Home Stay Program Information • MCELI

MCELI works closely with YES ESL International, Inc. (YES) provides a quality home stay program. Our host families are chosen after interviews and careful screening by our staff. To have a good experience in home stay program, you should read the following carefully.

Home Stay Fee

• Home Stay fee, $600, includes your room, meals (two meals a day on weekdays, three on weekends, holidays and during the school breaks) and utilities. Please let your host family know of any food allergies or food you do not like. Please inform your host family earlier if you will not be home for supper, or if you would like to have your supper later than the family for the particular day so a plate can be set aside for you.

Telephone Calls

• Local calls: please limit your phone conversation with your friends in local area to 5 to 10 minutes so that your host family has a chance to make and receive calls, also.
  Long distance calls: All long distance phone calls have to be made collect. If you do not want to call collect, call for operator’s assistance to get time and change so you can pay your host family right after your telephone conversation.
  Helpful hint: For long-term students (more than 4 months), it might be easier for you to get your own telephone and line at your own experience so that you can use the telephone any time you want to, and that your host family doesn't worry about the bill or receiving calls.

Water and Energy

• Please conserve water and energy: Both are very expensive! California is experiencing a water shortage, and everybody is asked to limit water use. That is why we are asking you to take short showers and turn the light off when you leave your room. Please take your car to a car wash when it needs a wash.

Personal Laundry

• Keep your dirty clothes in a basket or plastic bag provided in your room. Your host family does not have to do your laundry. Please ask where and which day of week you can do your laundry. It is also your responsibility to wash your bed linens.

Maintenance

• Keeping your room and your bathroom clean and orderly is your responsibility. Your toiletries should be kept neatly in the bathroom. Please take short showers. Do not throw any foreign object into a toilet bowl.

Smoking and Alcohol

• Both smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages are not permitted in the house.

Music

• If you wish to listen to loud music in your room, please use headphones.

Television

• Please ask your host about rule for the usage of TV and VCR

Visitors

• When you wish to invite a friend for a visit, ask your host family first. Please do not bring friends home for supper without permission of your host family. Please do not let a friend of opposite sex in to your bedroom, or spend a night. If your friend is visiting for the evening, please make sure that he/she leaves by 10:00 pm at the least.

Consideration

• Your host family is under no obligation to drive you around anywhere. If it is convenient and your host family can take you to where you want to go, please offer to pay for gas (about $1.00 for every 5 miles would be a good estimate.)

Departure Time

• On the day of your departure, please have all of your bags packed and your room cleaned, so that the new student will have the room available. If it is necessary for you to stay an extra night or two and your host family has the room, you are required to pay your host family per night. If the room is not available for you, you need to make your own arrangements with a hotel or friends. When you plan on leaving your host family, at least two weeks advance notice is required.

Problems, Complaints

• If, for any reason, you feel that the host family is not doing what you expected and you feel confused, talk it over with your host family first. When you still need some help to solve the problem, please contact housing coordinator.
• Abuse toward the host family causing them to be extremely upset, or of extra unnecessary expense may result in an immediate termination of your home stay with a part or all of the refundable room deposit withheld. Every effort will be made to work out all problems before the termination occurs.
• Please pay your home stay fee to YES office on time.
• Neither Merced College nor YES shall be responsible for any damages - personal, property, or otherwise - caused by host families even though YES staff devote their time to select qualified host families.

Please fill out your Housing Request Form [35k pdf], and return along with all the other required documents for enrollment.