Welcome to the Graduate Program in Biostatistics at the University of Washington. We hope that you will find this booklet useful in answering your questions about Seattle, the University, and our department. If you have any questions not answered below, please call or email either Renée Albert, Student Services Counselor (206-616-6734; rca@u.washington.edu) or Professor David Yanez, Graduate Program Coordinator (206-543-1044; yanez@u.washington.edu).
The University is about twenty miles north of Sea-Tac International Airport, three miles north of downtown and about half a mile east of I-5.
FROM SEA-TAC AIRPORT: Take Metro Transit (city bus) #174 or #194 to downtown Seattle. Transfer to a #70, 71, 72, 73 or 73 (see enclosed bus schedules for information on where to make the transfer) to the University district. If you are taking a city bus from the airport, get a transfer when you enter the bus. Transfers are good for at least an hour and can be used on any Metro bus, going any direction (even to return on the same bus), for one zone. Note that you pay exact change (or show your transfer) as you enter a bus, if it is going towards downtown. You pay as you leave a bus, if it is going away from downtown. Riding in the heart of downtown is free -- you can get on and off any bus without paying so long as you don't leave the downtown area.
The Shuttle Express (206-622-1424) booth is located near Baggage Claim. They will take you to the exact address you are need for around $30-40 (University district). Be forewarned that they may make several stops along the way. Direct service is also available to the University district via taxicab.
BY AUTOMOBILE VIA I-5: Find Interstate 5 (do not get on the express lane), then take the 45th street exit and go east, following the signs. The University is about a half mile east of the freeway.
See alsoDirections to the Health Sciences Complex
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A few of the nearby hotels:
College Inn (206-633-4441), 4000 University Way NE; closes at 11:00 p.m., shared bathrooms.
University Plaza Hotel (206-634-0100), 400 NE 45th
University Motel (206-522-4724), 4731 12th NE
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Cars: Parking on campus is generally not easy. We encourage you use other forms of transportation, such as Metro Bus or biking. Students can purchase parking stickers for parking lots E2 and W40, though they are far from Health Sciences. Students may also park in lot E1 and in lot E12.
Buses: Numerous buses run to the University District from all directions. Transfers, good for an hour, can be used on any Metro bus to go any direction--even to return on the same bus. Monthly passes--called U-Pass--are subsidized by the University. A U-PASS sticker is sent to you each quarter with your registration confirmation. The quarterly fee is included on your tuition statement. If you do not want to use the pass, you can return it in the blue business-reply envelope provided in the registration confirmation packet, or with your tuition, or in person at Student Accounts. You must return the sticker before the tuition due date, usually the third Friday of the quarter, or you will be charged.
Bicycles: Many people travel by bicycle, despite the rain and hills. Sections of several roads approaching the University have bicycle lanes marked off. The Burke-Gilman Trail, the longest bicycle trail in the US, runs past the University and along the western side of Lake Washington for about 15 miles. All city buses are equipped with bike racks.
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It is best to come as early as possible before school begins to look for housing. Shared housing runs between $400-500 a month. One bedroom apartments in the University District rent for around $650 and up. Two bedroom apartments start at about $800 a month and houses at about $1200. Some of the areas convenient to the University by bike or bus include: Ravenna, Wallingford, Green Lake, Fremont, Montlake, Eastlake, Sand Point, and Wedgwood.
The University's Housing Office, in the basement of the Student Union Building (HUB), carries listings of apartments, houses and rooms for rent. Campus bulletin boards are particularly good for finding shared housing and can be found on the main floors of the HUB and South Campus Center, and on the second floor of Health Sciences. Newspapers (the Seattle Times, Post Intelligencer, Weekly, the University's Daily, and neighborhood papers (usually free in drug and grocery stores)) all carry listings. New ads for housing come out in Sunday's Seattle Times/PI. They are available on the Web http://marketplace.nwsource.com/rentals/) on Thursday night and at newsstands on Saturday morning. Most landlords count on starting to show newly advertised rental properties on Saturday.
Another resource on the web is the ASUW Off-Campus Housing Affairs site which lists off-campus housing for students; the listings require a current UW Net ID, which you can get on-line once you've paid your enrollment deposit and have received a student number.If you want to live in campus housing, residence halls, family housing, and single student apartments are available. Check the student housing web site (http://www.washington.edu/hfs/) for descriptions and eligibility requirements. The Housing Office (Phone: 206-543-4059) should automatically send you information on housing.
See UW
On-Campus Housing site
See also Seattle
Times
classified
rental ads
and Seattle
Weekly's
classified ads.
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The Department of Biostatistics is one of five departments within the School of Public Health (along with Epidemiology, Health Services, Environmental Health, and Pathobiology). The Graduate Program Coordinator, Dr. David Yanez, and the Chairperson of the Biostatistics Department, Dr. Bruce Weir, have offices here.
