Life at graduate school can be difficult, especially when you are surrounded by a completely unfamiliar culture and people are talking in your secondary language! This section aims at outlining the possible challenges international students might face and provides useful tips for a smooth transition to life here at UMD.
Materials in this section will also touch on topics that have been elaborated on in other sections but focus more on international students’ perspectives. Though we make no assumption of the origin of the reader, some policies and cultural issues differ from nation to nation. For nation-specific details, links and resources will be provided.
Contents
People without permanent U.S. residency will usually need a visa to pursue academic studies in this country. At UMD, the office in charge of all immigration affairs is ISSS. After receiving an offer letter from the Physics department, international students will receive detailed instructions on getting a visa (including video training and a whole bunch of paperwork).
That being said, for a lot of students, it is far from trivial to secure a visa. Depending on the nationality of the student and the nature of his/her research background, the visa officer might decide to put the student on “administrative processing”, which in most cases amounts to a security clearance/ background check. So far, according to information available to the authors, this is particularly an issue for students from China. The length of this background check varies case by case, with most of the cases cleared within 4-8 weeks. But there are also people who waited for months or even never get a visa.
A general suggestion is to go to the visa interview as early as possible, and always get mentally prepared for all sorts of outcomes. Keep in mind that this is a bureaucratic business: all factors like holiday seasons and big political events (elections, government shutdown) will play a role in the delay it incurs.
The Physics department is very supportive in accommodating students with visa issues, so it is important to keep in touch with the department (Josiland) and keep them updated on one’s visa situation. However, the role the department can play is very limited. They may defer one’s admission to win more time for the visa process to complete, but getting paid without entering the U.S. is not legally possible.
Unfortunately, there will always be a few poor ones that never get a visa (although the chance is very small). But one’s academic career doesn’t end or become less competitive just because he couldn’t receive a U.S. degree. An international student who got an offer from UMD would almost definitely be able to get admission to prestigious universities from other continents. The world is vast, and it is critical to keep a broad vision.
(Note: Other than ISSS, GradComm can also help incoming international students connect to students from the same nation in the program, who might provide practical advice for going through the visa process. Please feel free to reach out to us!)
Even after getting a visa and entering the U.S., one still needs to fulfill certain duties to maintain their legal status of residing in this country. Most students live on their F-1 or J-1 visas. For these visa categories, unauthorized off-campus employment (or starting a self-employed small business) is usually strictly prohibited. Employments of this kind usually not only involve violations of one’s visa status but also constitute tax evasion, and would result in revocation of one’s visa, deportation, and make acquiring U.S. permanent residency almost impossible, if getting caught by law enforcement. If you encounter a sudden financial emergency, talk to the department and ISSS! The Student Crisis Fund of the university also provides relief in some situations. However, it is always encouraged to have insurance and savings readily available to minimize the impact of this sort.
Takeaways:
The university agency in charge of all immigration affairs is ISSS.
Depending on the nation and background, getting a visa could be non-trivial.
The part that causes the most delay is usually the “administrative processing”, namely a background check. This delay is usually 4-8 weeks but can be significantly longer, depending on the way the U.S. government works.
It is highly recommended to go to the visa interview as early as possible.
If one encounters visa delays, talk to the department and keep them updated!
Be prepared for the worst-case scenario. Keep an open mind about positions in other countries.
Obey U.S. immigration laws after entering the U.S.
Getting a social security number, or SSN, will be necessary for many legal and financial purposes. These steps should help clarify the process a bit.
Step 1: Arrive in America. You can only apply for a SSN 10 days after you enter the country. However, you can do steps 2 and 3 while waiting for this 10-day period to end.
Step 2: Go to the payroll office at UMD to set up your payroll. The university will issue you a temporary SSN for this purpose.
Step 3: Prepare the SSN documents as stated in https://globalmaryland.umd.edu/offices/international-student-scholar-services/social-security
* NOTE: The SSN application form is not needed if you have scheduled an appointment online (See step 4).
