Ask Me Anything, India! with Mitsuko Leonard

Hi everybody, I hope you can hear me alright. I know as an abrupt start actually just put the kids to bed and I'm hoping for a quiet evening for me. An awesome morning for you on a Sunday.

Typically we have the chat moderated, but you'll notice that you're able to chat and type whatever you'd like in the chat without me touching it at all. So if you can hear me OK in the chat box, could you just say, yeah, I can hear you OK?

I really hope you can hear me OK.

Awesome, thank you. OK good. So at least yes thank you. OK good that makes me feel a lot better. Thank you thank you. OK, so uh real quickly my name is Nicole Leonard and I am the director of recruitment at the University of California, Davis. My job here tonight is really to answer all the questions that you might have. You'll notice that I have a slide deck and I know I said in my email.

I promise I don't have a power point presentation, and I mean it, I don't really actually have a power point presentation. I have a slide deck so that I can show you different pictures as we go through your questions, but other than that I'm really going to be relying on you to carry the conversation. We've got a full hour together if we want to use it all. If in the end I do such an amazing job that I've answered all of your questions, we don't have to take the full hour and you can go off and enjoy your your Sunday.

Just 'cause I'm curious, how many of you have your parents? Kind of, you know, sitting next to you and trying to get in on the conversation.

In the chat box, let me know yay OK. JS got parents.

Sitting with them. Oh Vishnu, you cannot hear me. OK, uhm?

Let me see Cheryl's got someone with me. We make sure that I can.

Let's see what I can do about this, Mike.

OK.

Well, I'm hoping that that the majority can hear me. OK, I don't have anything muted an it's showing that my voice is carrying. So how about we we get started? It sounds like we've got a few people with parents and they know that parents have a little bit different questions from students, and that's completely fine. We're going to try to get through all of them. Who wants to be the brave soul and just?

Get in there with some questions.

Anybody can ask a question.

Except don't ask me how to make sure that you can hear me. I don't know. OK, here we go.

Uh, since the US consulate has been closed, visa applications been affected and it's difficult to get a visa by September, what would you suggest us to do? That is a fantastic question. Right now our office. It's called this services for international students and scholars. They're continuing to issue I 20s. So In other words, whether you're the US consulate or embassy in your town is closed or not, we're still able to issue. I 20s.

But I have heard now this isn't a very satisfying answer I admit what I've heard is that some some students may be trying to get interviews at other embassies in other areas bottom line if we are in a situation where it is absolutely impossible for you to get your visa in time to start school with us in September I would be encourage ING you to defer your involvement and what that means.

Is after you say yes. Do you see Davis? You're able to submit a further application to defer for one term, uhm?

Two terms or up to a full year.

So a full year would mean that you get to start school in 2021, September of 2020. One I would say instead of deferring one full year, let's go for one term and then you can start in January of 2020. One. That way you're not, you know, deferring your enrollment for a full year.

When you're able to get started on your education with the bulk of other international students who may find themselves in the same situation now, there was, uh, it sounds like some people weren't able to hear that last part, differing your moment basically means, hey, you see Davis. I would love to go to your school. However, I cannot make it there quite yet because of visa issues because of health issues because of whatever they may be. So you can save your seat and you can come in at.

Get the at the next term so winter January of 2021 you can come in in spring of 2021 or I would say if you're going to defer more than one term, just defer for one full academic year and come in September of 2021.

What should I write in my Sir story now? Do you mean for your Instagram story or you're basically OK in your in my admissions when you say yes to UC Davis, you're given an opportunity to say, yeah, I want to tell you about my Sir story. Basically that means, hey, why did you decide to say yes to you? See Davis and we take that story and we basically kind of broadcast it out to Instagram and Facebook. And we say, hey, this student said yes because.

You know where the number five public University, United States, or this student decide to say? Yes, because they always want to be a veterinarian and they see a future in animal science here. That sort of thing.

How good is the Davis computer science program is the next question I'm going to try to answer now. How good is always a real hard question to answer? Let me let me explain why sometimes students will say OK. This is rankings are all all over the place right? So for example, I just kind of threw out the idea that you see Davis is the 5th best public University now. That doesn't make as number one in anything right? But for the students who live here thrive here.

UC Davis is absolutely been number one school. Computer science is very competitive, is very very popular on our campus and no doubt we get a lot of people from Silicon Valley as well as other areas around this part of California. They come and seek out our talent. So as far as how good the computer science program is, it's as good as you're going to make it. And as good as we try to keep it thriving as far as you know.

Research opportunities and internships and things like that. A ranking I don't know because to be honest, I think rankings are a little bit overrated. I think that most important is your experience here, and that's what's going to really determine the ranking. As far as your concern.

