What to bring with you?
Following is a list of suggestion compiled by "experienced" fellow students for your reference. Generally speaking, most stuff are not surprisingly expensive here, but to bring some of them will make your life easier, especially at the beginning.
Clothing-- Rhode Island usually has long, cold winter with plenty of snow. A thick coat ($70-100 at least here) is necessary outdoors. A pair of water-proof boots ($20-50 here) is also useful. Room in University Village can be well heated in winter, and all buildings on campus have heaters too, so thick clothes are not necessary and a warm blanket or a thin quilt is sufficient for sleep. Summer in R.I. is moderately hot. Luckily, most office buildings are air-conditioned. Most people wear T-shirts and shorts or skirt in the summer. You will frequently use machine to wash and to dry your clothes, therefore, try to choose 100% cotton and slightly larger clothes. Suits and formal dresses are rarely used but expensive here. Gentlemen may consider to bring one suit and one pair of leather shoes, ladies should bring a few elegant dresses and matching shoes for formal occasions. You may want to bring sufficient amount of shirts, jeans, pants and jackets for daily wear. However, do not bring too much clothing for the sake of it--you may soon find some of them out-of-place here. Cheap ($20 or so) yet good quality clothes can be easily found here.
Money--try to bring about $2500 above though you actually can advance ("borrow") some money from your department if you have a full assistantship. You are supposed to pay $700 or so fees every semester yourself which is not covered by the assistantship. URI may not be able to pay you until about 6 weeks after the beginning of the semester. The housing here is $250 per month or so if you choose to live in Graduate Village. The food here should be less than $200 per month if you cook yourself. Textook in US is very expensive, you should not be surprised to expend handreds dollars on textbook each semester.
Dinning--Most Chinese students choose to cook several times at home and take American food by and now. All University Village houses have kitchen facilities, you can find most materials and utensils for Chinese cuisine in superstore, which are not expensive. However, for your convenience at the beginning, you may want to bring a few stainless steel utensils.
Miscellaneous--Bring your favorite Chinese tapes, CDs and books. Also bring something related to your hobbies, like small musical instruments, badminton racket, and chess. I want to tell you that tennis racket are cheap here. Besides an English-Chinese dictionary (if your major is in science or engineering, an English-Chinese science and technology dictionary is very useful), a Chinese-English dictionary will prove useful. Textbooks and reference books are very expensive here, so bring some useful books (either in Chinese or English) related to your field (especially if your major is in science or engineering). Bring some common medicine, but not too much. The clean environment ensures little chance that ordinary people will become sick. Some small items, such as bowls, chopsticks, spare eyeglasses, etc. will make your life easier. Do not bring things like electronic devices, camera, ink pens or soap and shampoo, though.