* NOTE: You don't actually need the ISSS letter. Request a SSN letter when you visit the payroll office in step 2. This suffices.
Step 4: After 10 days, go to https://www.ssa.gov/number-card and click "Request a Social Security Number." Once you complete this online form, they will direct you to schedule an appointment online.
* NOTE: You can skip this step and simply walk into your local social security office bringing the prepared documents in step 3. However, be prepared to wait as lines are usually quite long.
Step 5: Once your appointment is confirmed. Go down to the social security office at your allocated time.
Step 6: Your social security card should be delivered by mail within a week.
Most international students don’t speak English as their mother tongue. Learning and speaking a foreign language is hard! Being admitted to our program usually means you achieved a satisfying TOEFL/GRE test score. However, once you really come to this place, you will quickly notice the material you have learned is far from adequate in daily communication. The difficulties you may face are multifront.
First, most English that students learned back home targets academic setups like lectures, not daily conversations, whose range of vocabulary is different and speed can be a lot faster. Second, the U.S. is a diverse country with people that are from all cultural backgrounds who speak all kinds of English. At College Park, there is a sizeable Hispanic and African American workforce. Their English accents are different from the textbook English people used to study. Chances of speaking to them are also huge: in restaurants, barber shops, grocery stores, university administrations, etc. For students doing TA, talking to undergraduates is part of their daily job. Undergraduates' very fast speech together with the usage of Internet slang (and terminologies of American football) could also be very daunting at first.
Language and communication difficulties can pose significant pressure on international students throughout their entire study in our program, and lead to mental health issues in some cases. A general line of advice is: do not be afraid to speak! Feeling frustrated and embarrassed is common even for people staying here for years, but there is no other efficient way to conquer the language barrier without persistently practicing. Watch pronunciation tutorials on YouTube. Go to the social events held by GradComm and Mental Health Task Force, and mingle with people there! On the other hand, confining oneself to his familiar cultural circle, avoiding chatting with other native speakers, or using Doordash instead of going to restaurants will never improve his proficiency. It is the same spirit as physics research: try and fail, but never fail to try.
There are also university resources for international students to practice their communication skills. The International Coffee Hour of ISSS is a valuable place to go. English Conversational Partners Program is a more organized language but requires more time commitment throughout one semester. For getting used to a specific accent and speaking to a specific ethnic group, various cultural groups could sometimes be a source.
In addition, for help with written English for academic and professional work, the Graduate School offers an English Editing for International Students service for free! See this page for more information.
Takeaways:
English communication is, in general, hard for non-native speakers. Different accents, speed of the speech and vocabulary/cultural context involved, etc. all make it difficult.
There is no better way to improve other than persistently trying and practicing.
Frustration and embarrassment are common and won't completely disappear even after living here for years. It’s important to learn to accept them.
The university offers a variety of resources to help international students practice and gain more confidence.
Housing has been covered in previous sections. But what usually got overlooked is the profound difference in living styles between the U.S. and other countries. One should be aware that: most parts of the U.S., or College Park at least, are not cities. One should not expect to see organized community blocks with high-rise apartment buildings, and ubiquitous food stalls, restaurants, etc. What you get instead is townhouses sitting in a forest with no business establishments in a radius of a few kilometers (by the way, people use miles instead of kilometers here). You do get apartment blocks here as well, but usually, the locations are also not convenient (there are apartments in College Park downtown but people don’t usually live there due to their forbidden rental price).
To detail the differences between these two different types of places to live (house or apartment):
Living in a house means sharing space with a few people (usually 4-6 people). You have your room but need to use a common bathroom and cook in a common kitchen. As a result, living in a house is usually cheaper.
Apartments have different floor plans like 2B1B (2 bedrooms + 1 bathroom + living room), 2B2B, and studio (1B1B without living room). Prices vary but are usually more expensive (even with roommates) than living in a house.
Houses are usually owned by individual landlords whereas apartments are managed by management companies. The style of services can be totally different. Most management companies are terrible. Individual landlords can be nice or harsh, diligent or non-responsive.
