Politics in the States: The Bare Essentials

This map shows in blue the states that voted Democrat and in red the states that
voted Republican in the last US presidential election.

It is normal for international students to not know much about politics in the US for a while but eventually people start forming an opinion. This post obviously has all the potential to attract controversy regardless of how merely informative I try to be and how hard I try to compensate for my own political leanings. Also, since this is an article about bare essentials I will inevitably paint a perhaps too simple picture about some very complex issues but take into account that this is supposed to be a minimal introduction to politics in the States.

• First thing you need to know is that there are two major political parties in the States, the Democratic Party (democrats) and the Republican Party (republicans). The Republican Party is also referred to as the GOP (Grand Old Party). These two parties are not the only parties in this country but the vast majority of citizens vote for one of these two parties. Perhaps you already know these two parties through their leaders, here is the list of recent presidents of the United States with their respective party: Barack Obama (democrat), George W. Bush (republican), Bill Clinton (democrat), George H.W. Bush (republican). While these two parties are not the only ones, they are the majority and the president is highly unlikely to be anyone outside these two parties. As the time of this writing, the next president is going to be either Hillary Clinton (democrat) or Donald Trump (republican) who are the current nominees from each party.
• What do democrats stand for? This is difficult to answer because there is some diversity in the people who vote for the Democratic Party. People who support this party are more likely to be socially liberal, meaning they support issues like gay marriage or the right for women to decide when to stop their pregnancy (pro choice). A lot of democrats are also economically liberal, meaning they support the free market but with some government regulation to prevent things like abuse by private corporations. Democrats are also more likely to support social programs like public health insurance, unemployment benefits, and in general are more likely to agree that the government should play a bigger role in society than do republicans.
• What do republicans stand for? This is difficult to answer as well because there is also diversity in the people who support this party. People who support this party are more likely to be socially conservative, meaning they oppose redefining marriage laws, are against abortion (pro life) often including stem cell research, and are also more likely to oppose immigration. They are also more likely to be supportive of the free market but with minimal government intervention, including less regulations and less taxes. They are therefore also less supportive of government sponsored social programs. People in this party are also more likely to support the use of guns by private citizens on the principle that this might be a good way to empower people against an eventual abusive government.
• Where are the democrats and the republicans geographically? The democratic party usually gets more support in large cities and urban areas while the republican party dominates rural areas and smaller towns. The republican party has a strong support in the Southern states, especially those known as the Deep South comprising states like Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Arkansas. The democratic party is favorable in the North East and the West, prominently in big states like New York and California. Voters in college towns are also known for voting democrat even in some of the Southern states as observed in recent presidential elections. This means that as a student you will probably meet more democrat leaning people than republicans regardless of where you are studying. There are some states know as Swing States because they are neither strongly democrat nor republican like Ohio or Iowa. Politicians will put a lot more effort in these states when campaigning.
• There are also many other political identities that sometimes do not fit well any of the two major parties. For instance, there are the Libertarians who are people that believe strongly in the free market with minimal government intervention. Taken to the extreme imagine a country where even the roads are built and owned by private companies, and all institutions of education are private. The idea is that private companies each acting in their own interests also benefit society as a whole. This is more consistent with the republican party but libertarians can also be socially liberal which puts them at odds with the socially conservatives of the republican party. This is why there is a Libertarian Party but is not one of the major political parties and my guess is that most libertarians end up voting republican. On the other hand, people who believe in some form of socialist society or are strongly to the left end up compromising by voting democrat. 

Finances in the States: The Bare Essentials

Managing your finances in a foreign country might be difficult, perhaps you did not do this yourself at your home country if you still lived with your parents during college. In the States you will not be earning a lot of money compared to the rest of the population as a graduate student although it will probably still be more than you would make back at home. You will therefore be vulnerable here and need to be extremely careful about your finances. I will not cover here obvious things like you should not spend all your money on parties or you should keep your spending in check but rather specific situations that you will experience in this country. Here are some things I think you should know.