I see giant has a question about is the session affected due to the virus outbreak? Right now two day we are all on virtual instruction, so that means all of the students on campus are taking classes on line. There are some things that are still happening on campus, like for example the residence halls are still occupied by students who are socially distancing. The dining Commons are still open because we need to make sure those students or have something to eat.

We have our Health Center open and functioning. All of those things are happening, but as far as like the Bowling Alley that's closed because that's not considered essential. Now we do know. Recently they announced that summer session they will be offering virtual classes for both summer sessions. So basically June classes all the way through August. Those are all going to be virtual. What's going to happen in the fall?

I don't know. I mean, if I had a crystal ball I would love it because that is a fantastic question to have answered. I cannot say 100% right now if we're going to be in person and having everyone living in our residence halls and eating from our dining Commons. I just don't know yet. However, I think that that's the that's the future that they're aiming for. It really does depend on how well we here, especially in California, but of course the United States all over.

Are able to flatten that curve.

OK, Prime of you've got a question about official transcripts. Official transcripts are due to us July 1 or July 15th, depending on the type, right? So July one is your high school transcripts, July 15th or your essay Tees or your exams? Now I say that out loud like with all sorts of conviction. But the truth of it is we know that transcripts are not going to be able to be received exactly on time. Same with exams, right? So many exams were canceled, so it's understood that that may not happen.

Um the the address to have your transcript sent in is on the my admissions website. It's part of your conditions of admission and if you feel like you know what, there's no way you're going to get that exam. Your ibes in or your transcripts in by the deadlines. Just let us.

Don't know on the right hand side of of the my admission site. There's a report changes link.

Hit that up and just let us know real quick. Hey, I'm not going to be able to make it. Here's what I'm doing and this is what my school is saying. Just keeping in touch is really important. I think that we would all agree in these days. Communication and making sure that we know what's going on is the most important thing. So, so long as you are communicating with us, we are going to be very flexible and try to work things out for you.

OK, well have you had a question about, um, deferring all the other things remain the same. So if you defer your enrollment, OK if you say yeah, I'm not gonna make it for September, but I will make it there. All you know if all things work out very well, I'll make it there for January. They will have another orientation for you. You will be able to get into the classes that you need. You will have housing all of those things will remain the same, absolutely.

Your major absolutely will remain the same. The only thing that would change is if other students happened to start right. Like let's say everybody else shows up in September, right? But you defer because of maybe your visa situation or a family situation. The only thing that's different is that you're starting 10 weeks later than everybody else, so the classes that you're taking are going to be one term behind, but that's really not.

A huge issue especially since you can absolutely take courses in the following summer if you feel like you want to really catch up at that point.

Sheryl you asked about when will I receive my I 20 by Mail or post you will it's 1st come first serve so as soon as you say yes do you see Davis you are able to apply for your eye 20 they will send it by certified Mail and I think they're actually also trying to put together a process where they are sending you an electronic copy of it because you need to have at least that.

To be able to start working towards getting your interview, but with all the embassies and consulates being closed. I mean that's a It's a.

It's such a situation, isn't it? So I would say, you know, get the process rolling as soon as possible so that you know as soon as you're ready to get that interview appointment, you're able to do so, but it would not be near as fast as as we wish it could be.

And it yeah, you have a question. I am AUS citizen completing my education in India. Will I be in an eligible to enroll for September if I'm unable to travel by September in case travel districts OK, travel restrictions or visa situations, whatever may keep you away from campus in September. Again, we're going to encourage you to differ. Now let's think of another alternative, right? Let's say if worst case scenario.

Everyone goes to virtual education in September. While then it doesn't really matter, everyone would be starting at the same time. Everyone is going to be taking classes online that first term. You don't have to defer, you're just taking classes online. But if you are unable to leave India not because of your citizenship or anything like that, but just simply because there are no flights leaving or arriving here in the US, then deferring enrollment is a really good option for you as well.

OK, there's a question, but is it possible to appeal for financial aid before October due to current situation? the AFC, yes, so here's the thing with the financial aid, especially for the American citizens. Here when you filled out that FAFSA, the world was a different place. I think that that's a fair assessment. So now that we are in the world that we're in and the economy is the economy that it is, you are absolutely able to update your financial aid.

Information with the financial aid and scholarship office. They will be able to re calculate what the estimated family contribution is for you so that it better reflects the true situation.

Uh-huh OK Jaya. I think I feel I feel like I answered the question about the senior reports. But just to reiterate, just in case somebody else hasn't heard the senior year, reports may be delayed due to quarantine. So what can we do about submitting it before the deadline? The deadline for documents is July 1. If you already know that it's just not going to happen, but you know maybe it's going to happen. Maybe you're testing authority has said, OK, we should probably get it done by August.

Just let us know through my admissions again on the right hand side, there's a leak about um reporting any kind of changes, and that's your best way to communicate with us. Same for you. Part of since IB exams have been cancelled, grades will be delayed. Same idea, it should not impact your admissions delays in submitting things will not impact your admission. It's just all about communicating with us and letting us know when we can expect.

