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u/Witty-Definition-664

▲ 3 r/day1cpt

Trine Reston Onsite Cost Breakdown

Sharing my Trine Reston onsite cost fyi, here’s a quick cost breakdown for anyone planning their trip from NYC:

- NYC to DC round-trip train: $127.50
- Hotel: $80/person at Sheraton, shared room with a classmate I found in group chat
- Uber to campus: $5
- Shared Uber from campus to train station: $9
- Dinner the night before: $25 — Thai place near the hotel, honestly pretty good and affordable
- Lunch: $20 — ordered on uber eats

Total: $241.50

Overall, not too bad if you share the hotel and Uber. The train was definitely the biggest cost, but the whole trip was manageable.

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u/Witty-Definition-664 — 21 hours ago
▲ 2 r/day1cpt

Is Trine’s workload actually heavy? My honest 1.5-year Day 1 CPT experience

I’ve seen some people say Trine has a heavy workload, so I wanted to share my own experience after being enrolled for MSBA about a year and a half.

Course workload
I only take one class per term, and I don’t take classes during the summer. So far, I’ve taken six courses:

FIN 5823
BAN 5023
BAN 5013
IS 5113
BAN 5003
GE 5103

Personally, I don’t think the workload is bad at all. For me, it usually takes about 1–2 hours per week to finish the weekly assignments. I also chose my classes based on workload, from lighter to heavier. Other students have shared experience here fyi: https://day1cpt.education/schools/trine-university-survival-kit/
not only for MSBA, other programs too

The only class that felt slightly more time-consuming was IS 5113, but honestly, only during the first two weeks.

For essays, I usually use GPT or Claude to draft, humanize it, then check the AI score before submitting. As long as the AI score looks fine, I submit it. Realistically, I don’t think most CPT students are writing every essay completely from scratch. 😅

Quizzes are even easier. You can use tools like Ask for Gemini, Chrome has this built in on the right up corner.

School efficiency
For CPT applications, my experience was actually very smooth. Last December, I had to switch jobs and apply for a new CPT authorization. Since I only had a few days between getting the offer and starting work, I contacted my agent to help expedite the process. After submitting everything, my CPT was approved the next day.

Huge thanks to the CISI team for helping me for free. If you’re planning to apply to Trine, I’d recommend going through them because they’re a nonprofit and don’t charge students. I’ve heard some other agencies may charge extra for expedited help.

For course registration, my advisor replies pretty fast by email. One thing to note: for your first semester, I believe the school assigns your course. If you get assigned a class with a heavier workload, you should contact them as soon as possible to see if you can switch. I’ve seen many people in group chats who didn’t know this.

For the DSO, I contacted them in February because I had to leave the U.S. during the semester and needed remote access. The DSO was on leave when I emailed, but replied as soon as they came back and clearly listed everything I needed to pay attention to. I was outside the U.S. for four weeks, I already wrote a separate post about this experience.

The only thing I want to complain about is that my professor replied super fast and approved my remote access, but then forgot to actually turn it on. I only realized two weeks after I had already left the U.S. Luckily, I had already submitted all my assignments in advance, so it didn’t affect me much.

Onsite experience
Since I only take two classes per semester, I only need to attend onsite once per semester. It’s usually one full day, from 8 AM to 4 PM. I normally arrive the day before and leave right after class.

For onsite sessions, some professors lecture for the whole day, while others have students do presentations.

One thing I really like about Trine is that you can still use CPT during the summer even if you’re not taking classes. I have a friend at Monroe, and she said you have to take classes to keep using CPT there.

For example, I did my onsite in march. I don’t have summer classes, and for the fall semester, I scheduled my onsite course in the second term. So technically, I won’t need to go onsite again for around seven months.

Overall, I hope this helps anyone considering Trine. Based on my experience, there’s really no need to stress too much about the workload.

u/Witty-Definition-664 — 1 day ago
▲ 1 r/day1cpt

Sharing My F-1 Reentry Experience After Transferring to a Day 1 CPT School

⚠️Everyone’s situation is different. Proceed at your own risk. ⚠️

My national ID card had been expired for about 2 months, so I planned to travel back to my home country to renew it and also spend some time there.
My actual travel period were around 4 weeks.

Before traveling, I had searched online and saw some people say that departure records may not be automatically shared with the school, but entry records definitely are.

About half a month before my trip, I contacted my DSO and advisor in advance and told them I had to go back to my home country because my ID card had expired.

I told my DSO that I would be outside the U.S. for two weeks because, during the semester, leaving the U.S. for more than two weeks may require an early withdrawal of the I-20. Also, if you leave the U.S. for more than two weeks while school is in session, CPT may need to be paused. I didn’t want to make things complicated, so I only said two weeks.

My DSO approved it and told me to prepare employer approval and proof of funds, but I actually didn’t prepare those documents.

I also asked my advisor, who was also my course instructor, for overseas access. He agreed immediately, but in the end, he forgot to give me access. Before I left the U.S., I had already submitted all my assignments in advance.

On the day I left the U.S., there was no exit inspection or anything like that. My outbound route included a domestic layover in the U.S. before my international flight, so I simply walked to the international gate after arriving at the layover airport.

When I reentered the U.S., I arrived at Newark in the afternoon, and there was basically no line.

The officer only asked me one question: “What are you studying?”
I said, “Business Analytics.”

Then he let me in. The whole process took about 3 minutes.

This was also my first time entering and exiting the U.S. after transferring my SEVIS record to Trine. Honestly, there was no special treatment or extra questioning because it is a Day 1 CPT school. To CBP, I was just a master’s student.

But again, I’m only sharing my personal experience. Everyone’s situation is different, and maybe I was just lucky. I don’t recommend using my case as a reference for your own situation.

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u/Witty-Definition-664 — 9 days ago