New Student Orientation

IDP Check-in Date:  Thursday, August 11th.  Be ready to start full-time on Friday, August 12th.  Please see Orientation Activities below for more details.

GatorLink accounts:  Please be sure to set up your GatorLink account over the summer – no later than July 15th.  GatorLink accounts are required of all graduate students, and will be your “official” e-mail address while here at UF.  You will be able to set up automatic forwarding to another e-mail address if that is your preference.  As soon as you have your GatorLink address, please notify Valerie Cloud-Driver.

Update your Emergency Contact Information.  You must log on to MyUfl to update, and this must be done before you can register.

Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience tour:  If you might be interested in using comparative models in basic biological and biomedical research, check out the Whitney Laboratory (http://www.whitney.ufl.edu).  Whitney Lab faculty members are affiliated with the IDP, and have research programs in the areas of physiology and biochemistry of vision and olfaction, neurotransmitter physiology, pharmacology and evolution, the structure and function of ion channels, motor pattern generation, membrane transport systems, and gene regulation.  A tour will be available on Thursday afternoon, August 11th.  Transportation, box lunch, and dinner provided for up to 17 students.  If you are interested in touring the Whitney Lab to find out more about research opportunities, please contact to Sandy Schonder, Sandy@whitney.ufl.edu, phone (904) 461-4001 no later than August 9th.

Attention INTERNATIONAL students!  Please be sure to have enough personal funds to support your living expenses for 2-3 months when you move to Gainesville.  Your target date for moving to Gainesville should be during the first week of August, so that you can find a place to live and be settled by Thursday, August 11th.  Because of all of the paperwork that must be done to get you on payroll, your first pay check will be delayed by as much as 2 months.  Please contact Valerie Cloud-Driver in the Office of Graduate Education (room R1-102, phone 273-8600) as soon as you arrive in Gainesville, so that you can begin the paperwork as soon as possible and minimize the delay.  (Please note that it also takes a few months for the travel award to be processed.)

You should plan to move to Gainesville no later than the week of August 1-7, to give you enough time to settle in, arrange for utilities, phone connections, etc.  As outlined below, please check-in on Thursday, August 12th, and be ready to start full-time on Friday, August 13th.  Orientation activities are mandatory.

Utilities:      Gainesville Regional Utilities, 301 SE 4th Avenue, open from 8 AM – 5 PM weekdays, phone 334-3434
On the Web:    Homepage

Telephone:    Bell South, for new residential service, call 780-2355      On the Web:    Homepage
(Be ready to provide your SSN, name & phone of a personal reference, name & phone of your landlord or leasing agent, your choice of long-distance service provider)

Cable TV:    Cox Communications, 6020 N.W. 43rd Street
On the Web:    Homepage    Customer Service

Other web links that might be useful:
City of Gainesville    Searchable UF Campus Map    UF Homepage

The Orientation Week of August 15-19 will be busy!
Key dates:
Essential course activites begins Tuesday, August 16
Core course begins Monday, August 22