To see something, but we're really going to be very flexible about the deadlines and things like that.

OK here we've got a question about internships.

Sanjana, I hope I said your name right. How early can we start getting internships? Let me finally get to use a slide that I set up. You can start getting internships basically during your first year, but I would recommend that you relax. Make sure you understand where you are as far as our 5000 acre campus an don't get lossed get your study skills down. Make your friends get a real strong social support network, that sort of thing.

And then I would say you know between your first and 2nd year you can secure that internship to start. Maybe that summer or the following year. Now that's not to say that we don't have a lot of very eager an ambitious students that don't get internships their first year. We do, but I just like I don't know. I feel like you want to have a real solid foundation in your academics and in your social life before you start jumping into the extra. And that would include jobs.

Or research and everything like that. That said, We do have an internship and Career Center and their whole purpose in existing is helping you get an internship. And here is just a list of some of the places that we have placed our students with.

Each term each quarter we have an internship in career fair and basically it is what you see. Here is all these companies that come out and set up their tables and students walk around and introduce themselves and have really good conversations. An try to see.

You know what opportunities are out there? Again, I would say that first year go check it out, meet people, see what it's like. Talk to other students. But when it comes to actually applying and trying to do an internship, maybe give it a little bit more time.

OK, so I'm not sure. OK, let's go with if we're keen to join, you see Davis in the fall 2020 semester itself, but we do not wish to defer the offer with the University. Give us an opportunity to have our classes on line right now.

But Is It Round Rock? I'm sorry if I I mispronounced your name right now. Nothing is online for fall 2020 right now. The only thing that we're working towards is in person classes. Now, to be honest, I would not have been able to predict the world that we live in right now. Just five weeks ago. So I would say I mean it is possible. It is absolutely possible if we are not able to get ahead of COVID-19 with all of the social isolation that we're doing, the quarantining, etc.

Then we may be in this mess for a little bit longer than we want. Then we are even imagining right now. In which case, yes, we would definitely be going on line. I do not see a situation where you see Davis would not have any classes at all, virtual or in person, ideally in person. If not, Plan B will be virtual with all of the practice that we've had with going virtual for the spring term this year. That's what we're doing right now.

And to have two sessions in summer all virtual, I think we're going to be in a good place to understand. You know, all of the challenges of being virtual, so we'll be able to do it if it comes down to that.

Um Pranav, I think your question about the like the financial plan. You know you were admitted whatever financial aid you were granted, it should not change. The only thing that might change it is if you happen to be an American citizen in your financial situation changes and maybe you need more aid, that sort of thing, but no other than the date of joining. Differing your enrollment changes nothing, but I just want to make sure it's very clear to everybody if you defer your moment you have.

Your major, you have the term that you're going to enter. Everything remains the same, but you may not attend another school, so you can't defer UC Davis and say OK, hold my spot there while I go to another University over here and earn credits in Grays and things like that because the moment you start going to school somewhere else, you will end up being a transfer student and basically you have to reapply, so keep that in mind.

Shreya can you attend summer programs virtually too? Yeah. I mean in theory you absolutely can. The thing about summer session is anybody can take classes in the summer. So if you wanted to take summer classes, this this coming summer, you absolutely could do that.

See if I can find summer session. Basically you can go to theucdavis.edu website and in the search engine just type in summer sessions you pay per unit, so you pay per class. You're not paying like a larger fee that covers all the credits that you can take, you just pay for the class that you're taking and you can absolutely do that.

Just for anyone else who is curious for the regular academic year, we are not on the semester system we are in what's called 1/4 system and for whatever reason, while it's called 1/4 system, that means three terms during the academic year, fall, winter and spring, and their each ten weeks long.

10 weeks long. So that means you don't really have a chance to get sick. You don't have a chance to get lazy, you're just hitting the ground running. And before you know it, it's midterms.

Um, with that said, the tuition that you pay is is open to however many units you want up to 18 units now, just in case there's any question about units, because this is something I didn't know when I first went to University myself.

One unit is equivalent to one hour of class per week. OK, so a full time student is like a 12 units to 15 units. That means every week you're in class, taking a lecture or doing some type of lab work for 12 to 15 hours.

Many students will get a little bit too relaxed at the idea because right now, well, maybe not right now being quarantined. But back in the day you were probably going to school for at least 30 five hours a week. So students think, yeah, I can do 12. I could do 15. I could do more, but the truth of it is you want to manage your expectations, because for every one hour you're in class. Professors are expecting you to do two to three hours of work outside of class.

So if you do that math, you can see very quickly how it does multiply from 12 to 36 or 48, or I don't know after that 'cause I didn't do the math, but a lot of work. So basically we want you to kind of stick between 12 to 15 per term.