One challenge of living in a house is dealing with roommates, whereas for an apartment that becomes dealing with your neighbors. Roommates in a house can be more controllable (likely around the same age, or from the same culture, and don’t usually have kids) whereas neighbors can be more random.
Finding a place to live can be very stressful. The biggest reason is most landlords only sign one-year leases. A lease is a legally binding contract. Breaking the lease usually comes with hefty financial consequences. Living in a less-than-ideal place can deteriorate one’s mental health situation drastically, especially for international students.
The first thing to keep in mind is: the U.S. is a diverse country, and there is a tendency for people from the same ethnicity to live together. As a result, the appearance of College Park and other cities nearby, like Adelphi and Greenbelt differs vastly. These differences generally manifest as the degree of economic development, the genre of the restaurants and grocery stores, the dominant language being spoken, and also the safety situation. It is very important to know about the vibe of the region before deciding on moving into a place there, be it a house or an apartment.
When examining a property, hygiene would be a critical metric to keep an eye on. How organized the trash dumping sites are, the presence of beer bottles and bugs in the hallway, and things like these tell you the quality of the property and that of the people living on the property. Usually, old properties have very little chance of not having rodent problems. According to empirical evidence, seeing cockroaches crawling in the kitchen will greatly diminish the will of going back home.
Transportation is also a prime consideration. Driving is the way of transportation in the U.S., but International students don’t usually have a car immediately, so the means of transportation rely heavily on walking, biking, or public transportation. The biggest bus network in the D.C. region is the MetroBus which connects communities and metro stations. The university also runs its own UM-Shuttle service that spans College Park and nearby cities. MetroBus runs on full schedule during weekdays, reduced schedule on Saturday, and even more reduced schedule on Sunday. UM-Shuttle follows the same plus it ceases running during the summer/winter break. MetroBus operates more frequently (every 15-20 min), whereas UM-Shuttle obeys the schedule better (very frequently, a “scheduled” MetroBus will never arrive). It would be good to live near one or two bus stations.
Biking is also popular but the College Park-featured terrain demands a lot of muscle strength. Looking at the Euclidean distance from point to point alone could be deceiving and lethal. Here’s a tip: Google Maps can show the elevation profile when planning bike routes and is proved to be very helpful. Most of the buses here have bike racks installed, which enables combining biking and other means of transportation.
Renter insurance might not be very universal in other countries but is popular here. They cover your property and liability as a renter (in case your neighbor sues you) and bail you out if your place ends up in a lost-of-use situation (bursting pipes, falling ceilings, etc.). The price is usually $10 per month. It’s recommended to get one, especially if you worry about the safety of your community.
Sources of housing information have been introduced in previous sections. The way College Park’s rental property market works is: summer is a hot season for moving in, and people usually sign the lease between May and June. This puts international students at a unique disadvantage: their visa status prevents them from entering the U.S. before late July. However, starting a property inspection at that time would be too late. Remote inspection/ having friends here to inspect on your behalf could work but may not be feasible in all cases. In light of this, the safest option is actually the housing ads sent out by Josiland and posted on the physics grad student Slack channels (assuming physics grad students are more likely to be kind people). A good portion of international students regards their first-year living experience as sub-optimal, if not terrible. On top of acting with extra vigilance, a more practical piece of advice would be: to sign a short lease if possible and vigorously look for better options once arriving in Maryland.
Takeaways:
There are usually two types of living options: apartments or houses.
Leases are usually one-year long.
Living in houses is usually cheaper than living in apartments.
In a house, one needs to deal with roommates. In an apartment, one needs to deal with neighbors.
Apartments are usually managed by terrible management companies. The landlords of houses can have very different personalities.
The location of the property is important. The demography and economy there will greatly shape one’s living experience.
Pay extra attention to the hygiene of properties when examining on-site.
It is good to live close to bus stops.
Biking can be hard due to the mountainous terrain here in College Park.