• Your university will probably guide you to obtain a Social Security Number (or Taxpayer Identification Number). Do not lose your social security card, do not carry it with you but keep it in a safe place instead, and more importantly share your social security number only when strictly needed. Your social security number is linked to your Credit Score. Once you obtain a social security number you are already searchable in a unified system that tracks all your significant financial moves and assigns you a Credit Score. If your Credit Score is good then banks will look for you to lend you money so you can buy a car or a house, apartments will want to have you as a tenant, service companies might not ask you to put down security deposits. If your Credit Score is bad then you will not be able to get loans, you will not even be able to get credit cards, and landlords might not want to have you as a tenant, and service companies might ask you to put down larger security deposits. Also, share your Social Security Number sparingly and only when strictly needed, e.g. when applying to rent an apartment, when requested by the US government, when seeking employment, when applying to a credit card or bank account, or when setting up a trusted service that requires recurrent payments (e.g. well known electricity/water/internet providers serving your local area).
• How do you keep a good Credit Score? If you are an international graduate student your credit score will be inevitably low at the beginning. You do not make a lot of money, your annual income is probably around or in most cases below $20k. You also do not have a credit history, you just arrived and have never had a credit card in this country. In fact, you probably do not even qualify for most credit cards offered by financial institutions. This is a problem because your Credit Score depends on you having a credit history, this means having a credit card. You probably will get a debit card when you open your bank account but not a credit card. When you go to the bank next time, consult with the people there what would make you qualify for a credit card, sometimes smaller banks or credit unions will be more forgiving when handing out credit cards. Your first credit card will probably have a limit of $700 or maybe even less, this is normal. While debit cards take money from your bank account, credit cards lend you money from this balance. You usually do not even have to pay interests or any maintenance for having credit cards as long as you pay your balance at the end of the month on time. Once you get your credit card, use it but make sure you always pay the credit card on time. Paying the credit card usually means going online and transferring money from your bank account to your credit card account. It is annoying to do this manually but absolutely make sure you do it. Also, do not even think of spending more than your limit from your credit card. In fact, to keep a good Credit Score keep your balance in the credit card small. Always remember this, your Credit Score will grow slowly but if you miss a payment to your credit card it will drop sharply!
• Do not get a ton of credit cards. This is a corollary from the previous point. If you need to keep track of five online accounts in different websites to pay for all your credit card balances at the end of every month, you are setting yourself up for disaster. This is probably something you do not need to worry at the beginning when your Credit Score is low and you barely qualify for a credit card but as it goes up you can probably feel king by starting to have any credit card you want approved. But, why would you even be tempted to have many credit cards anyways, you say? Every time you go to a shopping mall, be it Macy's, JC Penny, Sears, Banana Republic, etc., you will be offered at the register to sign up for their "discounts", and they will typically ask for your social security number to verify if you qualify. What they are really offering you is a new credit card. During your first year or two you probably don't want to even go through this embarrassing situation because they will kindly tell you that you do not qualify. And while some of these cards do offer significant discounts in their stores, take into account the do-not-get-a-ton-of-credit-cards advice and keep things manageable. I personally recommend you having a main credit card from the bank where you have a bank account for your first three years, and at most two store credit cards from places where you actually shop frequently after your first three years or more.