You can take up to 18 with no special permissions or anything like that. If you want to take more than 18, you have to get special permission from your academic advisor, because they're going to say, Well, you know what I don't have any evidence that you're going to do well in these units, and we want to make sure that you do well. So I would say the first term limited to about 12 to 13.

OK.

Let's see uh is it soo Ji is the deferment for Cove in 19 causes specific to UC Davis I ask this because every other UC campus that I've admitted to told me that I will have to attend online classes and I can't defer enrollment because of not having a visa due to Cove in 19 well I'm really sorry to hear that here's the thing you see Davis has had a deferred enrollment plan always so it's not specific to Cove in 19 it really is for those students who are like Hey.

I have to take care of family. I have to take a gap year because I want to travel and I want to do internships. I myself You know like for example if the student themselves unfortunately has some type of an illness that they have to sort out. Or maybe they need to work right. There are all sorts of reasons why a student might want to take a deferred enrollment and we have allowed that.

Since we existed, so it's not a new program just because of COVID-19. It just happens to be COVID-19 and the inability to get a visa or the inability to fly is a fantastic real reason to allow for deferred enrollment, so that's fine too.

OK.

Love you ask when I log into my admissions, I see a notification regarding the financial plan. When can I expect to see my financial plan when you log in?

To Mike missions, there should be a link in there that says click here to go see my award in my award is, uh, is the site that financial aid uses to package students for financial aid.

Now, if you're an international student as an international student, you are not able to fill out what's called the fast set of feet free application for federal student aid. It is AUS government application.

The US government application is what let's the financial aid office know how to package financial aid for American citizens and American permanent residence. So if you're not an American citizen or American permanent resident, you will not have a financial aid package there unless you have some type of scholarship.

And international students, but not really just international but all non resident students you have access to merit based aid.

As a merit based scholarships but not need based financial aid or scholarships. So if you look on that my award and you log in an it says, hey we've got nothing or it says you didn't fill out the FAFSA but you know you're an international student and you can't fill out the faucet. That basically means that the financial aid office was not able to package your financial aid as in loans, grants, and if there's no scholarships and they're not listed there.

Then the best that they'll be able to do is in the summertime, they will try to package you for smaller scholarships.

If you happen to have a Regent award or something called a Provost, toward those two are more.

Prestigious scholarships and those are awarded right away, so right from the beginning you will know logging into my admissions that you have that award.

For all of the American citizens on this chat, if you filled out and I hope that you did, if you fill in permanent residents and.

A citizens, if you filled out that fast, said the free application for federal student aid, then there should be some type of financial aid package. Now when students think of financial aid, most of the time you're thinking about scholarships and grants. But the financial aid office is mostly thinking about loans. Loans for you, loans for your parents, things like that.

So it's going to be a combination of loans, grants and then of course, scholarships.

OK, let's see. We've got a question about AP. Given the yeah, we don't mind if the AP is an online format. That's not a big deal. If it's good for College Board, it's good for us what you might want to know ahead, and I'm not really sure if I can show you these things, but here I'm going to cut and paste. This is a.

A PDF is a link to a PDF that you can find on our website. It will tell you what you can get transfer credit for for AP.

Let me see if I can do that right and then I know as soon as I do that we're going to get questions about IB. So let me show you the ID information.

Let's see hold on for just a second.

Copy.

Hum.

So the first one is for AP, the second one is for IB. If you're taking those exams, whether they're online or or not, it's fine. You're going to be able to get credit for them.

Some some scores, like if you get a five in a certain AP exam and you can look at that PDF and it'll tell you it'll allow you to skip that class. So it's a nice way to get ahead without actually having to take the time to take that class. But I would say whether it's AP or IB, I wouldn't rely on those courses to graduate early, right? You're only going to be 18 to 22 once in your lifetime, so I would say take that time and really enjoy your four years of Education.

You know, use it for research. Use it for internships, use it from even more study abroad, but you know just kind of give you that space to be able to do those things. But do not try to use AP and IB to actually graduate even earlier, because I feel like you're going to be missing out on some opportunities there.

OK, let's see. Um, let's see I came all the way down and then I'm OK, uh?

Well.

OK, so there's a question about if you defer by 1/4 due to visa issues, will you graduation be delayed? I mean, it really does depend on the student. Here's the thing. Some remember how I said you can take 15 ultimately up to 18 per term to graduate its 180, one 8 zero quarter units to graduate. So sometimes students will take classes all during the year and then take classes in the summer and then there are able to graduate in three.

Calendar years, others will take their time and take 5 calendar years to graduate so it really does depend on you and how you want to approach it. I I encourage students you know if you don't want to fall behind because of that one quarter that it took you to to find your way to Davis and maybe had to defer. Then maybe take some class in the summer, but why not also take a break or use that summer to do that internship or a research?

You know project or something like that, so there's other ways to make up that time. It's just a matter of taking those units taking those classes.

