Campus life 101

Hi all!

I have to say, tonight was an awesome night for me.
I am taking campus orchestra class, and tonight we had a concert at Ted mann concert hall. We played Suppe, Berlioz, Wagner, and Holst.
It was a great night. If you are interested in finding out more events on Twin Cities campus, you can visit the website. For tonight concert, pictures are coming up soon!

But besides the great concert, what do I want to talk about today?
I'd like to go back to campus life 101, and I'd like to talk about health insurance and how to select classes. I am sure that all these topics (and other topics on our AWESOME blog are relevant to you all) are very relevant to all of you.
That is why I am here to help you to figure out.

So first of all, health insurance.
How to get one, and how much is it ?
Once you arrive in Minneapolis, unless you already purchased insurance, you have to purchase insurance as an International student. All International students are strongly recommended to purchase one from U of M. This program is part of student health benefit plan. You can review whether you need one or not by going through website, and look up the right side. Also you can visit ISSS office website.
How much is it? For each semester, International student has to pay $950 (at least this year it was). Most of the medical bills will be covered by the insurance, and sometimes you will have to pay the very small amount in case if the insurance cannot cover everything. But this is one of good ways to have insurance and use it whenever you need to go to have emergency care or see doctor.

Finally, how do I know which classes are for me?
I remember that in my freshman year, I had many questions regarding to what kinds of classes I had to take. I wasn't sure what area I wanted to study, so I wasn't sure which classes to take. I went to see my advisers, talk to professors, but I still had some problems. So one way I would recommend to all of you is taking freshman seminars! I know if you are not already admitted to U, you cannot look up some classes through onestop registration. So what you can do to look up for some classes is by visiting OFYP office website. They every year provide brochure for students to look up 2011-2012FreshmanSeminars.pdf. I attached a pdf file for 2011-2012, so you can look up! :-) This way you can learn a bit about the interesting area that you'd like to study, and see whether you'd like to continuously take the courses. If you are already admitted students, but still have some problems, I am sure this brochure can still help you. If you register for certain classes and decide to drop it after take it for several days, you can do that too. There are several registration guidelines that you have to follow, however. If you registered, and need to change regarding to register, you also need to look up here. If you still are looking for what classes to take, you can go visit classes search tool website to see more options that can help you to select classes. Make sure, if you are already admitted, check what to prepare before registration too. Each students have different registration rules to follow and different time.

Too many information to digest?
Don't worry, you can still ask us some questions if you need some help.
Don't forget that you can visit our ISA blog (undergraduate blog and graduate blog), and either leave comments or e-mail us.

Next time, I will come back with how to get on campus jobs.
If you are already in U.S, please do enjoy your own Halloween~ :-)