Basically, the policy has been corrected and now international students can apply for a driver license in Michigan again! You will need a valid F1 visa, I-94 form, a proof of residence address in Michigan and I-20 for proof of your student status. If you don't have a Social Security Number, you may need to request a "letter of ineligibility" from the Ann Arbor Social Security Office. You will receive the letter right away; you will not have to make a second trip to the Social Security office.

I think it's a good news for all international students as it indicates that Michigan is still an international-student-welcomed state. I am thankful for the efforts UM and other institutions have made to prompt this change to be taken place. :)

While I understand your concern, I would like to assure you that this is by no mean a sign of "not-welcoming international students" from either UM or the state of Michigan. International students and scholars are a critical part of UM family. The International Center in UM, along with many other Michigan universities engaged in discussions with the State of Michigan Secretary of State's office and with Legislature of the State of Michigan to ensure that they clearly understand the impact of this change and the importance of providing a means for people who are legally in theUnited States to obtain Michigan driver's licenses as soon as they are informed of this policy.

As of Feb. 15th, legislation to REMOVE this requirement has just been passed by the Michigan House and Senate, and provided that Governor Granholm signs
the bill (which she is expected to do), the new legislation should take effect soon. U-M's international students, scholars, faculty and staff will then once
again be able to apply for Michigan driver's licenses.

The new law is very supportive of international students, and that the old law was just confusing, as opposed to being against international students. And I believe that the "improper" policy is a mistake due to wrongful wording.

In general, don't worry much. I have heard that folks in International Center are optimistics that the new procedure will be taken place before Fall semester this year.

PS:
The text of the bill just passed by the Michigan Legislature is at
http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?2007-HB-4505
You can also find updates to this issue here:
http://www.internationalcenter.umich.edu/

Good news everyone! I got another intern this semester at Fry!!! I am so excited about it...Ok, I know I am crazy, taking 4.5 classes while working 10-15 hours per week is crazy. But hey, the more intern experience you have, the more advantage you have in your full-time job search upon graduation. Company would always prefer a candidate with field experience for sure :)

Anyway, talking about my new internship, I will be a User Experience Intern within the User Experience Group at Fry, Inc. Unlike in Enterprise, where my focus is mainly on interaction design, I will majoyly be responsible for the testing part of a design cycle.

With that, i can tell you a little bit about the interview process. Without doubt, most questions are about my experience in Enterprise: what I have done, how I did it, why I did it this way and what I have learnt. I have a small trick here: Study carefully a position's requirement and try to organize your description so that it fit the requirement. Say they require experience in making interactive wireframe, you'd better have relevant description during your interview or when answering what you have done previously. They have also asked lots of questions about my school project, with a specific interest in my System Evaluation class, since they want me to do testing during my internship. In this, my advice is similar, try organize your speech so that they feel that you have what they need for this position and you are more than willing to learn what you don't have.

I will start my internship soon and have you guys posted :)

Check job postings that interest you
This semester I am taking a class called Graphic Design. I take this class mainly because I want to learn more about design of graphic, or more specifically, about how I can use graphic to make my design more intuitive and more accessible. The main application we use is Illustrator from Adobe, which is another major reason why I would like to take this class.

I’ve seen Illustrator listed as a desired skill in many job postings. And that’s why I would like to at least got to know this application before I start my job search. That’s one way of choosing class. Once you know what you want to do in future, I would recommend you look for those relevant job postings, especially their required or desired qualifications. If there is a skill set that you are not familiar with and there is class that offers that skill, take it.

Alternative design
One method I find really helpful is to bring more than one design options to the meeting. With options, people find it easier to tell which one is better. In addition, they won’t feel that we force them to accept one design; instead, they feel like they are the one who is making the decision. People tend to be more cooperative and open to the design when they are offered multiple design options. .

Conversation outside the meeting room.
Conversation inside the meeting room is important, but sometimes it’s the conversation happened outside the meeting room that play a more critical role. Before the design meeting, talk to the key persons in the team with your design idea. Make sure they understand why you design that way and obtain feedback from them about your design. By doing this, you can be assure that the key person in the meeting understand your design concept and when somebody question about the rationale of your design, you are not the only one in your side.

