How to Manage a Car Accident

Essay and photo by Soujin Nam

Are you a driver? Instead, you may take a bus to go to the school. Maybe, though, you will also need a car to carry groceries, to move at night, and to go on a trip as an international student. Driving a car is quite essential and a pretty comfortable way to live in the United States. However, what if you get into a car accident? Actually, I have had a car accident in College Station. You may be curious about how to manage a car accident. Here are some steps you might want to know.

First, it’s the step of being inside the car. You need to stop, turn on your hazard light, and stay in your car, not get out of it. And then call or ask someone to call the police or an ambulance (mostly 911). But you have to be careful about it because you must pay quite al lot of money after calling for an ambulance. This is why you need to purchase health insurance. Just briefly look at the conditions of you and other passengers in your car.

Next, it’s the step of getting outside of the car. If you decide the circumstance is safe, and if you weren’t injured, so you are able to move, it’s good to take pictures of damage of the cars and how they are placed. You don’t have to argue with the other party’s driver, instead, keep calm and take pictures of the accident. After taking pictures, you might want to move the cars to the side of the road so that you are not interrupting the flow of traffic if the cars are still functioning. If the car was seriously damaged, or you were injured, you can get into an ambulance, and your car will be towed. Until then, keep your hazard light on, and if you have one, put a warning sign out on the road so that no other crashes happen.

Third, it’s the step of reporting to police. When police and ambulances arrive at the accident site, they will ask if you are injured or not. If you are injured quite a lot, you had better get into an ambulance. If you can stay in the accident site, it’s time to report to police about the accident, which usually takes 20 minutes or so. After the police finish recording the accident, they may explain about what they recorded for you to check, and you will need to write your signature on the police report.

At last, it’s the step of collecting information from the other driver(s). Make sure that you keep the report number and the paper containing each other’s information including insurance and addresses. If your car was towed, you should also collect the business card or telephone number of the towing company.

To sum up, just follow four brief steps and you can deal with a car accident quite smoothly though you might be embarrassed about the unexpected accident. You all must be safe drivers. However, life is unpredictable and something happens suddenly. You can carry this paper in your car, just in case. Of course I hope you all never use this paper in your lifetime. Be safe in your driving!

How to Meet American People

Essay and graphic by María del Mar Gómez Rico

International students enrolled in the English Language Institute (ELI) of Texas A&M have the opportunity to learn English in different skills, such as grammar, vocabulary or writing, among others. Teachers are professionals who are specialized in different academic subjects, so they are the best reference to learn this language in the proper way. Moreover, international students have the opportunity to get in touch with people from so many different countries. This is an amazing chance to practice English and to learn about different cultures. Additionally, meeting American people can be an incredible way to live a complete university experience and to interact with native speakers. In spite of the fact that it is not easy, it will help international students to achieve their goals of learning English and knowing American culture. If you want to know how to meet American people, please follow these two steps: join organizations and attend events in Texas A&M.

First of all, join an organization in Texas A&M. This is part of the college experience and it is an amazing manner to meet native speakers with similar interests. All the information is included in the website http://studentactivities.tamu.edu/, and these are the main steps that you should follow. First, go to organization search to find the right association following one of the three search criteria: by letter, keyword, or category. The latter is more intuitive and useful for a general approach, especially if you do not know the name of the organization. Second, decide which group could be more relevant based on the classification into thirty different categories: academic, art, military, recreation, sports, religious, or community/volunteer service, among others. Third, read the relevant information included in each organization: purpose, year founded, membership dues, admit members, meeting location, contact or activities. Once you have already checked all the options, you will be able to decide which organization you would like to go into. This last step is really easy, because there is a direct access to enter any association.

Second, Texas A&M also offers other opportunities to meet American people. Please, subscribe to announcements about different events such as performances, films, lectures or workshops, and prioritize them according to your own interests. The schedule is available on the TAMU app, so that you can obtain accurate information at any time. This app can be downloaded on any smartphone from APP or Play Store. Then, in the tab of events, the different alternatives are available and organized in nineteen categories. Although there are not events for all of them, you will be able to see detailed information for those that have been already scheduled.

To sum up, even though most international students have a strong desire to meet American people, many of them probably think that is a difficult process. Meeting American people is a fantastic manner to live a complete college experience and to talk to native speakers. If you follow the steps above, you will have the opportunity to interact with American students. I encourage you to analyze several alternatives and, finally, to focus on those organization and/or events that are more relevant for your own personality and way of life.

Managing Your Financial Expenses in the USA

Essay and graphic by Sami Aladalah

Moving to USA is a big change. One of the changes that I am concerned about is the change of a life style related to managing a person’s financial budget. New arrivals don’t have to suffer or get into many commitments that they will be obligated to meet in the future. Whether you are a full time student or a part time student, fully funded by a scholarship or self-sponsored, planning your budget carefully and wisely could result in a wonderful stay in the USA.

