Before You Leave IWU
Before you leave your study abroad experience, there are certain on-campus tasks you need to take care of:
Financial Aid
According to the Higher Education Act of 1965, federal financial aid can be applied to study abroad if you are registered as a full-time student and if you will receive course credit for your study abroad. The size of your award may be adjusted if the cost of the study abroad program is greater than your school’s tuition. (For more information on IWU’s Financial Aid policies as they relate to study abroad, consult the Financial Aid page.
If you receive IWU financial aid, you must talk with the Financial Aid office before you leave campus. At that time, you should bring with you a budget of both the expected and estimated costs for your time abroad; the easiest way to do this is to visit your program’s website and print off the list of program costs. Your budget for study abroad will be reviewed and your financial aid award may be adjusted as appropriate.
No funds will be made available to you and/or dispersed until your budget has been approved and any additional paperwork completed. If your combined budget for a semester or year away is more than a semester/year at Illinois Wesleyan, additional funds might be available to help meet the additional cost. For further information please contact the Financial Aid Office.
Housing
The Office of Residential Life (ORL) requests that students studying abroad register as living abroad for the semester they plan to be away. Housing intentions can be provided to ORL online through the MyHousing web portal. Each student will login to MyHousing and complete an application for the upcoming semester. In general, ORL recommends that students planning to study abroad share their plans for living either on or off campus when they return to IWU.
While you are abroad, you will also need to make arrangements for housing upon your return. For students who will be abroad during the fall and return to campus housing in the spring, ORL will contact you in October-November about the online housing selection process. You will be provided with a list of open beds on campus: these spaces are assigned on a first-come-first-served basis, so you should respond quickly. If you have a friend on campus with whom you would like to room and there are available rooms with two spaces on the ORL list, you can both request the move.
For students who will be abroad during the spring and return to campus housing the following fall, you will need to be aware of the housing lottery process, which takes place in March. During this process, students will need to complete an online application, make roommate requests, and select a room. All three steps are completed online, so students must have Internet access during this time frame. ORL will send email updates to all students when this process begins.
If you have questions, please contact the Office of Residential Life.
Registration -- Before You Go
In addition to registering through your program for classes abroad, you will need to register at IWU for your off-campus studies using the appropriate OCS course number (e.g., students studying with IES should register for OCS 100, “OCS - Abroad - IES”). If the program with which you are studying does not have its own OCS number, register using OCS 100, “OCS - Abroad - Other.”
Registration From Abroad
To register for IWU courses from abroad, you will need to consult with you academic advisor via e-mail. You will be sent a notice from the International Office via e-mail about the dates for academic advising. When advising begins, you will be able to see the course selections on the web via My.IWU; if you cannot access the online program, contact the Registrar's Office to request that a PDF version be sent to you via email.
Please consult the Academic Calendar page for advising and registration dates.
Because you are off campus, you will need to choose your courses and contact your advisor to have those courses approved prior to your registration. Your advisor can then send you your registration PIN, and you will be responsible for registering yourself online. Students who will be on program-required travel during their registration time should have their program director notify the International Office of this conflict and we will arrange for your registration; students traveling for personal reasons are responsible for registering themselves.
You are also strongly encouraged to complete an electronic Course Selection Form, which the International Office will send you during advising. The International Office and Registrar's Office will use that information if you are unable to register yourself from abroad.