If living on campus, you will receive a form to fill out when you arrive. Dial 7-HELP for more information (American phones have letters on them and so you dial those letters or translate them: 7-4357). From on campus, you dial 9 before any off-campus number (this also holds for just about all other organizations). When calling campus from off-campus, you expand five digit phone numbers to seven digit ones as follows: 7 -> 497, 8 -> 498, 3 -> 723, 5 -> 725.
If living off campus, ring Pac(ific) Bell (811-5411). You get to (i.e., have to) choose a long distance carrier (one of AT&T, MCI or US Sprint). You can check out all the plans and offers, if you can predict what kind of calls you will make each month. The last we checked, MCI seemed much cheaper if you make lots of international calls and AT&T seemed cheaper if you make few international calls but lots of domestic calls. You also get a bewildering choice of other options. Most people these days seem to get call waiting and skip the rest, but voice mail is catching on. You pay for everything you select.
To call other area codes, you dial 1, then the area code, then the number. For international calls you dial 011, then the country code and so on. Most businesses have 800 numbers that you can ring interstate for free. You dial 1-800 and then the number. If making a long distance call at a pay telephone with coins, you dial the number (as above), and then you put in the amount of money a recorded voice tells you to. Most people use calling cards rather than coins for long distance calls at public telephones.
Everyone in America has an answering machine. You'll probably want to have one too. You buy yourself both a phone and an answering machine at any store (see Shopping), or you can even get a phone at the Bookstore, if you don't want to go off campus.