I have learnt the 80/20 Rule before, which states that for many events, 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes. I understand that it is an important principle for the business. But never have I realized its significance in design until recently. After several A&D meetings, I started to find out that people here judge if one design is reasonable by 80/20 Rule, too. This is the first phase of the project and hence, our main goal is to achieve the functions that most people will be using even if it’s just 20% of the total functions that will be available in the final stage. Whenever we are proposing a design idea, several questions will be asked: first of all, does it meet the 80/20 Rule, is it a must for 80% of the users or just a “nice-to have”? Secondly, is it technically feasible, meaning will it cause a dramatic change in current database structure? And the last one, if it means a reform in current database structure, does its benefit overweigh the cost of the changes we will have to make? We, the usability architects have to consider the questions above every time we come up with a design idea.

I am getting more and more familiar with Visio as I make wireframe in it. Almost all design ideas are demonstrated by Visio. It seems that most people prefer a windows-like wireframe to understand the design idea to sketches and description, which support the recall and recognition theory. They would also like to see the sitemap in order to understand the whole process and workflow. But we try to keep the wireframe as simple as possible in the design aspect. We never color coding anything, because we find out that if we set something into some color, people will start to question if that color is proper and lose focus on the design itself. In addition, the color coding will have impact on the visual designer when they are doing the actual visual design.

Advice: for HCI students, you'd better prepare yourself with Visio before the internship. It's very likely that you will use it in your internship:)

It has been almost 10 weeks since I started my internship as a usability architect in Enterprise Rent-A-Car. I have learnt a lot from this internship and am really enjoy my time here.

The most valuable concept I learnt is that decision are never made within a meeting but outside the meeting. As a usability architect, I not only do design for the business, but also selling my idea to them. In the meeting, our presentation has to meet their need on the product while taking into consideration the actual need of the customer. However, people tend to question your idea when it is the first time they ever see it. Hence, it is important to have small talk with the key individuals in the team about your design and make sure that they support, or at least understand, your design before the formal meeting. This way, when you are presenting your design in your meeting, you know that several key individuals have learnt about your design and understand it, which helps smooth the discussion process.

It helps clarify my mind on what I would like to do in the future. I can now say firmly that I like doing HCI related jobs. And at least I know that I like doing design under some constraints. In companies that IT plays a main role, Google, MS, you just need to come up with genius ideas and no need to think about the business or if it is technically feasible, that is not part of your job. But in companies that IT is as support service, we need to consider both of these factors. Some people may feel limited by these constraints, but I find myself enjoy working within some boundary, which makes me clear about what direction I should be heading to.

One exciting news, I am offered to extend my internship here this fall! I will post my learning from my internship regularly. So keep checking:)

For international students, you can do ON-campus work, meaning that the employer and its property should be UM property in order to be counted as on-campus, for at most 20 hours per week according to the policy here. You are not allowed to work off-campus, such as restaurant, or exceeding the 20 hours limit per week.
You can check here for detailed information:
http://www.umich.edu/~icenter/immig/fvisa/f_emploption.html

PS: Due to the change of the policy in 2005, international students have to obtain an on-campus job in order to apply for Social Security Number, which is quite important here. You need it when you apply for off-campus housing, cell phone and etc. Or you may be required for deposit during application, which is quite annoying!

In your first semester, I recommend that you work at most for 10 hours, since you need time to adapt the new environment. There are various kinds of PT jobs available here, such as library assistant, lab assistant and the likes. Once you enroll, you will be subscribed to the SI mailling list, which will have PT, intern and FT jobs information email to you frequently. You can also have access to iTrack, our job posting system, to look for PT jobs posted there.

Also, you can check the following websites for possible PT jobs:
http://www.studentemployment.umich.edu/
http://www.umich.edu/~websvcs/genmed/
http://www.housing.umich.edu/general/jobs.html
http://www.soe.umich.edu/students/index.html
http://www.lib.umich.edu/hr/employment/student_job.html
http://uuis.umich.edu/onlineApps/index.cfm

But first of all, I have to tell you all that I don’t have any kind of scholarship from UM. Yes, you are right, I do NOT. So my suggestion is based on my own experience during my scholarship search and my friends’ experience.

What scholarship is suitable for international students?
There are many kinds of scholarships available within SI and UM. I mentioned different website in my previous blog that you can check it out. For international students, the International Center website is really helpful! (http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/iisite/fundops.html) You can check available funding based on the country you are from.

http://www.fastweb.com/ is another useful website for possible scholarship for all students in the United States. However, you need to compete with other students in the States rather than students in UM or even SI only. Usually, you need to hand in a statement and/or reference letter in order to apply for the scholarship there. By using advanced search function in the website, you can narrow down the scope of scholarship that you may be eligible for.

