If you do not have any housing by the first week of the semester, run, do not walk, to the Dean of Students Office in Schleman Hall to obtain the Off Campus Housing listing and advice on obtaining a place to live. They have a copy that you can look at in the office, or you can buy a copy to take with you for a small sum. If you have access to a computer, then you can also search for off campus housing through Purdue's Student Services INFOrmation online.

To access SSINFO, visit http://www.ssinfo.purdue.edu/. The Off Campus Housing section is located in the “General” part of the main menu. Also check the Exponent, the Journal and Courier, and http://www.boilerapartments.com for housing ads and roommate classifieds. If you're an international student, you may want to contact ISS and/or your country's student organization for help.

Assuming that you already have obtained housing for your first term but are interested in other options for the future, we can make the following observations on the housing situation:

• The on-campus housing problem is quite acute.
• The dorms are always filled.
• Grad students often live in one of the Grad Houses or in Purdue Village.

Despite their labels, the Young and Hawkins Grad Houses contain both undergraduates and grad students. The only requirement to be a resident is to be 21 years of age or older. If you wish to live in Purdue Village (PV), you should apply ASAP. Purdue Village, which used to be only for married students (and sometimes is still called Married Student Housing), does allow single students. Spots in PV tend to fill up fast.

There are a numerous student apartment complexes all around campus and many old houses that have been divided into multiple living units. The apartments right around campus tend to be leased in January and February for the following fall semester, so start your search early in the spring for your fall housing. In addition, if you have a group of friends that you can live with, you can usually find an older house for rent if you check the classifieds. One other resource available to grad students is the Purdue Research Foundation (PRF), which has many old houses around campus for rent. Unfortunately for undergrads, PRF will only rent to faculty and grad students.

Apartments within walking distance of campus tend to be quite expensive but if you have transportation, there are numerous apartment complexes all over the Lafayette area that are quite reasonable. If you don't have a car, you can see if the bus line runs nearby. Of course, you always run a risk if you depend heavily on the buses. One more thing to consider when deciding on off-campus housing is related to restrictions on obtaining parking permits. The University will not sell you a parking permit if you live too close to campus. If you plan on driving to campus, make sure you live far enough away to get a university parking permit.

If you are moving into an apartment or house, you will probably need to hook up some utilities. When you sign a lease, check with the landlord to see what utilities are not included in the rent. Then a few days before you move in to your new domicile, call the utility companies to hook up the necessary utilities. Many of the utility companies will demand a deposit for new service if you did not have an account with them previously.

The City of West Lafayette provides curb-side service for recycling and garbage pickup only for houses with four units or less. If you live in a complex or house with more than four units then a private contractor must be hired for garbage disposal. Labeled bins are provided for anyone wishing to drop-off recyclable materials at 705 S. River Road. There are also bins for recyclable materials around Purdue Village. For more information please call the Street Department at 775-5242.

There are a number of bookstores around campus that will be happy to take your life savings in exchange for a text book. University Book Store's main location is across the street from the Union at 360 W. State Street. University Bookstore is the original home of Purdue Pete. The Book Store used Purdue Pete for their logo, and the University later adopted him as the Purdue Mascot. University Book Store also has a smaller branch across from Mackey Arena at 720 Northwestern Avenue. Follett's Bookstore has three locations, 1400 W. State Street in Purdue West, 308 W. State Street in The Village, and 714 Northwestern Avenue across from Lambert Fieldhouse.

Text books are sometimes held on reserve in the Undergrad Library or the Math Library. A few CS text books are also available in the ACM/UPE CS Student Library located in the Undergraduate Resource Center, CS G14. Also check the newsgroup purdue.forsale.books for text books.

Parking at Purdue can be a nightmare. Public parking near campus is in very short supply, and permit parking isn't much better. The largest public parking lot is behind the Stadium, quite a hike from the CS building. A, B, and C parking permits allow you to park on campus. A and B parking permits are for faculty and three-quarter time staff only, so students are normally limited to C parking permits.

A C parking permit allows you to park in C parking places, which are marked by red signs. Unfortunately, the C parking places are generally not close to the CS building with most of the C parking in a lot off State Street by the dorms. To obtain a C parking permit, you must prove that you live more than 1.5 miles from campus (what they call walking distance). A C permit costs roughly $60.

C Garage permits are also availible. These allow you to park at the top of a specific parking garage. Wood St., Marsteller St., and Grant St. garages have CG permits availible. The cost for one is $200.

Parking permit stickers are are sold at the Campus Visitor's Center on the first floor of the Northwestern Avenue Parking Garage, which is across the street from the MSEE Building. You need to take your driver's license and a copy of your lease with you.

