In case someone might search for student exchange stories about UF, and stumble upon this site, I’ll prove a list of tips to help you.

• Always go for on-campus residence, it will be less luxurious than off-campus and you will probably share a room, meaning less privacy. But off-campus (international Weaver Hall for us, try to apply ASAP), means that you won’t be on a convenient location (having to take the bus etc.) And you won’t be with other Internationals (that generally have the same mentality of taking a less serious, and more outgoing approach for the semester.)
• Sign up for the NAVIGATORS (the international association, not the Christian one), this will make it very easy to make a lot of American friends since you’ll be paired with an American. This is the reason you don’t need to be off-campus (where you’d meet other Americans)
• On the first days you can get in the Weaver Hall (almost a week before the start of classes), you can find a donation center in the basement. This will have really useful kitchen utensils/clothing hangers/bedlinnen/lamps/mini-fridges(!!). The earlier you get here, the better the stuff that you can get here.
• DONT take a meal plan. Unless you are extremely lazy at cooking and want to pay an overpriced meal plan that you’re gonna complain about after several weeks. You can still go to the dining hall and pay for your food separately if you really want to go. The options here are either fast food or extremely not appealing (so I’ve been told.)
• Take transferwise as a debitcard, it has the same features (or even more) than most banks, and a low conversion rate. It uses Mastercard which means it’s a credit card from USA’s perspective. (The only thing you can’t pay with this is the ONE.UF bursar (for on-campus rent).
• If you don’t need a lot of data, you can take RedPocket as a phone service plan, it has the cheapest plan with 3-4G available, you’ll have good wifi on campus and several pubs. (Having a different billing address than the shipment address is only possible if you contact them directly.)
• Apply early for Gator Gears, it’s a bike rental service for 40 bucks a month, it’s super safe to bike on campus and if you’re careful/good biker you can take it to nearby supercenters as well.
• Sign up for the six month Amazon Prime trial, as a student you are eligible for one.