A friendly message to incoming students from the Physics Graduate Student Association (PGSA):

Welcome (almost) to Stony Brook! We’re really looking forward to meeting you and have a lot to tell you when you get here. First though there are some things you should know before arriving:

• If you’re flying in, the easiest way to get from the airport may be to arrange to share a SuperShuttle. We also have some tips on how to get to the university here. You can also email sbupgsa@gmail.com or Donald.J.Sheehan@stonybrook.edu when and where you’re arriving and we may be able to have a current student drive there to pick you up.
• We’ll also be providing rides to stores for supplies upon request, but for now here are some things you may want to get before you arrive
• If you don’t even have housing yet, you can look at the housing facebook group to find off-campus housing. This will usually be much cheaper than on-campus housing, although without a car it may leave you with less access to campus and your peers.
• If you’ve already taken an advanced lab, you should bring your syllabus and reports so that you can place out of the grad lab requirement here (PhD students only).
• If you’ve taken a class/classes that you think might be equivalent to one of our four core courses, you should bring the syllabus, the lecture notes, and your notes so that you can try to place out of it when you get here (also PhD students only).
• It’s usually a good idea, especially for Masters students hoping to apply to the PhD program, to start looking at and contacting faculty in order to find an advisor sooner rather than later.
• If you’re coming from outside of the US your phone may become a useless chunk of plastic when you arrive. Here’s some information on getting a US SIM card.
• Here are some other resources you might want to check out:

• The unofficial physics grad student facebook page
• An incoming-student portal where we’ll post any additional information
• The official facebook page for us, the PGSA
• sbupgsa.org, our webpage
• Resources for those of you considering taking the comps in order to place out of core courses or just to get a leg up: https://sbucomps.wordpress.com/, https://github.com/sbupgsa/resources 
• You can also join the grad-student Slack channel at sbuphysics.slack.com (use your stonybrook.edu email)

• You should also be aware before you arrive that there will be a student fee of about $700 you will need to pay not long after arriving (master’s students should note that this is on top of tuition) although this can be split into three parts instead of paid all at once.
• Additionally, those of you who will be on a TA stipend should be aware that your first paycheck may not arrive for up to 4 weeks after you get here, so you will have to be financially prepared for that first month plus the $700 fee, and if you are renting it is customary to pay an additional one or two month’s rent as a security deposit by day one (that you get back when you move out).
• If you haven’t sent immunization and health forms yet you may need to do so immediately.