While You're Abroad
Once you arrive in your host country, settle in, start classes, and begin navigating
your way around your new home, don't completely lose touch with home. Remember to:
- Contact the International Office and provide your study abroad mailing address.
- Notify your advisor and the International Office about any changes to your proposed schedule and to seek approval from the appropriate department chair, school director, or the Shared Curriculum director for any new classes you wish to use to fulfill a degree requirement.
- Keep in touch! Let us know how you are doing--tell us what's amazing, what's going well, and what's not so good. And feel free to send pictures for our FB page.
Registering for classes 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 see 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 can then register yourself online.
You are also strongly encouraged to complete an electronic Course Registration 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.
Looking for Housing from Abroad
If you wish to return to campus housing after you study abroad, you will need to arrange
this before the end of your abroad program. The Office of Residential Life (ORL) recommends
that students planning to study abroad consider, in advance of their departure, their
plans for living either on or off campus when they return to IWU.
For students who will be abroad during the fall and return to campus housing in the spring, ORL will contact you in late October or early 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 any questions, please contact the Office of Residential Life.