The department is located on the sixth floor of the F-Wing of the Magnuson Health Sciences Center, with additional office space on the sixth floor of H-Wing. The Health Sciences complex is on the southern end of the campus, overlooking Portage Bay, and attached to the University Hospital. A campus map can be found here.
On-street parking is scarce. If you plan to drive regularly to campus, it is recommended you purchase your parking permit on the first day of the quarter. Please see the resources on UW Parking above for more information.
When you have found the Health Sciences Building, stay on floors 3 and 4. (Floors 1, 2 and 6 do not connect most wings.) When you have found F-wing, go all the way (avoiding the freight elevator) to the southern end of the hallway (towards the water) and take one of the two elevators to the sixth floor. The elevator will bring you directly to the Biostatistics Department.
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Dr. David Yanez assigns an initial faculty advisor to each new student as he or she enters the program. They will assist you in planning your schedule for the upcoming year. You should discuss course requirements with your advisor before you register each quarter.
Your advisor will work with you until your thesis/dissertation advisor is chosen. If you are working towards a master's degree, you will choose a thesis advisor typically after your first year. If you are going for a Ph.D., you will choose a dissertation advisor sometime in your third year.
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If you have been awarded financial support (Research
Assistantship, Teaching Assistantship, stipends and/or
Traineeships), you must see May Fung, Payroll Coordinator, as
soon as you arrive to take care of the paperwork. Should you
receive a tuition billing, which occasionally occurs, contact May
in the H-Wing offices.
May Fung, H-655, 616-7406, fungm@u.washington.edu
If you have financial support through the department, you are covered through the Graduate Appointee Insurance Plan. Students who are covered by this should not enroll for insurance through the MyUW registration system. EXCEPTION: international students who have financial support through the department MUST enroll for the student insurance. The system will automatically waive the fee for coverage and you will not receive a bill.
IMPORTANT: ALL students who are eligible for Graduate Appointee insurance MUST enroll at the UW Benefits website within 30 days of eligibility.Return to Contents
You may have your mail forwarded to the department and held for you until you have found a permanent address in Seattle. DO NOT send boxes of books to us, however, because we do not have the space to store them, even temporarily. Departmental mail will be placed in your campus mailbox (in the F-wing front office of the Biostatistics Department). You are urged to check it regularly. These notes help keep you informed of the course schedule changes, social activities, and other activities of interest to students.
The Department uses email extensively for communication. Once you have registered for classes, you should be able to open an email account on the UW system (your "UW Net ID"). You will need to let the department know your new UW email address so we can add it to our hardcopy department email list and so you can be added to the department's student listserv. Questions about email can be answered by our IT group ("bite" -- see "Advanced Computer Lab" below for contact information). The Biostat Bulletin, an electronic calendar of events, as well as other information about visitors, seminars, and parties, is routinely sent through email.
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Social get-togethers and pizza parties for students and faculty are held throughout the quarter in the late afternoon, and include snacks and beverages; these are usually held in the conference room or somewhere close to the department, and are announced via email. Other social events include potlucks, hikes, and the annual retreat.
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The Biostatistics Seminar (BIOST 580A) meets every Thursday, 3:30-5:00 each quarter. Speakers include resident faculty, visiting researchers, and advanced graduate students. This seminar, for which enrollment is open to all UW students, is a required course for all Biostat students.
The Statistical Genetics Seminar series (BIOST 580B) meets every Tuesday, 3:45-4:45pm during Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarters, and is open to any student interested in this area.
The Student Seminar series (BIOST 580C) meets regularly each quarter and provides a forum for intellectual exchange in an informal setting. The motivating idea for the series is to create a comfortable setting where collaboration can take place and where students can be exposed to different stages of performing independent research. Both students and faculty are encouraged to give presentations. Previous student presentations have included such things as RA work, extended class projects, Master's theses, dissertation progress, data analyses, practice talks, and journal articles. Student speakers especially may like to take advantage of this opportunity to ask for help or feedback on a particular problem, on presentation skills, or simply to share research results. Faculty members have presented works in progress as well topics of special interest.
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The Department of Biostatistics maintains offices for use by biostatistics students one PC per student. Each PC runs Microsoft Windows XP Professional. Students are also able to use personally-owned laptop computers. All of the PCs provided by the department can access the department's Linux servers via SSH and via the X Window System (Xwindows) as well as the University's central computer servers. The campus has 3 T-3 lines to the internet backbones and is a member of the "Internet 2" consortium.
Student offices are located in relatively high security areas on the 3rd floor of T-wing, the 1st floor of E-wing and the 6th floor of H-wing. The E-wing and H-wing offices have network ports available for students to connect personally-owed laptop computers; the T-wing offices have recently been added to the campus wireless network. Available printers include black-and-white HP LaserJets, HP Coler LaserJets and a color HP Business InkJet; all printers are postscript-capable printers.
