OT 610: International Students

Finding a Place to Stay

It is your responsibility to find your own place to live while you are attending OT 610. However, PTN staff can sometimes recommend a room or apartment that may become available when previous OT 610 therapists complete the course. If you are interested in such a recommendation, ask Stefanie Bodison for information on who to contact, approximately one month before your OT 610 session begins. If no recommendation is available, then you will need to find a place to live on your own.

It is important to know that it can be difficult to rent an apartment or a room without being able to visit the place in person. Prepare to stay in a hotel/motel or youth hostel the first 1 or 2 weeks, before you move into a more permanent place (most hotels/motels charge per room, no matter how many persons stay in it). If possible, travel around a bit in the surrounding areas of the clinic and then decide in which area you want to live. It is usually more difficult to find an apartment for a short period of time than it is to rent a room; many places want you to sign a rental deal for at least six months. If leasing an apartment for 6 months is not an option for you, an alternative would be to rent a room during the 4 month course duration. “Rooms to Let” are advertised in the Penny Saver (a local newspaper of weekly classified ads) and in the Daily Breeze (daily newspaper of the South Bay area).

A map of the area will help to have an idea of the distance between PTN (clinic) and your place of residence. A good one is Rand McNally’s map of Torrance/Carson/Long Beach. When you have decided in which area you want to live, consider the distances between home and work. Some areas require a car, and others are within biking distance or within reach by the public transportation system. (See Transportation section below.) Nice and relatively safe areas to live in, which are fairly close to the clinic, are West Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, North and South Redondo Beach, and Palos Verdes.

If you want to start looking for places from at home, you can visit on the internet www.aptguides.com or www.southbayrentals.com. This will give you an idea of how much the rent varies for places of different sizes and in different locations.

When in Los Angeles, look for ads in newspapers. Here are some suggestions.

Free in markets and drugstores:

L.A. Apartment Guide (monthly)
Pennysaver (weekly)
4Rent

Free in Beach Cities:

Easy Reader (weekly)
The Beach Reporter (weekly)

Local newspaper:

The Daily Breeze (daily)

Look under classifieds in the daily and weekly papers for ads on “Roommates”, “Room to rent”, and “Real estate to rent”. Make sure that you get a written contract and a receipt of the money you pay when moving in. Usually you are asked to pay one month’s rent as a security deposit, and if moving out, it is expected that you announce it 30 days ahead, if nothing else is agreed upon. If you do not or cannot spend the time looking for a place, there are agencies available to help you (one of them is South Bay Rentals). They will match your search for place to stay with someone wanting to let a room. The charge for this service is about $60.

Telephone

As soon as you know your new address, call the local provider (GTE, Pacific Bell) and place an order for a phone. If you want a long distance carrier (Sprint, AT&T, etc.), which you need in order to place any calls outside the local area, make sure you place an order with them as soon as your local order is confirmed and you have a phone number. It can take up to a week for both companies to release your phone line.

A way to get even better rates for your long distance calls is to contact companies, like WorldXChange (can be found on the Internet) that offer special prices for those calls. You still need a long distance carrier to be able to use their services. When placing the orders, make sure you mention that you are a college student and/or do not have an income here - they often offer special rates or reduced monthly fees.

Internet

If you want to use the Internet to communicate, most public libraries offer the service. Some of them offer it free of charge (then you cannot usually use e-mail) and some of them charge a small fee per hour. Sometimes they require a library card, which is usually free of charge for residents and couple of dollars for nonresidents. You can also use the Internet at most copy-shops, but they typically charge more per hour.

Transportation

The only reasonable way to get around L.A. is by car. If renting/driving a car is not an option for you, using public transportation is possible but you’ll need time and patience. Some therapists have opted to use bicycle transportation. This may work for you if you live within a few miles of PTN.

L.A. has several regional transport systems, the largest of which is MTA. The Torrance area is serviced mainly by Torrance Transit (TT). TT buses 1, 3, 5, and 9 stop by the bus stops nearest PTN so consider these bus routes when choosing your lodgings. Bus schedules are printed in pamphlets that can be picked up on the buses (they are not posted by the bus stop). Having a monthly bus pass (which can be purchased from Torrance Civic Center West Annex) is a convenient way to use the buses.

For directions on how to get to USC (University Park Campus) from PTN by bus, see the section below on “Registration at USC.” If you are planning to use the public transportation system, the easiest way to obtain information and time tables is to call 1-800-COMMUTE or to go to the local library.

For rental cars (daily, weekly, and monthly) look through the yellow pages under “Automobiles Rentals”. Make sure you call more than one company and ask for price information - rental fees can differ a lot.

A recommendation is to join the AAA (Automobile Association of America) if you are not already a member of a cooperating association. A membership is about $60 and will enable you to enjoy discounts on rental cars, hotels, restaurants, etc. AAA also offers you maps and information on any place in North America, free of charge.

Registration at USC

To travel by bus to USC University Park Campus (UPC) from Torrance, take TT2 from Del Amo Bus Terminal (behind Del Amo Shopping Mall) direction Downtown, get off at the corner of Jefferson and Hill streets, and walk two blocks to USC UPC.

Bring the following documents to the University Park Campus of USC (just south of downtown Los Angeles) for registration:

Passport
Visa
Letters from the OT Department confirming you as a student of the OT 610 course
Permission to Enroll form from Dr. Parham
Documentation of your health insurance at home.

Follow registration instructions given to you by Stefani Bodison.

Health Insurance

Make sure that you do not pay for the Student Health Center and for the USC Health Insurance, if you have an insurance from your home country. To have the insurance fees deducted from your bill, you need to get in touch with a Student Health Assistant at the Eric Cohen Student Health Center at the Health Sciences Campus, where the OT Department is. They send you a form that you have to return with a copy of your insurance before it is confirmed that your insurance is valid for your stay.

Paying Your Bills

The easiest way to pay your bills here in the United States is to open a checking account in any bank and just send a check together with the bill. Some banks require you to have a social security number to allow you to open an account. If you do not have an account here, you can buy a money order at a United States Post Office (cost about $1), but you have to pay it in cash.

Good luck and enjoy your stay!

This information was originally developed thanks to the efforts of Maria Rudlinger, OT 610 occupational therapist from Switzerland and Sweden, Spring 1999. Additional and updated information on housing and transportation were contributed by Marite Belarmino Fischer, OT 610 occupational therapist from Switzerland and Philippines, Fall 2003.

Updated and edited by Stefanie Bodison, January 2007.