Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Majestic-Feedback541 t1_itw9sye wrote

Reply to comment by MickeyNico in Hi, I'm considering uMaine. by MickeyNico

Through Instagram? I mean contact the actual school. I sure they have someone responding, as much as possible, on social media accounts. However, I've always found it more convenient to contact a person directly. If you don't want to call, all the schools have emails listed. If your choose the wrong contact, your email will be forwarded to and addressed by the correct person.

I find emailing to be the best way to actually get a direct and thorough response, though at times it does take about 24 hours to get a response.

17

MickeyNico OP t1_itwa8jr wrote

Especially in my culture, emailing is kinda officializing the situtation. i don't wanna keep them busy w my questions that can be answered by local students (maybe). But seems like it's different culture in US so I'm gonna do that.

4

Majestic-Feedback541 t1_itwb3db wrote

I can understand that. But you're also asking about financials too, each student has different needs financially. The business department would probably be the better contact to answer those questions, not other students.

From my own experience, emailing does not officialize anything. They are all there to help students along their way, even if, ultimately you choose another school to attend. The staff that you contact would also know whether or not the school can fit your needs or not.

Either way, good luck!

20

MickeyNico OP t1_itwbedz wrote

Thanks for your response, appreciated. And I'm gonna definetely email them :)

17

ConfusedCuddlefish t1_itwj966 wrote

The US, and especially grad schools, are very very email based, so don't be afraid to reach out. It may literally be required for acceptance into the school. You should email both the chem engineering advisor and the international student contact person, and their info should be available on the UMaine website.

Make sure to ask them as well if applications are made to the overall program without finding an advisor sponsor first or if you need to find an advisor before you submit your application. It's more and more common to have to find an advisor for grad school that will take you on and have funding (unless you have your own funding), which will mean many more emails. The Gradschool subreddit is pretty US centric and can also help with that process.

The one thing that social media is good for though is finding if there are clubs or groups of students who are also from your country or similar situations. Reaching out to them can help give an idea of common culture shock problems and give a support network for questions that you may not think to ask on your own. Facebook is pretty popular for those groups but there are also international student clubs that you can reach out to. Just search 'UMaine club list' and it should pull them up along with contact info for each one.

15

MickeyNico OP t1_itwki1w wrote

Thank you so much for comprehensive info, highly appreciated

1