Moving to a completely different state to start the academically rigorous journey of graduate school can be scary! As an out-of-state student myself, I found the weeks leading up to my move to be quite stressful, so I hope I can provide some advice on preparing to move to Fullerton.
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Do I Need a Car?
Short answer, yes. If you have the opportunity to have a car with you, I would highly recommend bringing one. Unfortunately, Fullerton is not a very walkable city outside of Downtown Fullerton. Furthermore, for SCCO students, Ketchum Health is also about a 20 minute drive from campus, so students who do not have a car will need to coordinate a ride. It is possible to get by without a car, but, in my opinion, that is only practical if you have easy access to friends or roommates with cars.
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Find Somewhere that Accepts Your Insurance
This is definitely something I wish I had thought about before leaving home. One way that this has affected me personally was finding somewhere that I could receive the second dose of my mandatory hepatitis vaccine and somewhere that my doctor could send refills of my medication to. Calling your insurance company can suck up a lot of your time, so I would definitely recommend looking into that ahead of time rather than waiting until you actually need to find a provider.
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Create a Bank Account in California
Not all banks have branches in California, so setting up an account at a bank in Fullerton is very helpful if you are taking out loans and paying for rent. Additionally, if your bank back home does not have a branch in California, creating an account at a local branch can make taking out and having access to cash much easier.
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Take Care of Your Important Documents
By this, I mean make sure to bring them with you and ensure that they are up to date before leaving. For example, if you are planning on participating in a work study, it would be wise to bring your passport and social security card with you in order to fill out the I-9 form. Another example would be making sure that your driver’s license does not expire while you are away from home.
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Sign Up for Food Stamps (RBT/SNAP)
Graduate school can be expensive, especially if you are moving away from home! Signing up for EBT has been extremely helpful in allowing me to save money while still being able to access healthy foods. Managing a healthy diet is not only essential for taking care of your overall health, but also maintaining your grades!
Moving Away from home is a big change, so I hope these tips can help prevent any unnecessary stress later on! Congratulations on making it here and good luck!