Textbooks
Bring all textbooks you think you might need to keep your ‘fundae’ clear.These are very, very expensive here. Also, bring some stationery to get you started. You might want to bring the eBooks.
Hardware Stuff:
Toolkit (small screwdriver, spanner, scissors), sewing kit, safety pins, a good leather purse or wallet with sections for the bunch of credit cards/key cards/id s etc that you’ll accumulate in no time here.
Bring Your Smart Phone Along If You Already Got One. You get to use the free wifi all around the campus. Smart phones come in handy to communicate till you get yourself a new phone connection
Money
The one-time expenses that you will incur probably even before you get your first stipend include apartment deposit + first month’s rent (about $350 in all per person), health insurance(about $709 per sem), telephone connection( $50 for a go-phone) , electrity deposit (about $100 shared among housemates) initial expenditure on house (foodstuff, kitchen stuff, furnishing about $200 shared among housemates) and/or buying cycle ($100-300). There are a lot of smaller expenses which add up faster than 2 and 2 add to 4. If you get your first stipend quite late, you must also include your living costs (see below). About $1200-1500 should suffice, $2000 should be comfortable. DO NOT BRING THOMAS COOK TRAVELER’S CHEQUES. There is some problem with processing them and it may even take more than a month for your money to be converted back. Get American Express Travellers Cheques if possible. Prefer to carry the FOREX cards or get a DD payable to yourself which you could encash once you open a bank account