hahahut

Why is it hard for "being in Orange County"?

As a current student here, I'd say Irvine is a great place to be students. I live cross from Albertsons. But in the first two years, I often got too busy to cross the street to get bread. You are likely consumed by all the reading and writing and only have a night or two to do fun stuff. There are enough fun activities on campus to fight for your attention. Once you finish your course work, you can always move to Long Beach, which is 20 mins away and feel more like a city.

UCI informatics should be pretty relaxing about coding experience. Their software engineering people definitely need code a lot. But shouldn't be too much for others.

I believe a lot of schools have ubiquitous computing people. But not sure if they only do things you can wear.

Informatics program normally won't put too much focus on programming experience as they get people from psychology, business, social science, etc. But if you happen to be in interested in very technical demanding topic, your coding background might make some difference then.

What do you want to know? I am at UC Irvine. To say the least, the on campus housing makes it very easy to settle in.

My understanding is having a SSN is not just for ID convenience. Many credit check is based on SSN. So without a SSN (and a bit credit history), it would be much harder to get credit card, contracted phone, etc.

Just go to "Mail Settings" and "ADD POP3 email account". Most email systems support POP3 and SMTP so that you can receive email using applications such as Outlook. Just look up for your university's email Help or FAQ pages. After you have the details, follow Gmail's straightforward configuration wizard. There are settings where you can make sure the address you receive the email would be used when you reply and what name to appear. I manage all my emails coming from various email providers (multiple gmail accounts, my undergraduate email account, my hotmail account) this way. It is very easy and intuitive. Give it a try and see how it goes.

I was thinking about sending some stuff. But then I found out US flights normally allow to check in two suitcases with 23kg each plus another carry on bag. That should be enough for all the essential stuff and a few books. But of course, one can't bring a bed that way.

Nothing to worry, just relax! I went to my interview on Monday morning and have received everything back in mail on Wed. It was a one-minute conversation. The visa officer started the conversation by asking what my program is. But I think she was just curious about a particular term that is not used in US widely. She highlighted the funding section on my I-20 form and said "I see it is all paid... I think I have had everything I need". So it does seem a reputable university with funding package will make the case very easy.

My photo was accepted. But yes, it looks like I do need to bring a photo just in case they have problem with the one uploaded. Wouldn't want to go back again just because of that. Thanks for the feedback!

Hi! As part of the online application (DS160) process, I have uploaded a photo, which is printed in my confirmation page. Do I need to bring another photo to the interview? Thanks for your help!

In Microsoft Academic Search, one author with the same name as mine had thousands publications! But it turned out the search just attributed the publications of all other people with the same name to him. Yes, I think the family name is what matters. But it is not really a very good thing to do at least in my culture.

How about changing one's name for identifying her/his publications from other people with the same names? I have been thinking this for a while. My name is a very popular one (both family name and given name). So popular that if you yell it on a busy street, more than ten people would ask "me?". I have seen how Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic Search confuse authors with the same name. Will this be a real problem after a few years in graduate school? If so, is it possible to publish under a weird pseudonym or is it better to change name officially (most likely just family name)?

Hi! I understand many banks in US have special packages for students, which might offer things like good reward programs or easier process in getting a credit card (it could be a bit hard for international student to get the first credit card as there is no credit history in US yet). Is there any recommendation which banks are generally good for international students? Everyone has different needs and priorities. But hopefully it can help to narrow down to only a few banks for further research. Thanks in advance!

First, we have EIGHT universities! Five schools aren't that many at all. I think everyone you ask would be fine with this. In theory, it is good to customize your SOP and LOR. But I doubt any professor actually does it (at least not mine). As everything is online now, it is pretty much just copy, minor modification, and paste for them. I did give my LOR writers a list of my schools I would apply rather than assuming they would be happy to do all of them. But none of them had problems with my list. I don't think it worth to go to US for a GMAT course. There are a lot of materials available online and in libraries. If you are still in university, their libraries should have more related studying materials. If there is a book you really want, but you cannot find in a library, you can actually request the public library to purchase. I got a book for GRE's AWA section this way through Auckland City Library.

I was told by a professor from Informatic department that there are multi round admission, which gave me the impression they could send out admit as late as the end of March. I remember seeing some rejects on the result board. So no notification might be a good things -- You might be on the waitinglist.

One of my schools has three letter status: "notified", "started", and "submitted". One of my letter writers did all other schools except that one, which showed "started" at that time. When I checked with him, he insisted he had done that school too. But a week later, he replied me again and told me he uploaded the letter but didn't submit. Apparently, some application systems have bad usability problems. Another letter writer confused two schools from the same system. But glad you had someone else to help for extra letters.

It sounds like you have at least all the skills for a basic HTML. If there are web pages whose layouts you like, you can browse it using FireFox with FireBug AddOn. It provides a good way to see how their styles are structured and all juicy details. That will help you to learn maybe 80% of the CSS tricks quite easily. That should be enough to give you rather stylish web pages.

Thank you

All fixed. They reset my application.

Thanks! I am lucky that both the department and the graduate school admission people have replied me even they are closed now. They will get the IT people to extend my expired application after the break. Fingers crossed nothing would go wrong with it.

Thanks, Strangefox! I started another application with everything ready there except LORs. So when they reopen in Jan, I can react quickly depending what the response is. The worst is to ask my recommendation writers to do this school again. But if they are still around, it shouldn't be too hard for them. I still can check that application status. So hopefully their system doesn't delete. Or at least I could link my new application with the old one. Nothing can be done until they reply me. Meanwhile, if anyone has similar experience with UC Irvine, I would appreicate you sharing with me. Thanks!

Hi all Just found out my online application for the Univerisity of California Irvine has expired. They have a 90 days expiration date after starting the application. Unforunately, I only put down the deadline in my to-do list, which is 15th Jan. I planned to finalize my SOP and submit during xmas break. I haven't paid the application. So it won't cost me anything to start a new application. However, everything except SOP has been submitted. I guess my transcript and GRE score report should be fine as they are sent against my name. But my recommendations, which all have been submitted, might be logged against the expired application (as I can see all of them in the status check system for the expired application). I have sent emails to the graduate school and the department. Both are closed for holiday until 2nd/3rd Jan. Does anyone know what they would do? Thanks!

This could be a very interesting start when you email her (might even make it easier for her to remember you)! Just start with an apology and explain your non-native speaker background makes it harder to pick up one's sex by name alone. Show you have done your extensive research on her work in the rest of the email. I don't think anyone would take it too seriously. Like mentioned above, it might have happened many times.