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ConfusedCuddlefish t1_itwj966 wrote

The US, and especially grad schools, are very very email based, so don't be afraid to reach out. It may literally be required for acceptance into the school. You should email both the chem engineering advisor and the international student contact person, and their info should be available on the UMaine website.

Make sure to ask them as well if applications are made to the overall program without finding an advisor sponsor first or if you need to find an advisor before you submit your application. It's more and more common to have to find an advisor for grad school that will take you on and have funding (unless you have your own funding), which will mean many more emails. The Gradschool subreddit is pretty US centric and can also help with that process.

The one thing that social media is good for though is finding if there are clubs or groups of students who are also from your country or similar situations. Reaching out to them can help give an idea of common culture shock problems and give a support network for questions that you may not think to ask on your own. Facebook is pretty popular for those groups but there are also international student clubs that you can reach out to. Just search 'UMaine club list' and it should pull them up along with contact info for each one.

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MickeyNico OP t1_itwki1w wrote

Thank you so much for comprehensive info, highly appreciated

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