Renter insurance is useful.
Be aware of the mismatch between the hot season of the rental market and the general arrival time of international students.
Getting paid is one of the biggest things to graduate students that happens every two weeks. People on the list of getting paid are said to be on the “payroll”. Students on a TA/RA get paid from the State of Maryland Payroll. This is because UMD is a state school and we are, technically speaking, “state employees”.
But you don’t have to really go to the Central Payroll Bureau in Annapolis to get your payroll paperwork done. The university has a payroll office and each department also has its payroll agents. In our department, the payroll agent is Dannielle Watkins. You will be receiving a lot of emails from her before the semester starts. As international students, you will also receive information from Cara Diggs, the coordinator in charge of non-resident aliens (will be covered later) from the University Payroll Services.
The way the payroll system here works is: one will get paid every two weeks (biweekly). It can come in two forms: checks or direct deposit. At the very beginning, when one hasn’t set up the direct deposit, the department will distribute checks to him/her by default. In order to cash the check, one can take the check to the bank, or to some of the ATMs that have a check deposit function, or, for most of the banks, use their mobile app to take a picture of your check. All checks have to be endorsed before depositing, which essentially means writing “For deposit only at [the name of the bank]” and one’s signature on the back of the check. Or if depositing through the mobile app, some banks request one to write “For mobile deposit only at [the name of the bank]”.
Using checks can be tedious and annoying, so one may want to set up the direct deposit as quickly as possible. Direct deposit means the State is going to directly transfer your pay into the bank account you provided. For the first time one sets up direct deposit, he/she must fill in a form and send it to the Central Payroll Bureau. But this can be done with the help of the department payroll agent (Dannielle). It takes a few weeks (if not months) for the State to verify your bank account and set up your direct deposit. Before it is done, one has no other choice than to receive checks.
It is strongly recommended to register an account at the Payroll Online Service Center (POSC), a website of the Central Payroll Bureau that allows one to view his paystub and update one’s direct deposit information (but for the first time, one has to send in the paper form).
While one is filling in the payroll paperwork, a field that appears very frequently is the Social Security Number (SSN). That is something conceptually similar to the identification number on one’s national ID card in other countries that can be used to uniquely identify a person. This number is very important and will be everywhere when doing anything finance-related and filing taxes. It is advisable to apply for one as soon as possible. This webpage from ISSS carries all the necessary procedures for applying for an SSN. Before one gets a real SSN, the payroll office will assign him a placeholder SSN for bookkeeping purposes. It has no other uses outside the payroll system.
One thing that is strongly correlated with payroll is taxation. Technically, the stipend a graduate student gets is considered to be “compensation for labor or personal services” and is subject to income tax. There is also a FICA tax but most international students are exempted from it for the first five years. Every employer is required to “withhold” a portion of the employees’ salaries and pay that to the tax agencies. The income tax is divided into the federal income tax and the state income tax and the two different taxes are withheld separately from the biweekly pay. One also needs to fill in the federal and state withholding forms (W4 and MW507) every year.
However, withholding is not the full story of paying taxes. Around the April of every year, we are all supposed to file a tax report that details how much we earn and how much tax we should pay to the federal and state governments (called filing a Tax Return). Weirdly enough, in this country, it is not the responsibility of the government to calculate how much tax one needs to pay, but the duty of every individual to pay the right amount of tax! Anyway, there will be three possibilities after one finishes his tax calculation: 1. the employer has withheld exactly the right amount of tax he/she needs to pay, but this is very unlikely to happen; 2. the withheld amount falls short of the exact amount he/she needs to pay; 3. The withheld amount is larger than the amount he/she should pay. For the latter two cases, one needs to send a check to the tax agencies or receive a refund. If one asks around, many people will try to persuade him/her that the tax law in this country is hyper-complicated and nobody can figure it out. The truth is, complicated as the tax law can be, it is still manageable for international students like us who only have a single source of income and don’t have properties and investments. There is a lot of commercial software that calculates the tax and fills in all the forms for you with a fee, and the Business department of the university also provides a free tax filing service TerpTax run by student volunteers. If one doesn’t want to waste his time reading and understanding the rules and knocking on the buttons on a calculator, they are the go-to options.