And I think I answered your question.

And yeah, I would the link with the ID and the AP. It may it will show you if there are some prerequisite courses that you've made up for but I can tell you most of the classes. They're going to say. Hey won't give you credit for it. But we really want you to take the class and so I don't know I feel like especially the math.

Chemistry, to be honest, those are gatekeeper classes, right? Those are the ones that decide whether you're really going to become a doctor or not. So whether you did well in AP or not, or I be, I would say go ahead and take that class at the University level because it's going to be so important for your future.

OK, here's a question. How long do we have to live in California to be considered in-state? Here's the thing. The residency issue, right residency for tuition purposes.

That is not based on where the student lives, so parents, if you hear me, I hope you can. It's the parents is where the parents live. It's where the parents pay taxes, vote owner, home. All those things you have to be able to prove to the University of California that whether you have a child that goes to school or not, your primary residence is in California. If you're able to prove that.

After residing here as your primary residence for one full year, I think is one year plus one day. Then your student will qualify for in state tuition so long as they are not an international student, right? So long as there not an F1 visa. If you're a permanent resident, if you're a citizen again parents, the Guardians are the ones now sometimes.

Families will say, OK, we've got an anti or we've got an uncle. They live in San Jose and now you belong to them. My son will now belong to them. It really isn't so easy. You have to legally divorce each other as in legally divorce your child students. You have to legally say Yep, I can't be with them now it's my auntie and uncle who are my new parents and then you may be able to qualify for in state tuition. So if the tuition is uh.

And it should be. It should be 100%. It should be a concern for everyone who's thinking about going to University. Tuition should be a concern if it is such a concern.

But you don't feel comfortable being able to to pay for four full years of tuition. Then I would say let's start talking about other ways to get a really good education, because let's be honest of Bachelors degree is not the final goal, right? The Bachelors degree is just a vehicle. It's a vehicle to a Masters or a pH D. It's a vehicle to an MD or a law program or a veterinary.

Medison program it is a vehicle to a job. It is not the final destination, so keeping that in mind, you do not need to absolutely pay full price for.

The University when there are so many other fantastic colleges and universities that are going to cost less and still give you a lot of fantastic opportunities, I will be reaching out to everybody after the webinar to offer like more one on one advising if you want to meet through a zoom meeting room. That way we can kind of look at each other and say Hi and actually have a group meeting where we're talking to each other instead of.

Me reading your chat questions but I cannot stress enough. I adore Davis. I enjoy Davis, I work for Daves for many, many, many years, but I don't think that UC Davis is going to be the perfect fit for everybody. And when I say the perfect fit, I mean like the environment, the cost of the tuition, the programs, right? We have fantastic things for a lot of people, but we're not going to be perfect for everybody.

So, so we will have an opportunity to to get into more of those details later, and I hope you take me up on that offer to meet in person. Not well, not in person. You know what I mean? The zoom.

Now financial assistance for international students. Whether it's because of pandemic or just because Cheryl, we do have some financial assistance, but it's more of that emergency kind of assistant. So for our students who are currently here who are already part of our campus, any students who find themselves in any kind of financial situation, we have emergency short term loans. We also have emergency grants and things like that.

But as far as financial assistance for perspective students or newly admitted students, the only thing that we have are those merit based scholarships. And like I said, we will be offering more scholarships throughout the summer, but they tend to be a lot smaller and so I just want to manage your expectations and and how do you understand that you know if you get a scholarship during the summer, it maybe 3 to $500. It may be compounded with another 3 to $500 scholarship. You may get two or three of them.

But it really won't take such a dent out of your non resident tuition to really make an impact on your ability to say yes to UC Davis.

Now it's a question about how to contact the financial aid Department to update them on the financial situation. Your best bet is always to go straight to the source and the source for financial aid right now is my awards, which is a link through my admissions and you can't find that. Let me see if I can find the financial aid.

I know that they have, so this isn't a fantastic this link. I'm going to send to you. This has some financial.

Information or like options for international students? So you're welcome to go look at it. But to tell you the truth, I feel like it's a bit incomplete, but at some place to start. So that's that. And if you want to contact financial aid directly, you're going to want to go to my awards. That's the best way to do it. Let's see.

A Papa OK, so virtual classes and course. OK, let's back up course details for the first year. Course details are always going to be coming from your advisors.

The first year students that you guys write, your orientation begins. The moment you say yes to UC Davis, there's something called Aggie 101 and it's an online module that you're going to have to watch a series of videos to learn all about what it is to be a UC Davis Aggies.

Now, after you take that, you will be scheduling um again meetings with your advisor from your college. So let's say your major is computer science and engineering. Well, then you're colleges engineering and they will contact you and let you know what classes you need to take. Now I think I saw somewhere else that somebody was asking about. Can I change my major? Let's say, proud of you decide. OK, I am a computer science and engineering major. I don't know, but let's just say you are.

