NJIT SPECIAL

All ideas and opinions mentioned here are my own and NJIT has nothing to do with it.

Select the right Airport

The nearest international airport is Newark International Airport. Its fifteen minutes by car from airport to NJIT. Many NJIT volunteers will be at the airport to pick up students. The second nearest and more popular one is JFK and it takes two hours to reach NJIT from JFK. While it takes 30 dollars from Newark airport to NJIT, it may take 100 dollars from JFK to NJIT. So when you buy a ticket keep this in mind. Most of the good deals for tickets are available for JFK but if you are saving only 5000 rupees, you will spend that money in car anyway. And you may also get a free ride to college from Newark if the volunteers are there.

Expenses

The expenses given here is tentative. You may need a little more or less but it will give you an idea. You will spend 250 dollars for house rent. This will include electricity, heat, cable charges. For food and drinks 100 dollars will suffice. 50 dollars can be used as pocket money. That sums up to around 400, bare minimum you will require to survive. Almost all students earn more than that either on or off campus. 

Finding a place to stay

On campus housing is very costly. So all Indian stay together in nearby flats. You can get in touch with the yahoo groups and find an apartment through postings, otherwise dont worry. Like you, many students will be looking for a house. You will get a house within seven days. For the first few days NJIT may arrange a temporary accommodation in a cheap hotel. Housing is not a problem here. Many houses are in walking distances from the college or you will get public transport wherever your are. 

Life Style

You wont need a car because both New Jersey and New York are very well connected with trains. In fact there is a subway train station just below the college campus. Besides there are college shuttle buses to move you around free of charge. All transportations are available till late night. Not having to have a car will save you a lot of money initially. The Indian community and indian shops are just half hour by train from NJIT. You will get everything from garam masalas to maggi noodles to pressure cookers. The area in and around NJIT has a lot of black population. Night life or hanging around the place late is not advisable, but crime rate inside the campus is almost zero. Occasionally students have been robbed of their wallets outside the campus but usually nothing serious happens. Remember hundreds of international students come here every year. So security is not a problem. But unlike other places, you cannot hang around the roads alone late at night. Neither is it needed, most often students go to New York to hang around and late night parties. New York City is 45 minutes by train from NJIT. 

Job Opportunities

For those who are getting a scholarships its not a problem, but many students come every year without any such financial help. It will help you guys to know that there are lots of off campus jobs available. Off campus jobs are illegal and NJIT will never officially advise you to do so. But you can count the number of students in last ten years who had not gone for an off campus jobs. The payment with off campus job is slightly less than on campus jobs. On an average its seven dollars per hour. But remember, you can work only for twenty hours on campus whereas you can work as much as you want off campus. Many students work both on campus and off campus. If you try hard, you will get an off campus job within one month whereas an on campus may make you wait for one semester at least.

Registering for classes

Every NJIT student needs an id called the UCID. You can find it on the university web site. Try creating the id before reaching here. You wont be able to register for a class if you dont have the id. Once you are here there will be too many people trying to create the id, those who create first will have better chance to register for a course. If you want to avoid the competition and the crowd get your id created from home.

Placement Scenario

As of year 2005 placement scenario is almost 100%. That is about computer science students. Since New Jersey and New York is a business hub and most of world's largest financial companies are based here, most people gets placed within two months of passing out of college. There are lots of recruiters here. Most of the students gets placed through recruiters. Direct placement through campus interview is very rare, most of them ask for american citizens and green card holders. Many students start full time jobs after one year and complete the last semester with online courses or as part time. You wont get this option everywhere.

Driving License and Credit Cards

 New Jersey accepts international driving licenses. Its helpful to bring an International Driving Permit. You wont require to sit for a driving test if you have a valid international driving permit. You would prefer to have an American driving license within six months. Students are given credit cards without much hassle.

Visit the Indian Student Association at NJIT for more information.

Wish You a Successful and Happy Career at NJIT