HappyL337

Best way not to get into debt is to not create it.

-Rent a room and not a house when you don't have a job and just get here... In the SF Bay Area a ghetto Hotel room will run you around $1500/month when you can rent a room for like $500-800.

-Start with A job and not THE job you want. It is a hell of a lot easier to find work when you have work. Some people won't hire you unless you have A job. You could get a job your first week here probably but its not going to be an "American Dream" type of job.

-Any responsible person should have enough money for at least 6-12 months so make sure your spending and lifestyle reflect that (many say longer)

I thought I'd respond on this since this really bothered me when applying.

My income looked like: 24k before taxes for 2012 with only 14k of it taxable on tax return and all previous years were less than 10k before taxes. I had my job for less than a month when I had my boss write me an employment letter and spent 5 months of 2012 unemployed. I sent everything about 1 month after the NOA2.

I suggest, stack financial information from good to bad. They go through lots of these and they guaranteed don't read everything. "has money in the bank, has a job" they stop reading... "has a good job, 3 last paystubs" they stop reading... "letter from boss, copy of degree with recent graduation date" they probably stop reading... If you're anything like me then you probably gave them a 200 page report on you and your fiance so they are probably just skimming through it