• Be careful with your medical insurance and expenses. Medical expenses in the States are enormous and border on the unreasonable. People often like to tell their story when they went to the hospital to get one band aid and they got billed thousands of dollars. Do not get too afraid about that but still be careful. If you are a graduate student you probably are paying an infirmary fee, or campus health fee at your school. This usually means that if you go to the on-campus health facility/infirmary (not the school hospital) you will not get charged and it is covered by your school fees or charged directly to your insurance. This is a great thing to have so if you feel sick never hesitate to go there and make sure you know where it is located from day one. If you have an emergency also do not hesitate to go to an emergency room wherever that might be, this is usually covered by most medical insurance plans, and besides you probably do not have any other option if it is truly an emergency. Complicated situations usually arise when you need to treat some other disease that does not qualify as an emergency but it is also not a simple cold. Even for those cases, always go to the school health facilities first. If you happen to be traveling in another city, or are visiting some other place for the summer, always contact the health insurance company in your health insurance card before going anywhere to get medical attention (unless it is an emergency). They will advise you what places are "in network" for your health insurance plan wherever you might be. Never go to an "out of network" facility unless absolutely necessary (i.e. you are not in an emergency but still in severe pain). If you follow these guidelines you are more likely to avoid trouble. Remember that any medical facility will attend you and accept your health insurance card but only very few will be "in network", and the hospitals or clinics will not tell you whether your insurance will be able to cover your bill in full. Beware also that some plans will tell you that they cover 60-80% of the allowable amount for out-of-network facilities, this means 60-80% of a made-up amount over which you have absolutely no control.
• Be mindful about filling your taxes. The deadline is usually April 15th, and you typically require to fill federal and state taxes. The federal form that you will be filling as a graduate student as of this year is the 1040NR-EZ form. Read the 1040NR-EZ instructions carefully, I could include a link here but you better google it yourself because it gets updated every year. The instructions are simple and probably very few things apply to you. If you only worked for your school you will only receive one form W-2 reporting your past year earnings and how much tax was already paid by your school to the government. The instructions will also tell you if you have to attach any other form, typically the form 8843. The state taxes depend on each state and you have to figure out what form needs to be filled and follow the form instructions. Filling your taxes is not as hard as it seems but you will definitely need to sit down one afternoon, gather your documents and put some hours to this task. Schools typically offer tax seminars or tax clinic sessions to provide you with some help. There are also companies exclusively dedicated to tax preparation like HR Block, and TurboTax, to name a few. Remember that very few online tax preparation systems support the form 1040NR-EZ (NR stands for Non-Resident), so be careful and do not fill as resident. If you ever filled things incorrectly, you can still amend a return through a process which involves preparing your tax again with amendment form 1040X but that means a lot of extra work and if you find out that you actually owed taxes to the government (got a refund that was too big) you might have to pay interest and penalties in your amended return. If you make small mistakes in your tax return sometimes the government will amend those automatically and send you a letter explaining you the corrections, if you consistently claimed unusual deductions in your tax forms you might get audited and if the government finds that you owed them money they will come back to collect that money from you with interests and penalty fees. Again be careful, fill your taxes in good faith using your best efforts and judgment and you should be fine.
• Finally, do not get scammed. You might feel misleadingly safe in this country, especially if you come from places where scams are more frequent but scams happen everywhere in the world and sometimes they are masqueraded as legitimate businesses. If you register to any online service that claims to be free for a month / week / seven days but requires you to enter your credit card, be careful. These services will usually sign you up with the hope that you will forget to cancel the service so that they start automatically charging your credit card after their "free" period. If you fell in this trap you usually can call them and cancel the subscription and if it is not too late they might even refund you some of the charges. Always check your bank account and credit card statements for unusual charges. Sadly even big well known companies these days are falling into this practice. I think it goes without saying you should also avoid taking seriously any spam email or phone call promising you money or starting a business or saying you won a lottery or anything of the sorts.