If you drive but don't buy a permit, there is public street parking near the building on some of the side streets. However, these spaces are generally all gone by 8:30 am daily and most have a 3 hour time limit, for two reasons:

1. Many folks forget about this time limit, and their vehicles become easy prey for West Lafayette police who roam about with ticket pads armed and ready.
2. The pointless shuffling of vehicles from one parking spot to another amuses the neighborhood children.

Note that cars are time-stamped with a swatch of chalk on one of the rear tires so that the time they've been parked in one spot is known, and, therefore, the time that they're eligible for ticketing is known. Also note that the chalk comes off rather easily (especially when water is applied from a spray bottle, hint, hint). Parking at night is no problem. All A, B, and C spots are open after 5 pm and on weekends. Also, never park in a 24 hour reserved spot; you will be ticketed and towed.

Residence hall parking permits are available to people living in Grad Houses or the Dorms. Stop by the Grad House or Dorm main office to inquire about permits, and check early since the number of residence hall permits is limited. One final note for students living in Purdue Village, you should stop by the PV office on Nimitz Drive after obtaining your Purdue permit in order to get a PV permit. It's free and allows you to park your car near your apartment.

This section presents, roughly, a day-by-day outline of some of what you should do in your first week on campus. See the sections following for more detailed information.

Select courses you want to take if you have not already done so. Fill out a registration form (available in LWSN 1137) and get your advisor's signature on it. Ask Amy Ingram (LWSN 1137) to check it. Take your completed form to the Registrar's Office (basement of Hovde).

Go to Room 130 in the Purdue Memorial Union to get your student ID card. You might want to start a Boiler Express account. This account makes your PUID a campus debit card. Boiler Express is accepted at most eateries and other places on campus.

• If you are athletic, go to the Recreational Sports Center and get a locker (see the section on the RSC later in this guide).
• If you have a Purdue University or department assistantship or a fellowship, get to know Candace Walters in LWSN 2116H by picking up your keys. Then wait for your staff I.D. card to appear in your mailbox with your first pay stub. This card is not the same as your student I.D., and it is good for a 10% discount at the bookstores. If you can't wait for the I.D. card, ask for a letter of authentication from Amy Ingram in LWSN 1137, and take it to the University Bookstore on the corner of State and Grant to get a book discount card.
• Pick up free documents about various things around Purdue, available in the police station (on traffic regulations), from the Dean of Students Office in Schleman Hall 207, on the shelves in the middle of the main hallway of Stewart Center, and at the information desk in the main entrance of the Memorial Union (of particular interest here may be the CityBus schedules, if you plan to use public transportation).
• If you are an International Student, you should have gone through the orientation for International Students. If not, report to the ISS in Schleman Hall 136 as soon as possible.
• If you dont have a career account yet, visit http://www.purdue.edu/securepurdue/careeraccount/ for information on how to get one. You need this account for access to Information Technology at Purdue's Computer Labs and for your @purdue.edu email address, and hence you should get it as soon as possible.

During your first few weeks here at Purdue, you'll encounter many new acronyms and buzzwords. Here is a list of those used most frequently.

• ACM - Association for Computing Machinery. An international organization for computer scientists. Locally, ACM refers to the student ACM chapter which performs numerous services for the students.
• BOSO - Business Office for Student Organizations. This is the office that handles the money and some other matters related to official student organizations such as ACM and UPE. Hopefully, you will not have to deal with them unless you are an officer in a student organization in campus.
• Co-Rec - See RSC.
• ECN - Engineering Computer Network. ECN is the name given to the extensive network of machines maintained by the engineering school.
• ITaP - Information Technology at Purdue; this is the university group that operates and maintains the main university computer system.
• LAEB - Liberal Arts and Education Building. This is an old name for the large building to the south of the CS building, which is now called Beering Hall. Many people still call it LAEB, which can be confusing as this is not somthing you will find on any map. All buildings in the Purdue Campus have esoteric acronyms assigned to them, and by which they are referred to. Consult the map and list at the end of this guide for the complete reference.
• PMU - Purdue Memorial Union. The building next to Stewart Center. See the section about it on page .
• PUCC - Purdue University Computing Center. PUCC is the former name for ITaP; again, you will still see this acronym in use from time to time.
• RSC - Recreational Sports Center. This is one of Purdue's main sports facilities, where you can go practice a large number of sports and physical activities. In 1998 it was officially renamed the Recreational Sports Center, but many people still call it the Co-Rec.
• UPE - Upsilon Pi Epsilon. It is the international Computer Sciences Honor organization, whose objectives are to recognize and promote scholastic achievement and original investigation in the computer sciences. There is a UPE chapter at Purdue. Membership is by invitation only.