Your first month in Ann Arbor

Getting around

Learn your bus routes in week one. AATA/TheRide covers campus and most neighborhoods, and the university's own buses fill the gaps. If you'll bike, get a good lock (bike theft is common around campus) and lights; the Border-to-Border Trail is your car-free spine through town. Rideshares fill the rest. You do not need a car, but if you get one, learn the winter driving basics before January, not during.

Getting set up

• Open a US bank account (passport plus university documents usually suffice).
• Get a US phone plan. Prepaid is fine to start.
• Set up your university email and portal so they're fully working.
• Ask early about work authorization and Social Security procedures at your university's international center if you'll work on campus. It takes time.

Keep copies of everything: passport, visa, I-20 or DS-2019, admission letter. Photograph them and store them somewhere safe and separate from the originals.

Getting connected

The fastest cure for new-place loneliness is structured social life: student organizations (there are hundreds, including cultural and national associations), your department's events, intramural sports, the public library's free programming. Your university's international center is the single best first stop, with orientation programs, advising, and people whose entire job is helping you land well. I ran offices like that for years; use them.

One more thing

Culture shock is real, it's normal, and it usually peaks around month two or three, right when the novelty wears off and the winter sets in. Knowing it's coming makes it survivable. Build your routines, keep in touch with home without living in the past, and give Ann Arbor a full year before you judge it. Most students I worked with ended up loving it here.

Educational information only, not tax, legal, immigration, or financial advice. Not affiliated with the University of Michigan or Eastern Michigan University.