If you follow these guidelines, do not become an over spender, and practice some basic frugality you will probably will be doing fine with your student salary. Managing your finances post-graduation requires a more fine-grained set of recommendations.

Higher Education in the States: The Bare Essentials

If you are already in the states, this means you probably already know a bit about their system of higher education. I find that many people back at home have probably heard from movies about Harvard (e.g. The Social Network) and Princeton (e.g. A Beautiful Mind) and maybe even MIT (e.g. Iron Man) among the engineering crowd. A lot of people idolize these places and in some countries from a very young age. I have found that this gives you a romanticized and overly simplistic view of the US system of higher education. Here are some points I want to make with the bare essentials.

• While universities like Harvard or Princeton indeed represent world class universities with excellent research programs, they also represent prestige and a set of other qualities regarding social life that are unrelated to education. There are many other universities providing on par research opportunities that are also highly selective and even better in research quality in many fields. For instance in engineering, universities like the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University, or Northwestern University have programs that are academically as well regarded or even better regarded than the engineering programs at Harvard or Princeton.
• Almost on the same point as above: World University rankings are not very informative and I would even say harmful in most cases. If you are selecting a university for your education and it is in the top ten of those lists, you should clearly choose it over universities listed in the low end of the top one hundred in the list. This is a no brainer but you could probably have figured that out on your own without looking at the ranking. For all other cases and comparisons, these rankings are almost useless. For instance, let's use one of the most reputed rankings, the Times Higher Education ranking. Let's say we want to study a PhD in Computer Science and we have to decide between Yale University (Ranking #12) and the University of Maryland College Park (Ranking #117). It seems the clear choice would be Yale University, yet many people in the field would say that the latter is the better choice, or at the very least would find the difference in quality totally distorted as the rankings suggest.
• Following on the last point, you might get some value on using rankings grouped by subject area like the US News and World Report rankings which also include rankings specific to graduate programs, or the NRC rankings which are conducted by the government every five or so years. Neither of them is perfect and you would still be mislead if you only follow rankings blindly but these are at least somewhat better. One ranking methodology I particularly liked was that conducted by Clauset et.al., http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~aaronc/facultyhiring/, where they measure the quality of History, Computer Science and Business graduate programs based on where did PhD students went on to become professors after graduation. It still has some biases but again, these rankings are not supposed to be used on their own and as an applicant you should always exercise judgment based on many factors besides ranking like: specific reputation within your subfield of research, available faculty you would like to work with, available courses that you would be interested to enroll, available funding opportunities, location offering reasonable social opportunities, other potential opportunities like internships, jobs, social networking, etc.
• BS, MS, and PhDs. These are the three major degree programs in the States in the sciences. The Bachelor of Science (BS) program is usually a four-year program where each year is named as Freshman, Junior, Sophomore, and Senior (in that order) and includes mostly coursework, although some programs might require or have an optional thesis at the end (most do not). The Master of Science (MS) degree takes usually between three to four semesters of coursework (two years) to obtain and might or might not include a thesis work at the end (in most programs it is optional). The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree includes an original thesis at the end and might take between four and eight years to obtain depending on the field, advisor expectations, and individual student circumstances. Pursuing an MS or PhD typically requires a BS degree or equivalent amount of post-secondary education. The MS is typically not a requirement to enter a PhD program. PhD programs in the sciences (especially the hard sciences) typically pay an stipend to the students and provide a tuition scholarship for the coursework, in other words they do not cost money to the student. This is why admissions to PhD programs are extremely competitive compared to other programs (BS, MS). Note that some schools offer slightly different degree names like Bachelor of Arts (BA), Master of Arts (MA), or Doctor of Science (DSc) degrees that might serve similar purposes but with a slightly different curriculum and focus.
• How difficult is it to get a PhD admission at a given university? This is a difficult question and it can not be answered easily, especially if you are an international applicant. The best chances are if you already are known by your work to any of the faculty at your target university. This is unlikely if you are an international applicant unless you attended a selected group of universities abroad that are doing top notch research. Another option is that your advisor in a foreign school happens to know people first hand at the target university and he is fully endorsing you. This is a bit more likely for international applicants at a larger number of schools but it might limit your choices if you only target those schools which might not be optimal. Another option is having an international research/educational experience like an internship at a research lab abroad, an internship at a top company, participating in an international competition related to your intended field of research, a popular piece of software that you wrote. This is a bit more difficult to judge but would certainly set you apart. Standardized test scores and grades from international applicants are not as important as people make them to be, just make sure you are within a reasonably high score on those so that you don't raise any concerns. To conclude, you should research the potential places that you want to apply and you should apply broadly (applying to 15 to 30 places is not unusual for international applicants).
• Finally, a last piece of information that even most foreign graduate students already in the states do not really know. Most of us are familiar with research universities but not everybody knows that there are many other institutions of higher education like primarily undergraduate institutions of higher education, community colleges, and even for-profit colleges. The romanticized view of the American university through universities like Harvard or Princeton might fool you into believing that studying in the United States always means prestige and quality. Most people are unaware of the existence of for-profit private universities. While some of these universities might genuinely serve a niche with programs that provide useful technical or professional training in very specific domains, a number of them have demonstrated to put their profits above the education of their students and even losing their accreditation. If you are curious I recommend you watching the PBS documentary College Inc. On the other hand, most international applicants are also unaware of primarily undergraduate institutions and liberal arts colleges that have an enormous reputation but often do not make it to the international rankings like Pomona College, Williams College, Harvey Mudd College, Spelman College, Wake Forest University, or Wesleyan University. When it comes to undergraduate education, some of these institutions rank in prestige as high or above some of the most well known research universities. Another important group of universities in the states are community colleges which typically provide two or three year programs which confer an Associate degree (AS). Community colleges are not as prestigious as research universities and they serve a different purpose like providing technical and vocational training but some local students also opt for them as preparation to obtain an admission to a more selective four or five-year program at a research university. Another reason why some local people enroll in a community college is economical because they are less expensive, and you could potentially transfer courses after your associate degree (AS) to finish your bachelor degree (BS) at a more expensive but prestigious school.

Wherever you are located for your graduate studies, remember to always enjoy life while pursuing your degree, these should be years of lots of work but also some of the best years of your life so keep things in control. No matter where you are make the best of your situation both socially and academically.

Student Visas in the States: The Bare Essentials

Here are some important things to know about being on a student visa in the US.