The first step of planning your financial expenses is making a monthly financial budget where you can estimate your monthly financial incoming and outgoing money. I would recommend using an Excel file or a similar application due to its mathematical built-in solutions such as totals, adding, subtracting, changes by percentages and many other different arithmetic transactions to make it an easy process. The financial budget would be prepared as follows:

There are two aspects of the financial budget: the incoming, which means the income you are expecting to receive, and the outgoing, which are the expenses that you will spend. All of the budgeted elements should be written in one column- please refer to the picture at the end of this article to have a better idea- to reach the net (differences between income and expenses). So first list the budgeted income, such as a fixed monthly salary, in addition to any other expected income that you might be getting for a certain month. Then you will have a total income for the month by adding the two or more of above components. In case you don’t have a monthly income and you have a bank balance for your whole stay, then you could skip this part for the income, but be sure that you plan your expenses carefully to manage your whole stay in the USA. For example, your bank balance should cover your monthly expenses budget for the months you are staying in USA with some emergency budgeted expenses such as an additional 10% to 20% of your whole stay budget.

Secondly, below the total income, you will prepare a monthly expenses budget by having expenses components separate in each row as follows: rent expense, utilities separately (water, electricity, and internet), monthly tuition, groceries expenses, dinning at restaurants, transportation, laundry, purchases (such as cloths), entertainment, books, medical expenses, any other known monthly expenses and other expenses (for unexpected expenses). Then you will reach a total of monthly budgeted expenses. This total amount will be deducted from the monthly budgeted income. The result should be a zero or a debt balance (plus sign) in the budgeted column.

Third, you will make another column next to the budgeted column named “actual” where you will list against each element the actual income received and expenses spent. The third column will be named differences that will be prepared by deducting actual expenses from budgeted expense. This where your planning accuracy and commitment to your budget will show. Of course, the idea of the financial budget is not to be so strict that you will not differ at any time. Expected that emergencies and inaccurate planning will happen and that you will have to adjust your budget accordingly to be reasonable based on your living style and your income.

In this regards, the whole goal of preparing your monthly budget is two main things: first, not to have any surprises and spend over your income and be in a stressful situation (debt) and second, to monitor you actual expenses against your budgeted expenses throughout the month to know where you stand and when should you spend less not to exceed the budget. This monitoring could be on a weekly basis. In this way you can skip some of the unnecessary expenses if you have already spent a lot compared to the budget like skipping dining out or entertainment. On the other hand, if you are below budget, you can treat yourself with whatever you wish to spend. Also, remember the economic principle ‘the opportunity cost’ which could be applied to decision making for expenses spending, in which any spending on an option is a missed opportunity for another option. In other words, let us say that you have an opportunity to renting an apartment for USD $1000 and another option is to rent another apartment for USD$ 600, so the missed opportunity for renting apartment #1 is USD$ 400 monthly which will be over 10 months USD$ 4000 that could be spent on other things if apartment #2 is rented. Again, all aspects should be considered, and it differs from one person to another, but it is always better to have all the information in mind before making your decision.

How to Get Conditional Admission

by Eshtar Aluauee

Education is definitely important for people because it provides them a future. They will have a good career and become a respected part of the society. Getting admission from a famous university opens up opportunities to get a high level education. There are many steps which the student must pass to obtain admission. Obtaining conditional admission is significant. It means that applicants should get English requirements while learning English in an institute until getting full admission. I got conditional admission from Texas A&M University after I passing many stages.

The first stage, before applying, should be thinking about tuition of study. Can you get a scholarship or can you provide the payment of the tuition and fees? As for me, I got a scholarship from the Iraqi government. Obtaining a scholarship is very difficult because I had to compete with many students. Earning a scholarship requires having good grades in your academic study, meeting the English requirement, and an interview.

The second step is to apply to the US universities related to your major. Look at the requirements of your department because some of the universities have a high English requirement. Then find out the academic ranking of the university which is selected. Next, send an email to your coordinator’s department. Mention in your email that you need a conditional admission, and attach of your all academic certificates and your resume to it. After you receive the email from the university which grants you conditional admission, start to apply with the application form. Apply to more than one university until you get admission to more than one. I applied to ten universities and I obtained about five conditional admissions.

The final step is after you get conditional admission from many universities. Select one of them which has the highest rank and determine what is the location of university, whether in a quiet city or in a crowded city. Also, check the weather of the city. Finally, find a safe place to live that is not too expensive because the prices of living differ between cities.

I faced challenges to get a scholarship and to apply to US Universities. I intend to pursue a graduate degree in physics at Texas A &M University. There are three reasons I applied to a United States (US) university for my Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). Firstly, I wish to expand my knowledge base in Physics science and secondly, to prepare myself for a budding future career as an academic and I wish to be a contributor to the progress of my country, Iraq. In addition, I am pursuing a Ph.D. in Physics at Texas A&M University because the Physics program offers many exciting research opportunities that will provide me with an intellectually satisfying experience.