In general, international students need to pay more taxes than domestic students. This is because international students don’t enjoy the “standard deduction” during their first five years in this country when they are still considered to be Non-Resident Aliens (NRA). The standard deduction is an amount (~$13,000) that one can deduct from their taxable income when doing tax calculations, and it will reduce the amount of tax to pay. Other than that, there is also something called “itemized deductions”, where one lists eligible expenditures (like education and healthcare, etc.) that can be deducted from the taxable income. To make it worse, for international students, “education expense” doesn’t count toward their itemized deductions. The result is that available deductions are very little. This miserable situation will not change until the fifth year of studying in the U.S. (and satisfying other conditions) when one’s taxation status gets converted into the Resident Alien (RA).
However, international students have “tax treaties”. Tax treaties are treaties signed between countries that reduce the tax collected from their nationals on a reciprocal basis. For example, the China-U.S. Tax Treaty Article 20 exempts (a) the first $5000 of a Chinese student’s taxable income and (b) all fellowships and scholarships he receives from being taxed, and the India-U.S. Tax Treaty Article 21 allows Indian students to take standard deductions. Usually, when entering information into the Glacier system (the one used by the university to determine one’s RA/NRA status and handle NRA tax paperwork), it will automatically prompt up available tax treaties. One can always list tax treaties in his tax returns and request the government for a tax refund, but the most ideal situation is to let the university not withhold that amount from one’s pay. Cara Diggs will send out emails instructing NRAs on how to make that happen. Remember: only students with an SSN can stop the tax treaties-exempted amount from being withheld. So, get an SSN as soon as possible! What’s more, one can’t count on tax software and student volunteers to get tax treaties with all countries right. It is better to learn all the information and file taxes by oneself after he/she is familiar enough with this system. That being said, it is still recommended to get help from TerpTax or other places in the first year and try to file taxes by yourself in the second year. The reward would be probably a few hundred dollars more on your refund check.
Takeaways:
TA/RAs get paid by the State of Maryland Payroll because, technically, they are considered state employees.
The State of Maryland pays biweekly through a check or direct deposit. One needs a bank account to set up direct deposit.
Pay stubs can be viewed on POSC.
One should get an SSN as soon as possible after arriving here.
Taxes will be withheld (and insurance expenses will be deducted) from one’s pay, which results in smaller take-home pay.
Every April, people need to file their Tax Returns to the federal and state government. This can be done by hand, by commercial software, or with the help of volunteers like TerpTax.
International students are considered NRA (Non-Resident Alien) in the first five years and don’t enjoy standard deduction until they become RA (Resident Alien) after the fifth year.
There are a lot of tax treaties between countries and the U.S. that can usually help international students pay less tax.
Finance services in this country can be complicated, but it basically boils down to how you pay others and how others pay you. The U.S. is a highly cashless society, where people mostly put money in bank accounts and rely on banks to move money back and forth. On the bank account level, transactions between accounts are done with the help of inter-bank mechanisms (e.g. Automatic Clearance House, ACH, or “Wire”). Whereas at “points of purchase” (e.g. grocery stores and restaurants), people usually use “cards” to pay for items or services. A “card” is a token issued by a bank that is associated with one of the payment service providers (Visa, Mastercard, etc.). When one swipes his card, the information on the card is verified with the bank through the network of the payment service provider, who subsequently processes the transaction.
However, in stark contrast to the highly digitalized cashless system, old-fashioned payment methods still have a very strong root here. The use of “checks” is prevalent. In some cases, people also use “money orders”, which is essentially a coupon with a specific value you can purchase at post offices and some convenience stores, and the people who receive this money order can redeem the money from its issuer.