• Most students come to the United States under two types of visas, J-1 or F-1 visas. The J-1 visas are mostly reserved for people who come with some form of government assistance (either through the US government or the governments in their home countries). J-1 visas are also issued commonly to postdocs coming from foreign countries or visiting students or researchers that are not technically students pursuing an US degree.
• Visas and legal status in the US are separate things. You can be legally under student status in the US but have an expired US visa. In fact, especially for most PhD students their visa will expire sometime during their course of studies, and for people coming from some countries this will happen rather quickly. The problem is that with an expired US visa you can not re-enter the United States. Renovating your visa will typically require you coming back to your home country to ask for a new one. This makes it frustratingly hard to travel to third countries when a visa is expired because it requires traveling home to renovate your visa first. This is especially problematic if said third country also requires you to have a visa because you can not apply to most visas in the US if your current US visa is expired, and even if they do allow it, you would not be able to re-enter on your way back without an unexpired US visa.
• Even if the visas are the same for all countries, depending on each country, the US has different rules about how long will those visas last and whether they will allow multiple entries to the states. US Embassies in some countries thought as friendlier to the US will issue up to 10-year visas, others 5-year visas, and some others even 1 year visas with a single entry option.
• There are some differences that make the J-1 visa a bit more desirable, like spouses of J-1 holders can potentially obtain a work permit, while spouses of F-1 holders can not. But overall, the F-1 visa is the most desirable in most cases because it usually comes with no strings attached. The J-1 visa can potentially come with the dreaded "212 (e)" or "Two-year home residency requirement", which means you need to go back to your home country for two years after finishing your studies/program/internship. This might not mean much when you are starting your 5-year program in the states but it could come back to haunt you down the road, because sometimes plans change and in 5 years living in a foreign country, people change.
• Foreign students in the states pay taxes on their income since their very first year. There are usually federal, state, and in some cases city taxes to pay. Some small set of states do not collect income taxes. The way taxes work in the US is that your employer (in the case of students, the university) will keep some fixed amount of your salary and give it directly to the government regardless of how much tax you have to pay. Then, at the end of the fiscal year (in April), when it is time to declare taxes, you as a student will typically find that the government took too much money and they have to send you back some of that money. There are two differences in the way foreign students pay taxes compared to other people: 1) you will not be able to do it online, most online tax services are only meant to be used by permanent residents and citizens (beware!), 2) you will not pay medicare and social security taxes for the first 5 years of your program (which means never for people in 2-year master programs). Do not forget to pay taxes and do it consciously or it will inevitably come back and haunt you later.

If you have further questions about issues regarding your student visa do not hesitate to contact your local international student services office at your school. Unfortunately most of these departments are usually understaffed and so a number of them will take a while to respond to you or give you an appointment but I have generally found very helpful advisors.

Studying in the States: The Bare Essentials

Rotunda at the University of Virginia
but many other campuses also have
a similar dome-shaped building.

Welcome! This blog is dedicated to provide advice to the thousands of foreign students who come to pursue higher education in the United States of America, also known as the US, the USA, America, or the States.

I have happily gone, and I am still going through this journey myself and have learned a thing or two in the process. I do not claim to be an expert on any of the topics here but I intend this blog to be a guide to the bare minimum knowledge that I think a foreign student should be aware about. For the US reader this might be an interesting look through the lens of a foreign national who has lived here for a bit over eight good years.

In my many years here I have often found among my fellow foreign friends that some of them are not aware of who is Jay Leno, who was Prince, what is a Twinkie, or what is tailgating. Even more worrisome, some might not even know about the existence of Native Americans, what makes the South different, or what is a FICO score. Here is a list of topics so you have an idea of what this is about:

- Student Visas in the States: The Bare Essentials.
- Higher Education in the States: The Bare Essentials.
- Finances in the States: The Bare Essentials.
- Politics in the States: The Bare Essentials.
- Driving in the States: The Bare Essentials.
- People of the States: The Bare Essentials.
- Finding Housing in the States: The Bare Essentials.
- Grocery Shopping in the States: The Bare Essentials.
- Dining Out in the States: The Bare Essentials.
- Pop Culture of the States: The Bare Essentials.
- History of the States: The Bare Essentials.
- Foods of the States: The Bare Essentials.
- Traveling the States: The Bare Essentials.


I will keep adding to this list as I keep writing but I hope you suggest me new topics along the way. Welcome to this blog and let me know if you find it useful so that I can keep updating it.