Advice on scholarship, TA and RA application
Start as early as you could. Many scholarships are on rolling basis and you do want to apply as early as you could, so-called “first move advantage” in game theory: P In addition, you could have much more time to prepare your material since you start early.

Read carefully the requirement of the statement if it is required, whether you are applying for a scholarship, a TA or RA. Try your best to describe what they want to see in your statement by matching key concept in the requirement. By this way, you can practice your writing, too. ^_^

Keep a good relationship with the faculty. Generally, you’ll need reference from faculty during the application. Keeping a good relationship with the faculty helps a lot on this. I do NOT mean that you have to bribe your professor or anything. But you do want to let the professor know you better by either talk to them regularly or do a good job in class.

Never give up easily. A friend of mine was originally rejected by the department of a TA position at the beginning of the process. But she kept emailing them about status and updates and expressed her interest on the position. Guess what? Another student finally decided not to accept the position, and the department eventually gave it to her!

Next time I will talk about the strategy on PT job searching.

As a UM student, you have two options on public transportation. First is the school bus, we call it Blue Bus since blue is representative of UM. We shout “Go Blue” when we watch UM football competing with other university. Blue Bus is a very convenient way to transport between campuses. We have several routes commuting south campus, central campus and north campus. The frequency for a route is 20 minutes. So if you live in on-campus housing, it will be certainly on the route of Blue Bus. Detailed information can be found here: http://www.transportation.umich.edu/

Another way is the city bus. With UM student card, you can take the city bus for free. It has many routes that cover most area in Ann Arbor and Yipsilanti, a town next to Ann Arbor. Many routes also drive through campus; many students take city bus to central campus frequently. However, it may not be convenient to take city bus on weekend in that the frequency of the city bus reduces to 1 hour per bus. You can check the schedule and routine here: http://theride.org

Ann Arbor is not a big city, but the winter here is really cold. So depending on your financial condition, you might consider purchase a car here. In weekday, parking in campus is extremely difficult, because priority is given to faculty and staff. There is a GSA (Graduate Student After-hour) permit for graduate student that allows you to park in the campus parking structure after 3pm in weekdays. After 6pm, all the street parking will be free, too. However, it is still hard to find a parking slot. Parking information could be found also at: http://www.transportation.umich.edu/ Many students use car for weekend grocery and vocation traveling. Most grocery stores are not close to living area, which is quite inconvenient for students without cars, especially in the cold winter. During the semester, we usually will have a one-week break around mid-term. People usually go out for a trip to New York City, Chicago, LA or even Toronto since it is really close to Michigan (only about 4-hour’s drive. But international student need Canada visa and have their I-20 signed for traveling by International Center). At this time, a car will be quite useful.

If you plan to travel by plane, you will be most probably taking off at DTW, the airport in Detroit, which takes about 45 minutes to drive there. At the beginning and ending of the semester and holidays, the university will have shuttle from campus to DTW. http://www.msa.umich.edu/airbus/

Next time I will introduce you some good restaurants that I’ve been to in the past semester.

Most students have issue on “oh-so-poor-graduate-student”. So here I would like to talk a little bit about financial aid.

Scholarship
There are different kinds of scholarship available within and outside SI. People with most patient and go through the whole financial aid webpage sometimes will get surprise. http://www.si.umich.edu/applying/fin-aid.htm This is really a great source to find funding. You can also check the UM financial website for other funding opportunity. http://www.finaid.umich.edu/guides/gradStudents.asp I strongly encourage new student to at least read through these two websites. You will find many resources there.

Graduate Student Instructor
This is what some people call TA position. Since SI doesn’t have undergraduate study, we have limit GSI positions. And GSI for the master level class are often granted to PHD student. But there ARE some master students who gain GSI position in the second year due to their outstanding performance in specific class in the first year. Also, you can look for GSI position in other department if you have other background or knowledge, such as Psychology, Art.

Graduate Student Research Assistant
This is granted by Professor individually. Although most GSRA positions will be provided to PHD students, you do have chance if you can demonstrate your skills to the Professor. You can first take a look at the research area here: http://www.si.umich.edu/research/default.htm Find the area that most match your interest and contact the Professor directly. You might first be hired as hourly-paid, depending on your performance, you are likely to gain a GSRA position.

Employment opportunity
Part time job is unlikely to be enough to cover the tuition, but it at least helps you with your living expense. http://www.studentemployment.umich.edu/ Here you can find the posting of different PT jobs on campus. You can sometimes receive information about PT jobs in our SI maillist once you enroll in the program.