Information for New Students

What-to-Bring

CLOTHES AND SHOES

  1. A heavy coat for the extremely cold winter in Philadelphia. Duck-down or any materials that's highly insulating and preferrably water-/wind- resistant. Knitted hat and gloves are also recommended. A couple of woolen sweaters to dress yourself in layers. Thick cotton or thin knitted long pants to wear under the outer pants to keep your legs warm yet not too bulky. A pair of high boots with studs for walking in snow or on ice. A light jacket for spring and fall warm days.
    It's very warm inside even in freezing weather. A t-shirt or sweater will be enough when you are indoors.
  2. At least a dozen each of underwears and socks, so that you don't have to do laundry every week. Coin-operated washer and dryer will be what most people use to clean the clothes. Hot water wash and high- temp drying tend to shrink materials especially cotton. So buy shrinkable clothes at a little larger size.
  3. Casual clothes such as jeans, khakis, t-shirts are what students wear most of the time. Bring a few good-quality ones of those, especially t-shirts, long-/short-sleeves and with/without collar. You should also bring at least 1-2 pairs of sneakers for daily wearing.
  4. There are few occasions that require formal clothes, except a formal presentation at a conference, job interviews and weddings etc. It should be enough to have a dark-colored suit/dress, some shirts, ties and matching leather shoes. (Leather shoes in US are quite expensive and usually not as good as in China. Bring a few if you prefer them over sneakers.)

KITCHEN STUFF

Mostly are available in US stores. Except for a good knife, a rolling stick (Gan3 Mian4 Zhang4), a non-electrical slow cooker.

BEDDING

1-2 sheets, 1 heavy blanket, 1 light blanket, 1-2 pillow covers A pillow is optional.

ELECTRONICS

Mostly unnecessary. Power supply in US is 110V. If you like karaoke and VCD movies, you can bring a VCD player and matching microphones. Make sure it can be powered by 110V AC. VCDs aren't easy to find on US market. Bring them from home.

SOFTWARE

Mostly unnecessary. Most Chinese softwares can be downloaded for free.

MEDICINES

Some usual drugs for cold, flu or stomache etc.

GIFTS

Small gifts for friends or advisor. Should be unique to Chinese culture or traditions.

Traveling

The first advice we would like to give you is that arriving some 10-14 days before orientation is recommendable. It will give you some time to find your apartment and discover Philadelphia and its pleasures. If you arrive earlier, your chances of finding a nice place to stay are better. Most of us needed about four full days to find decent accommodations.

Telephone

When you first come to Philly, you need to call back home as soon as possible. But at that time you may not have your own telephone or you have the telephone lines but they need several days to be activated by Verizon-- the only local phone company here, or you have the activated phone lines but have not chosen an international calling plan. We suggest you buy a calling card beforehand. The international calling cards are available at the grocery stores in China Town. Don't buy domestic calling cards, which are for calling within the United States, and are usually very expensive.

Be aware that if you have not chosen your international calling plan and call back home, it will cost you about $3 per minute.

Verizon installs all lines in Philly and it is expensive. They also charge for activating your telephone line. Choose your long distance carrier -MCI, AT&T, or SPRINT - depending on who offers better rates to China (that's where you will be calling most). The rate may change from time to time. Be aware of the time (only at the weekend, or 7 days a week) and period (for 3 or 6 months) of those international calling plans they offer you.

Be careful when dealing with long distance calling companies. Some representatives will try to trap you and you have to argue with them after you realize their cheating. Sometimes, there will be mistakes in your bills, so read the bill before you pay. One student used the calling card of one company and was charged $3.00 a minute for calling China, and spent much time to struggle with those representatives. Making a tape record while dealing with the representatives on phone is recommended or polite refuse to continue any talk which may victimize yourself. Some companies are fined heavily for such cheating behavior in the court. Making calls with a call card is more reliable by this sense.

For international call, you can also dial 1010321-011+area code(86 for China)########, which is $1.4 a minute within 10 minutes. But if you call more than 10 minutes, the rate is $0.7 per minute.

Newspapers

The Paley Library (at Main campus) offers a broad range of international newspapers.

Using mailing list and internet to help you get started.