For most international students, one of the most important things to do after arriving in the U.S. is to open a bank account. There are in general two types of bank accounts: Checking accounts and Saving accounts. The biggest difference between these two accounts is: most checking accounts don’t generate interest while saving accounts usually do. In the past, there was a withdrawal limitation for saving accounts (at most 6 times free withdrawal every month) required by law. However, since 2020, this rule has been canceled and one can have unlimited withdrawals on a savings account every month, which blurred the line between these two accounts.
There are a lot of banks in the U.S. The most famous ones include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, etc. These banks usually have a very large network of branches and ATMs, but sometimes the service charges can be high. There are also “online banks” that offer cheaper services and better interest rates, like Discover, Alloy, etc. But the biggest disadvantage is they usually have very limited physical branches. For newcomers, the big names are usually the safer options. After getting familiar with the bank systems here, one can gradually start to explore more.
One common caveat for international students is: most banks need a physical address to send the “card” to you. But it is very likely that one hasn’t found a permanent place to live when opening a bank account. In this case, it is strongly recommended to send the card to the physics department at the following address:
DEPT. OF PHYSICS, UNIV. OF MARYLAND
COLLEGE PARK MD 20742-0001
Incoming mail to this address will end up in the loading dock at the Toll building.
When using your bank card to pay in a restaurant, you may be asked whether it is a debit card or a credit card. The card associated with your checking/saving account is a debit card. On the other hand, credit cards are a different type of bank account, from which one essentially borrows money to pay for whatever they purchase, and repay the balance on the account every month. It may sound very weird: why do I want to borrow money to purchase things if I have money in my checking/saving account? But on the other hand, one may quickly be shocked by people’s passion for credit cards- everyone is struck by dozens of credit card ads every month. A lot of credit cards greet customers with a generous open account cash bonus (up to a few hundred dollars) and give “cashback” (usually 1~5%) for purchases made with credit cards. These are probably the biggest motivations for international students to use credit cards. However, banks don’t issue credit cards to everyone. They perform a credit check on every applicant and determine whether to accept or deny their applications. Usually, international students new to this country have no credit record, thus credit card options for them are very limited.
Of course, banks don’t do charity by sending free bonuses to you. They profit from the interest incurred on people’s credit card debt. If one didn’t pay the full account balance by the due day, the banks would start to charge interest on the unpaid balance. This interest rate is usually very high (15~25% per year, called Annual Percentage Yield). Failures to pay debts and bills will be reflected on one’s credit record and affect his chance to get new credit cards and apply for loans, etc. It is shocking to see that a large percentage of Americans are struggling with credit debt.
At the very beginning of one’s life here, it is fairly common for his/her family to send some “startup capital” to cover the living expenses of the first few weeks. The way to conduct international transfers is usually through the famous SWIFT system. After opening the account, one will get a SWIFT routing number for the bank, and an account number for his account. These are usually all it needs to initiate an international transfer from banks in one’s home country. This service is not very cheap. The bank in the U.S. will usually charge a flat fee for receiving the money, while the bank that initiates the transfer will also charge a fee. In general, the more money one transfers at a time, the better cost-effectiveness he/she can get. For students from U.S.-sanctioned countries, using SWIFT might not be possible, or requires significantly more effort.
Takeaways:
Most of the transactions in the U.S. are done through the digital systems of banks, and it is important to open a bank account.
That being said, old-fashioned methods like checks and money orders are still used occasionally.
Bank accounts are generally divided into checking accounts and saving accounts, but the line between them is blurred.
It is generally safer for beginners to open an account at a big, famous bank, though their service might not be the best.
Credit cards are part of the culture here. It comes with bonuses and also traps. It needs a good credit record to apply.
International transfers are usually done via the SWIFT system.
Nobody wants to get sick, especially, get sick in the U.S. Sickness kills people, and so do the medical bills. Therefore, it is vital to know how to navigate through the healthcare system here and get the right insurance to avoid a personal financial crisis.
