the author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

Who's going to that strange thing in the desert before classes start? Bonus points for F-1 holders

Well, I'm heading to Davis (near San Francisco), and I'm planning to ship about 4 cubic metres, which will cost ± £500 port-port (quote from EuroUSA). There's no way I could replace stuff for close to that. Though that's for a PhD, not a year! I've used T-Mobile PostPay when I've been there before. It's kinda pricey compared to the UK, but about the only non-contract data service that will work with a decent phone - the Virgin network is freaky, and you're pretty much tied to their (awful) phones. Also, I'd highly recommend using Caxton or one of the other FX card/transfer companies, and *not* using the ATM card and SWIFT service from your bank!!

AFAIK, you can't ship on most of the reputable services without insurance (and I probably wouldn't trust any which allowed you to). And yes, packing lists (better yet pictures) are essential! As is checking whether the insurance will actually cover replacement... If by freight shipping, you mean container (well, part of, aka groupage shipment), and if by super slow, you mean 6-12 weeks, and if by slightly dodgy you mean do things occasionally "happen at sea," then yes, that's what I'm talking about! Runonsentence, you brought back images of the river boats on the Ucayali, replete with riberenos lounging in hammocks next to barrels of gasoline...

Hi, I hope this is the right forum for this thread - mods please move it if not!! Has anyone had any experience with shipping their stuff to California - or the US in general - from the UK? I'm looking at paying Euro-USA about £100/m3, for about 4-5 cubic metres from London to their depot near Long Beach. A normal-sized Transit van is about 5.5m3, for reference - so if you have remotely nice stuff it's surprisingly economical, IF you pack and possibly drive to the depot yourself. Another firm quoted £275/m3 door to door. Uhaul hire for a van to take it, plus gas, looks like being about $4-500 for the 400-odd mile ride to Davis. Has anyone had a better deal than this? And if anyone else is starting at Davis (or any other schools around the Bay), will have a shipment coming into LB/Garden Grove this fall, and fancies sharing a larger truck, PM me!

People with more than one acceptance, and who know which school they're going to accept, have you already formally rejected the others?

I have too; however, I was told I'd been admitted, informally, on 3rd Feb. I'm about to call to ask them if this decision will include funding (still "in a holding pattern" last week); I will try to get a word on whether there are any more admits. That said, I was told they make the decisions early in order to get fellowship apps processed; deadline for these is ±5 Feb, so sadly I doubt there will be.

That really depends on the shaman

I may have been there...

If I had seen the grad handbook notes on committees (2 area, 2 topic specialists), I'd have been significantly less confident from the outset. OTOH there seem to be grad students whose projects are far enough from anything faculty are working on to suggest they interpret this quite flexibly...

Is anyone remotely optimistic about Stanford, FWIW? Since getting another offer from a department that's just a perfect fit for me, I've revised my estimate of how well I'd actually fit with Stanford's faculty. Downwards. Which means that personally I'm not optimistic, and not bothered. It's kinda weird that there are no mentions of UCSC admits - usually they admit quite a large number of people (tho few with funding, and a lot go elsewhere). I suspect they're taking very few grad students this year - I may ask a friend there to enquire...

I hope they are...you know...reading this thread

From https://www.stanford.edu/dept/anthropology/cgi-bin/web/?q=node/11 Graduate Admissions season for applications received in 2010 - 2011 academic year is now closed. Decision status will be announced via email to each applicant before 28 February 2011. Applicants offered admission must accept the offer by 15 April 2011. Offers not accepted by 15 April 2011 are voided. So, anyone hear anything yet?

UCSC rejections are out, and very to the point. They were honest about not having funding for internationals when I visited; still a little surprised (good fit, positive meetings with 2 faculty).

There are so few Stanford stats on here you'd think they never took anyone (not true; I visited and they really do have grad students). I was actually wondering if they ask people NOT to post admits here?!?!