The department's Linux servers and the University's servers are accessible from remote locations (home, hotel, etc.) via the Internet. Much of Seattle has DSL or cable modem highspeed access from home.
Statistical and Mathematics packages available include: Splus, SAS, SPSS, R, Gauss, Stata, Mathematica and Maple. The computers are maintained by "bite" (Biostatistics Information Technology and Education) (616-2725 or bite@u.washington.edu. Biostatistics also maintains a Linux-based MOSIX cluster. There are no student charges beyond UW tuition and fees.
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Student representatives are elected each fall to act as a liaison between faculty, program events, and students. The representatives attend Biostatistics Faculty meetings. Departmental committees such as Admissions, Educational Policy and Teaching Evaluation (EPTEC), and Computer Policy need student members. Members are selected in the fall.
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You will need to contact your advisor before choosing your course schedule. This can be done before you arrive or during orientation week.
Course registration is done via the Web's "My UW" site (http://myuw.washington.edu/)
The UW Quarterly Time Schedule, which lists all courses offered by the University and provides registration instructions, is available on the Web (http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/)
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Hall Health Center: Hall Health offers free or low-cost service to University students and will provide care for most health problems. For those problems which cannot be handled at Hall Health, you will be referred to an outside physician. The Graduate Appointee Insurance Plan (for those students with Research/Teaching Assistantships and Traineeships) or the Student Accident and Sickness Insurance plan (available for a quarterly fee to students not covered by an RA/TA/Traineeship) usually covers the cost of these outside visits. Hall Health also has several specialized clinics such as the Women's Clinic and the Mental Health Clinic. For some lab tests these clinics charge a nominal fee.
Intramural Activities Building (IMA): The IMA's facilities includes weight rooms, tennis, racquet ball, squash, and basketball courts, a swimming pool, and saunas, and is reserved for student, faculty, and staff use (free access for students). A wide variety of sports skills classes are offered each quarter, lasting five to eight weeks (fees are charged for these). Registration for these classes is usually during the second week of each quarter.
Students may also join men's, women's, and co-ed teams in sports such as soccer, baseball, basketball, volleyball, and football. Sometimes the Biostatistics department organizes a departmental team, including students, faculty, and staff.
HUB and South Campus Center: The Student (Husky) Union Building (HUB) is located near the center of campus and houses most of the student activities offices, a large cafeteria, a television room, a music room, a bowling alley, a hair salon, a branch of the University Book Store, a MAC computer lab, a bicycle repair shop, and the student housing office.
The South Campus Center is just south of the Health Sciences Building and also has a cafeteria, hair salon, games area, and bookstore. Textbooks for biostatistics courses are found in this branch of the bookstore. Students can receive a rebate ranging from 9-10% on purchases from any of the University Bookstore branches by saving all of the sales receipts and returning them to the bookstore before the end of June. This is called the "patronage refund."
UW General Computer Labs: The University's UWired Group maintains public terminal facilities in dozens of locations throughout the campus. Under a uniform access policy, basic services on UW computers are provided at no charge to all students and faculty and staff. All UWired computers can access the Biostat network and the general campus unix systems.
| Drop-in Labs: UWired operates the university's largest drop-in labs. UWired's labs have been designed to be more than just a place to check email and do word processing-they are information commons, co-located with other services to provide students with a rich set of resources required to enhance learning. | |
| The UWired Commons, with 350 seats, provides a place for students to access information technology in the heart of the Odegaard Undergraduate Library. The help desk, printing, and reference services have been combined into a single point of service, providing students with "one stop shopping" for their information needs. | |
| The UWired Computing Resource Center in Mary Gates Hall holds 180 computers. Student lab consultants are dispersed throughout the lab to provide easy access when they need assistance. | |
| Collaboratories: Two wired classrooms specially designed for computer-based instruction, experimental education and student collaboration-collaboratories-are maintained by UWired in Odegaard Undergraduate Library. These facilities are available to faculty to reserve free of charge. | |
| Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology: UWired operates the University's Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology, providing assistance, workshops and one-on-one faculty consultation. The UWired Center is equipped with a variety of hardware and software to allow faculty to experiment with different technology options and receive assistance in using them effectively. | |
| The UWired Center is also home to the development efforts behind Catalyst, an ambitious project to support innovation in teaching via the Web. Catalyst provides educators with the resources, ideas, tools and information needed to make use of the Web in education and functions as a campus clearinghouse for new approaches to educational technology. |
Schmitz Hall: Schmitz Hall is the administrative center of the campus, housing the Registrar's office, the Financial Aid office, Cashier's Office, the International Services Office, and the Minority Affairs office to name a few. Business involving your registration, tuition payments, and transcript requests, is conducted in this building.
The Graduate School: The Graduate School and administrative offices are located in the Communications Building. The Student Services Division, the office you will need more than others, is located on the main floor.
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