But you want to do mechanical engineering. Well, the good news is you're on the same college right? Both engineering and so they will advise you and say, yeah, no worries, you can change your major the first time. You should take this this and this.

Let's say it's it's a little different. Let's say you are a Japanese language major and you love Japanese, but then you realize you know what your love of manga and anime's is. Maybe not what your parents are really expecting, and now they really want you to go into. I don't know. Neurobiology, Physiology and behavior, 'cause they think you're going to be a doctor when you can't just hop out and out of one college like College of letters and science where Japanese resides and go into.

Biosci without a little more planning.

You can't change your major until after your first quarter, and so you can talk to your advisor in College of letters and science and say, Hey, I know I am in Japanese, but I really need to change to neurobiology. They'll be like great. We will advise you towards that, but during your first term you're definitely going to want to go over to neurobiology and ask them about all the other requirements they may have.

Because they need proof, right? We need evidence that you know what you're getting into, and you're not just hopping out of one major and into another. As for virtual classes, will they be?

Hosted or run synchronous to US hours. That is a mixed bag to tell you the truth. This spring. Some of the classes have been synchronous, as in Hey my class was 10:00 o'clock to 11:00 o'clock on Monday, Wednesday, Friday it continues to be even though it's virtual right? Some faculty are doing that, others are saying yeah, it's synchronous. But I'm also going to video it and you can come watch it whenever it's convenient for you.

Others are like I'm not going to stream this. I'm just gonna video tape it and I'm going to post it so it really is a mixed bag and that's the thing with faculty, right? They get to decide how they are hosting. I have talked to current students in the bulk of them. Have said that it has been rather it's been rather flexible, but I think we're all kind of in that learning stage and trying to figure it out. So for those students who left the US, went back to India to shelter at home.

In India?

I think it might be a little bit more tricky for them to try to keep up with the timeline and things like that.

OK, so I'm you asked about a question. What program does UC Davis have that can help me get involved in research in the first year of mechanical engineering major? Well, the good news is any one of our majors you're going to have a lot of research opportunities. We have an office called, Gosh, it's the office of undergraduate research. Let me see if I can find. Yeah, I found I found it. OK, so I'm going to share a link for that.

Basically again, their whole reason for existing is to help you find research opportunities. Now, while this is an office that you can walk into and say, Hey, I'm a mechanical engineering major and I'd like to find some research and they will help you with that. What is super interesting is that most of the students will find their research opportunities very organically. In other words, they will take a class, enjoy it, go talk to their.

Faculty and just say Hey, I love what you talked about today during lecture and you know, you're talking about your research an I want to be part of it. Do you have an open position? And quite simply, that's it. It's pretty straightforward. They are able to do that. That's where a lot of our students.

Will get opportunities. OK, let's see. Uh, is it possible to change your major before freshman year? Note before the 1st the beginning? No, no you cannot. You will be if you need to change your major. It will not happen officially until after your first term at UC Davis. The good news is they will advise you towards that major right during orientation. and I think I didn't finish the orientation talk. So you've got orientation starts with a G 101. That's the virtual modules that you watch online.

And then you'll get distance. Sorry, distance advising from your advisors and then the week before classes begin. Its in person. You move into your residence halls a week early and that's when you have all of your orientation, so they'll still advise you towards your different major. You can absolutely change it, and they encourage that that's not a problem, but you cannot do that until after your first term.

Is there a specific date that we get our aid packages you know I contacted financial aid on Friday so please go take a look at my admissions again it should have updated they have for anyone that they could package the financial aid they have packaged and so you should go make sure to look at the my awards and see what they have for you if they don't have anything for you again it may be because you're an international student?

It may be because the financial aid application from the federal government wasn't forwarded correctly. There may be other things there, so you're going to want to find out what that is.

Uh, OK, sure yeah. What is the percentage of international students who got selected for internships in the USI don't have a percentage to tell you the truth. I do know that over all of our students on campus or undergraduate students, I would say 80% of our students do internships or research. Not not and, but or so there's a lot of opportunities to get involved as far as.

Internships for international students. You need to make sure that the internship you're considering you know you want to be considered for has something to do with your major, so you can't be an art history major and apply for an internship in engineering, for example.

Print off, you have a question about how easy is it to have a one on one with professors. So our professors because of the philosophy of the University of California being teaching, research and service, they are absolutely required to have office hours. Now. Remember I said they have to do research to write. Nothing drives a professor who loves research more crazy than to sit in an office and wait for you to come see them.

So I would say right from the beginning, make yourself available to go see them because they're waiting for you. That's how you end up with the one on ones. It is absolutely possible, and the professors are really keen to see students. I mean, to be honest, they are looking for a really good help in the research world and so the better they are able to get along with you, the better opportunities for internships. And of course in the future, letters of recommendation. And things like that.

