ISA welcomes you to Auburn University

Dear All,

Congratulations on your admit to Auburn University, we at Indian Student Association are delighted to have you on ­­­board and look forward to your arrival at Auburn. I am sure you guys must be very excited to set upon this journey and experience a whole new way of life here in the States. I am writing to you, to fill you in on a few things and give you a clearer picture of that you might expect when you come here.

Auburn is a small university town with the majority of the local population being students, faculty and university staff. The place is serene and safe. We have a local Indian Restaurant which just opened up a few months back. Limited Indian groceries are also available at a local store. The weather is quite similar to that of New Delhi with summers being quite hot and winters moderately cold. The closest big cites are Montgomery (Capital of the state of Alabama), Birmingham (AL) and Atlanta (GA). Most of you must be taking your flights to Atlanta when you come here, if you haven’t planned your itinerary yet, I would strongly suggest that you book your tickets to Atlanta as that is the international Airport closest to Auburn and has a well established mode of transportation to Auburn.

Indian Student Community at Auburn University

The Indian student population at Auburn is quite big with around 230+students- almost all of them Graduate Students. As an Indian Student, you are by default a part of the Indian Student Association, we also however have a paid membership-the information about the dues and benefits of which can be found on our website. As a student body we are one of the most active ones at Auburn with our events averaging to about one a month. We celebrate most of the Indian Festivals with all the enthusiasm and zeal in conjunction with the local Indian Community called the “India Cultural Association of East Alabama”. All the Indian students live in Apartment complexes most of which are located at walk-able distance from the campus. Most of the Indian Students reside in Apartments located on W.Glenn and W.Magnolia Avenues (look them up at Gmaps if you will). I believe most of you are Mechanical and Electrical Engineering students, your departments will be located in Ross Hall, Brown hall and Shelby Center respectively.

(You can look these up at https://oitapps.auburn.edu/campusmap/ )

Travel to ATLANTA

Upon entering the USA, the first airport you get off is called your “Port of Entry”. That is where your immigration and customs check will be, when you travel I suggest that you keep all your documents with you in your cabin baggage and keep them handy as they will be checked at immigration desks. By your documents I specifically mean your:
 

1) Passport and Visa
2) I-20
3) All degree certificates
4) Travelers’ Checks and cash (if you are carrying any)

And all other documents as suggested by Office if International Education
Please e-mail them if you have any queries regarding the same, this message is just intended to give you a brief idea so please don’t limit yourself to the information provided here.

For your travel, I suggest that you plan your trip in such a way that your port of Entry is Atlanta. That is, the first Airport you land in inside the United States is Atlanta. Here is why:

If your flight hops at a different airport in the US (Say Chicago) you will have to get off at Chicago, have your immigration and customs check done and then board a domestic flight to Atlanta. The immigration and customs check is a time consuming procedure and the wait time varies with respect to the number of incoming visitors which might lead to you missing your connecting flight-rare but happens. It does not matter if your have a lay off anywhere outside the USA. Now, a lot of people don’t follow this and its perfectly fine to take routes that have different port of entry- this is just a suggestion you might want to consider.

From Atlanta to Auburn

I strongly suggest that you register with ISA at (http://auburn.edu/isa/newstudent/register.htm) so that we have your travel information. We will reserve an Express 85 Shuttle for your travel from Atlanta to Auburn. More information about the shuttle can be found here (http://www.express85.com/ ). Once you arrive at Auburn, we will arrange for your temporary stay at one of the Indian Students’ place for a period of 1-2 weeks until you find a suitable apartment. I suggest that you don’t book any apartments until you come here without having a look at the apartment and its location. For an idea of apartment prices and availability check out the links of realities given below. You want to look at apartments located on Glenn Ave and Magnolia Ave.

Since all of you are from the same institution and know each other, I suggest that you choose your roommates among yourselves before you come here. Looking for a roommate takes more time than looking for an apartment and I would suggest taking care of that well in advance.

It is suggested that you plan your trip so that you reach Auburn on or after the 20th of July and no later than 1st of August (I am not sure if Office of International Education suggests any other dates, if they do, stick to the dates provided by them and not these). Again, these are just suggested dates and you don’t have to worry a lot about them if you are unable to makes reservations within these dates, but it is important that you come to the US well before the date mentioned in your I-20.

With this I hope to have addressed most of the basic queries you guys might have had and will be more than happy to assist you with any more. For more information you can contact:

1) Arjun Angral Email: arjun.angral@gmail.com  Ph: 334-524-8097
2) Dinesh Arunachalam Email: get2dinesh@gmail.com Ph: 334-329-9551
3) Radha Kuskuntla Email: rrk0002@auburn.edu Ph: 845-283-3412

I will be travelling to India from July 5th to second week of August and will not be able to receive you when you arrive but Dinesh and Radha would be more than happy to assist you with all your travel issues and arrange for your temporary accommodation. Regardless, feel free to contact me as well (preferably via e-mail for the dates I’m travelling, the provided phone number wont work in India) if you have any issues. Also, in order to be able to assist you better, I suggest you go through the ISA website, you will find answers to a lot of the questions you might have and when you reach us with some questions, please appreciate our busy schedules and give us some time to respond- we will, I promise. Again, don’t forget to register with ISA asap and let us know about your travel details.

As graduate students most of us are a bunch of nerds largely engaged with our research and coursework and the prospects of having a few younger ones among us are exciting. We really look forward to your arrival at Auburn and are glad to be able to help you with this transition.

Good Luck and War Eagle!!
-Arjun


Some Important Links:
 

1) Office of International Education http://www.auburn.edu/academic/international/oie/

2) International Student Organization http://www.auburn.edu/student_info/iso/ 

3) Indian Student Association  http://www.auburn.edu/isa/ 

4) Express 85 http://www.express85.com/ 

5) ICAEA http://www.icaea.org/ 

Local Realties (for looking up apartments, again, I suggest not reserving any in advance)

Northcutt Realty : http://www.northcuttrealty.com/
First Realty : http://www.firstrealtyauburn.com/
Auburn Realty : http://www.auburnrealty.net/