Written by Yusheng Wang
Welcome to UCI!
While being excited about a new journey in the US and in UCI, don’t forget to prepare yourself physically, mentally, and financially!
In this article, I will mainly talk about how to effectively create a budget in preparation of arriving to UCI.
UCI is in the City of Irvine, a beautiful and comfortable city to live in. Irvine is about 40 miles southeast of downtown LA. It has been ranked the 2nd happiest city in the US and one of the top 10 places to raise a family. However, the living expenses are relatively higher than most places in Orange County, and even in Southern California. Therefore, it is critical to effectively create a budget before your arrival, especially if you have a tight budget.
You will be busy checking out the school and settling into your new apartment to make it comfortable in the first few days after you arrive, and everything costs money! From my experience, the most expensive items are: tuition, housing, food, and transportation.
Tuition is definitely the most expensive item in your budget. Congrats to you if you are a PhD student and don’t have to pay for your own tuition. That saves a lot of effort (and money)! The deadline for tuition payment is September 16th for the coming Fall Quarter. Make sure you pay in full amount to avoid being charged a late few or even loss of student status.
Housing costs less money but definitely requires more effort. First is rent which is generally high in Irvine, especially around UCI. If you are lucky and are assigned graduate housing, then the cost is much lower. The average monthly rent is $600-800 in Verano Place and Palo Verde. You also have to pay a $150 deposit. For off-campus housing or undergrad housing, the monthly rent is much higher with a level of about $1000-1500 per room. Room sharing is quite common among the students to make it affordable. In that case, the deposit is really equal to the rent of one month.
After finding a room to live in, most likely it will be an unfurnished house, meaning that there is no furniture inside. You have to buy your own bed, desk, book shelf, pots, pans, utensils, and so on. I really recommend two places to go: IKEA and Walmart. Both are ten-minute-drive away from UCI. You can take Uber or Lyft to get there. The road fare will be about $15 one way.
IKEA is a perfect place for setting up your own home, both for new comers and those who have been around for years. The price for a certain furniture can have a super wide range, depending on the quality, functionality, and other random factors. The very basic furniture that I think is necessary include: a bed, a desk, and a book shelf. The price for a bed ranges from $70 up to thousands of dollars. The price for a desk can be as low as $50. For book shelves are about the same.
If you decide to buy furniture from IKEA, two main difficulties that you will face are getting your furniture back and learning how to assemble them.
IKEA also offers a delivering and assembly service, but the price is on the order of hundreds dollars. Walmart is the cheapest and also the largest grocery store around UCI. It is a good place to buy all the daily supplies. I still go there very often now. I would estimate that a minimum of $500 is needed to set up your home to be suitable to live in.
Food is another cost. It is really cheap if you cook your own meals every day. There are many good grocery stores nearby to buy food. Target, Trader Joes, Wholesome Choice, Zion market, 99 Ranch, H-mart, they are all good and kind of specialized in different categories. A budget of $15 per day is absolutely enough for good and healthy food, if you cook yourself.
Transportation is another matter to consider. Public transportation in Irvine is difficult, but we have our own shuttles in UCI. Most lines are free except W line. Bicycles, scooters, and skate boards are all popular for daily commute.
You can also consider buying second-hand furniture to save some money. Information can be found in some forums. I sometimes use Craigslist to trade old stuff. There are some good and cheap things available out there, but you really need to spend time to look for them.