In this country, non-urgent health care services usually start with Primary Care (PC). That’s a place where a physician (called a Primary Care Physician, or PCP) evaluates the situation of a patient, provides medical advice, and issues prescriptions. A PCP is supposed to be a doctor that has a long-term partnership with the patient, the one who knows the medical records of the patient and keeps track of the health of the patient over years. They can practice by themselves or work in a clinic/hospital. One other form of primary care is to visit a Primary Care Provider Group, which is usually a clinic with primary care services (like the University Health Center). The patient is usually assigned a different physician every time, but the role he/she plays is the same. If PCPs think the patient needs to get examined by a doctor in a certain field, they may refer the patient to a specialist. Or if they believe the patient is in an emergency medical situation, they may transfer him to the Emergency Department (ED or ER). Primary care services usually only open during working hours (9-5 on weekdays) and need an appointment before the visit. If one experiences an urgent health issue, he may want to go to an Urgent Care (UC) clinic to receive immediate service. The last choice is ER, probably together with an ambulance, when one’s life and/or limbs are endangered. For the price, primary care is the cheapest, followed by urgent care. An emergency department visit could cost far beyond these two.
Usually, during a PCP visit, the physician will hand down a prescription to the patient for the drugs he/she needs to take. In the U.S., while still possible, patients don’t usually just hold a piece of prescription to the drug store to buy drugs. Instead, it is more common that the physician asks the patient which drug store he/she uses and sends the prescription directly to that drug store. If one goes to the University Health Center, there is a pharmacy right on the ground floor and that is usually the brainless choice. However, if one has prescription drug insurance that dictates where to go as a requirement of getting paid by the insurance, one needs to be more careful.
In this country, a PCP visit can easily cost hundreds of dollars, not to say specialist visits and even ER visits. Living without adequate health insurance coverage is extremely unwise. The university also requires all students to have health insurance coverage.
Speaking of health insurance, there are a few concepts that need to be introduced first. To purchase an insurance plan, one has to pay the insurance premium, which is essentially the price of the insurance. Most insurances only pay a portion of one’s medical bill. The parts a patient needs to pay are, usually, copay, coinsurance, and deductible.
A copay is a fixed amount for every medical service one receives.
The coinsurance is the percentage a patient pays after paying the copay and deductible.
A deductible is an annual amount a patient pays by himself before the insurance plan starts to share the cost.
Just to make it more confusing, sometimes these terms can be exchanged. The types of health insurance can generally be categorized into EPO, PPO, and HMO.
HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) plans require patients to choose doctors from a network of healthcare providers and are usually the cheapest,
EPO (Exclusive Provider Organization) plans are similar to HMO plans, in the sense that they both cover in-network only. But generally, EPO has a larger provider network, therefore is a bit more expensive.
PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) plans cover both in-network and out-of-network doctors, but in-network services typically get a bigger coverage. It is the most expensive of the three.
The common options for UMD graduate students have been introduced in other sections. Just to recap, they are
The Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) offered by the university,
The Employee Health Benefits offered by the State of Maryland (remember TA/RAs are technically State employees).
The SHIP is a PPO insurance plan any student can purchase on a semester/annual basis, with dental and prescription drugs coverage. The State Benefits offer more options and flexibilities: the State has contracts with three major insurance companies (CareFirst, United Healthcare, and Kaiser) that provide all three types of plans at a very friendly price. They also offer optional dental, prescription drug coverage, and life insurance. All of these plans have no deductibles (which is a good thing), but they all have a copay, usually $15-$30 per visit. (For benefits of the State, there are ways to waive or reduce this copay.) One thing to note is: by default, the health insurance plans that are offered through the State Benefits have no prescription drugs coverage. For people who don’t usually take drugs, the optional prescription drug insurance seems to be a waste of money. But it is also true that if an emergency breaks out, the drug bill can also easily go very high. It’s a personal choice of whether to purchase this prescription drug plan. As of writing, SHIP is way more expensive than a typical State Benefits combination (and also has a higher copay).