OK Cheryl, you've got question which subjective ECT will contribute to LW and what's the minimum score required. OK, so you're asking about the English language writing requirement.

With the the ECT my goodness, I don't know. Let me see if I can pull that up real quick.

Um, the problem is that you know with the pandemic.

Y'all WR we. You know we have lots of different exams. Typically that are available to students, but with the pandemic everything was canceled. What's called the a WP was cancelled, but let me see if I can find what other ways you can satisfy the ELWR. What is ELW? OK, here we go.

Hum.

Hello.

OK well this website is not telling me what I need to know. I hope that you guys are all part of the.

The India, or at least maybe the international Aggies. Um WhatsApp Group. I'm going to put up the QR code. For that, I'm going to find that the answer to this question that yell WR.

Are the LW question and I'm going to try to get that to you as soon as I can. OK, Cheryl, Um?

OK, proud of if the fall semester tends to be on line, would you suggest us to defer semester attend the virtual classes?

Oh gosh, I don't know. I mean, it really depends on your whole approach to your own education. Like if you've been thriving in the last few weeks with a virtual education and also let's not kid the fact that you know it's expensive, it's expensive to go to University. Do you want to spend that money to be on line? I would say knowing who I am right, knowing that I might do better in a more engaged environment.

And because I want to have that more engaged environment that I might be willing to pay for. But maybe I'm not willing to pay for that as as it being online, it really is a very personal question for you and your family. And so I don't think that I could even presume to answer it for you. But I would seriously consider deferring just because it is such an expensive Endeavour.

If you don't see a merit based scholarship so far, you do have a chance of getting some in the future. Like I said in the summer, those of the scholarships that are usually handed out after we know who has said yes, do you see Davis now? The tricky part is again, those tend to be smaller amounts. They aren't the large amounts like the Seven or $8000, or you know what I mean, like the bigger ones that make it easier for you to say yes. So I would say yes, summer is when you're going to have opportune.

Place for more scholarships in every year that you're in school, you're going to apply for more scholarships so you know you will absolutely have opportunities. But if you're looking for a large merit based scholarship and you don't have one right now, it is not likely for them to show up later.

Sure, yeah, you can change majors in the same college. It's pretty straightforward because a lot of the general education is going to be the same.

But again, that doesn't happen again until after your first term. You can start having the discussions with your major advisor, but you do not actually do the paperwork to change your major until after your first term.

Uh, let's see.

Uh, I hope I'm saying Your name, right? I'm an international student. If I get a paid internship during my during anytime in my college career, will that be cut from my opi? T? As I understand it, the last time I checked that does not cut into your opete your opete is post graduation so you could in theory getting paid internship while your student and still qualify for opete.

And yes, if you defer your enrollment, you will retain your major. You just need to make sure to say yes by May 1 and you will be able to retain your major. Oh, here's a question. OK, uhm, is it a stool?

I'm I'm so sorry. I'm mispronouncing it OK. What is the difference between computer science in computer science and engineering computer science as a major lives in the College of letters and science? Because it is all programming. It's all software all the time. Computer science and Engineering is software and hardware. It's the marriage of the two and then Computer Engineering is all hardware. So all three of those things are still. The faculty are still engineering. But because computer science is technically no hardware, it's all all software engineering kind of stuff.

That lives in letters in science, OK?

OK, after the Sir Sheryl. This your question process to deposit further fee I'm going to keep scrolling down to see if there's more questions to that after the Sir. OK so that's the deposit towards your tuition. If we decide to defer, I think there is a fee to defer. But there is a discussion right now about waving that fee to defer because of things being out of your hand.

Whether you can travel or because you can't get a visa at that sort of thing, so I would say wait, you can say yes by May 1, but for deferment just give it a couple weeks while we sort it out and I'll be in touch with you the moment I have an answer for you, OK?

Will you be sharing a recording of this session too? Yes, I think this is getting recorded, so I hopefully I didn't say anything wrong. That'll be awkward, but yes, they should be posted on the same site that you use to register for the webinar and you'll be able to revisit it.

OK so I answer the question with computer science. Are all students here in the College of engineering classified as stem students ineligible for opete? Good news, all students are eligible for Opete. That's the optional practical training that international students can have after they graduate. Whether your art history student or an engineering student, you have at least one year. If you are a stem student, as in College of Engineering is a good example, then you have up to three years.

It's renewable up to three years. Good news. Econ students you are considered stem as well, so you will have up to three years of Opete.

Some of the case of product I think you need to relax some of the other universities are suggesting that we learn programming in specific language before we join for CS major. Does UC Davis have any such recommendation or requirement? No, no you can relax. You will be taking the classes that everybody else is taking. No one's actually going to expect you to know any type of specific language for computer programming. So you can relax and just take whatever you want to take.