Even if one gets health insurance, there is still a portion that is not covered, or special requirements to fulfill to get insurance paying. For example, obviously, one needs to find in-network providers if he/she has an EPO plan. What’s more, most EPO plans require patients to get a referral from their PCP before seeing a specialist. Things of this kind can be very tedious, but one still needs to read the insurance coverage carefully to avoid surprises.
Every year, there will be one or two (horror) stories circulating among students that someone was very sick and called an ambulance, and received a thousand-dollar bill a few months later. Those stories can be horrifying but the truth is, at least in Prince George’s county, the ambulance would only cost a few hundred dollars and would be fully covered by the insurance for the most of time, as long as one was really in an emergency. The copay for ER could be high (~$150) but will usually be waived after one really gets admitted into the hospital following the ER visit. The bottom line is: before going to any medical services, check your insurance plan. If feeling unsure, call the insurance company. If you are really in a medical emergency, calling an ambulance/ visiting ER is not that terrifying.
The way the U.S. is organized geographically dictated that everyone who wants to have a life in the U.S. must know how to drive and have access to a car. Getting a driver’s license is undoubtedly the very first step.
The authority that issues driver’s licenses is different from state to state. In Maryland, this business is administered by the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA). There are two common ways for international students to acquire a driver’s license:
If one has a driver’s license from another country, he/she can “exchange” it for a Maryland license.
If one has no driver’s license at all, he/she has to walk through the entire process from learning to drive and taking the tests.
Both ways require a valid SSN (so get one as soon as possible!).
Exchange is the easiest way to get an MD license. One can skip all training and go straight to take the law test and on-road test (although the 3-hour alcohol and drug training is still required). For students from countries that have reciprocal agreements with the U.S., tests could even be waived. Usually, the entire process includes
Get a translation of one’s out-of-country driver’s license from an MVA-authorized translator, if the document is not issued in English.
Pass the 3-hour alcohol and drug training and receive a certificate (a lot of driving schools provide online services for <$50).
Complete the SAVE verification and print the verification result email out. It can take a few days. This step is important and can save a trip to MVA. The result must be printed out and presented upon the MVA appointment.
Book an appointment at the MVA website and make sure all necessary documents are with you before heading for the appointment. One can immediately take the law test after this appointment, so it is recommended to read the driver’s handbook thoroughly and take the practice test before going.
After passing the law test, one can book an on-road test at MVA’s website. Please note that MVA doesn’t provide cars for test-takers. One can borrow a friend’s car, rent a car, etc. but it must have a valid registration and unexpired insurance.
After passing the on-road test, MVA will send the driver's license via USPS in a few days.
If one wants to learn to drive here, going to a driving school is a fair choice and will usually cost $500 to $1000.
It is generally advisable to get a driver’s license at home because it is usually cheaper and the learning environment back home would be more comfortable. Plus, an out-of-country license can be used in Maryland for up to 90 days. That will be enough time for one to get SSN, drive to MVA for appointments, and take the on-road test if planned wisely.
Most available mental health resources have been detailed in previous sections. One note to make is international students are particularly susceptible to mental health issues. Remember that mental health crises could be triggered not only by the situation of one’s academic research but also by the workspace dynamics, interaction with advisors and other graduate students, living conditions, language ability, cultural shock, etc.
Compared to domestic students, international students have more stress to deal with, while often lack adequate emotional support. Therefore, it is crucial to maintain a network of friends here to socialize with. Also, the U.S. is a place full of nature. The positive effect of outdoor activities should not be overlooked (and it is also good for physical health!). Knowing when to ask for help and not feeling ashamed about it is very important.
Another side note to make is: most of the time, the mental health service (e.g. counseling services) on campus is a very good starting point. However, for international students, sometimes there are language issues and also cultural differences. There are students reporting that the therapists here can not fully relate to their situation because the therapists simply have no understanding of their cultural background. In these cases, finding online resources and talking to a therapist from one’s home country could be a way out, though insurance usually doesn’t cover services of this kind.