Whatever you happen to be enjoying? Uhm, let's see. Is it common to double major? Yeah, it really is. Comments double major. Alot of our students do it, but even more common than a double major is having a major an having a couple miners. A minor is kind of like a major in the sense that you're focused on a certain subject, but it's not so heavy that you're taking all of the classes. It's like you're taking maybe 1/4 of the classes, so a good example might be.

Maybe a language class, right? Or maybe if you're an engineering, you still love music. We see that a lot. We see a lot of Engineers taking a minor in music just to kind of balance out their brain. That's pretty common for now. Your question about a typical class size, since nothing is very typical. I always tell students the best question to ask is always. What's the worst case scenario? OK, so we in universities really like to talk about student to faculty ratios right here at Davis I think is like.

18 to one which is pretty nice or it kind of gives you this idea of being only 18, maybe 20 people in the room and one faculty person. But that's just a ratio in math, right? We counted how many faculty we have. We counted how many students we have. We did some division, and that's a ratio.

The truth of it is because we are some stem heavy, you'll notice that a lot of the classes you're going to have an overlap. Let me give you an example. Everyone in the College of Biological Sciences is going to be expected to take calculus, chemistry, biology.

Um, everyone in Engineering is going to be expected to take calculus, so you already as an engineering student or computer science student, you're going to have classes with all the students from Biosci.

Lots of students are going to be taking general chemistry from the College of Agricultural, Environmental Science, that sort of thing. So the question that you're going to always want to ask universities or students who go to those universities is what's the worst case scenario. What's the biggest class I could end up in UC Davis, the biggest class biggest lecture we offer is 500 people.

And that's for general chemistry. Now obviously we can't have labs with 500 people, so that group of 500 is going to be split up into much smaller groups for discussion an for labs.

But knowing that we do have classes that big kind of gives you an idea of what to expect, right? But if I just told you it's 18 to one and you showed up first day of class and you're expecting 18 people in your, maybe your calculus class and end up being 300, well, you know you're kind of not able to manage your expectations. But if you hear 500 is the worst case, then you show up early. You make sure your there on time you get a good seat right up front. Well now it doesn't matter how many people are behind you.

The class is only as big as the number of people in front of you, and if you feel you hear me say 500 and you show up and it's only 150, then it feels like it's a pretty cozy class. It's all about how you manage your expectations and have a strategy to cope with it. Now, if no matter what right, you know, as you move up in your classes, they tend to get smaller. But if you know yourself like you should know yourself and you know that that's never going to work for you. A large classroom of 100 or 50.

You really do need a small class. Then I would say there are lots of other really good universities out there where that is really true.

So again, my advice is always ask about the worst case scenario and that'll give you a better idea.

OK, what's the last day to defer your admission for different semester? That's a good question. Part of so may one you need by May one you need to say yes. If, for example, you feel uncomfortable like you just cannot figure it out and you don't feel comfortable saying yes by May one, let us know and we can see if we can defer even that we if we can give you a couple weeks or something to give you that time to decide for deferring your enrollment, you need to decide by. I want to say.

It's August 15th. UM, basically it's it's just a a quick applica. It's just a quick document saying, please let me defer. I promise I'm not going to go to school anywhere, right? It's just I need to defer because of XY and Z. So because of the situation with Cove in the situation with embassies and situation went flying. I know 100% this year we are not going to hold so strictly to those deadlines. So even though in the past like I said

We've had deferred enrollment forever in the past. It might have been August 15th, but this year it may be up until you know classes begin, so it's going to be fluid for everybody, absolutely.

OK, let's see. Can I give the AWP exam immediately after coming to Davis? Or do I need to take a course? You WP7 an appear for the exam? I know that if we have classes in person, you will be able to take the AWPE the analytical writing.

Placement exam here on campus that would be part of that one week of orientation.

Absolutely do that. Um but.

E.

Again, I'm not 100% that we're gonna be here in person. I do know right now they're working towards it and that is their goal. So I really, really do hope that that will be able to see each other in person in September.

OK, well that's my time. I'm so glad that you were able to join me. Um, do join us on the group chat for India. We also have the international group chat. Join any group chats that you hear about you know really. Get to know the current students we have current students in there as well. I think you want to remember that I get paid to do this right? Like I love you. See Davis and I've got kids that I would love to send. You see Davis but.

The proof is really with the current students so reach out to current students and I think you'll find that they are very very.

Kind there friendly and they want to help you decide. And they also have heard from me many times about fit and so you know find out from them why they decided that you see Davis was a good fit in. If what they say kind of aligns with what you're thinking then it might be a good fit, but you know you've got plenty of time. You've got at least three more weeks or so. Well, 2 1/2 weeks or so to decide, you know, take your time and let me know if I can help you.

In any way and like I said, I will be reaching out again to see if you and your families would prefer like a small group meeting or something like that. Until then, stay safe and value each other and take really good care of your family and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.