Before you leave your study abroad experience, there are certain on-campus tasks you need to take care of:
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 Kelly Fairley in 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 Web site and print off the list of program costs. Your budget for study abroad will be reviewed and your financial aid award will 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 may be available to help meet the additional cost. For further information please contact Kelly Fairley in the Financial Aid Office, Holmes Hall 1.
The Office of Residential Life (ORL) requests that students studying abroad register as living abroad for the semester they plan to be away. Housing login codes are sent to students through campus mail or by U.S. post as well as to each student’s IWU email account. Each student will use the housing login code to register his/her housing plans for the upcoming semester. In additiona, ORL recommends that, before departing, students planning to study abroad set up return living arrangements -- either on or off campus.
Students who plan to live in a residence hall but will not be on campus during the housing lottery process are asked to indicate a campus proxy -- a friend on campus who will make housing decisions on their behalf. This person will be notified of the student’s lottery number and make binding decisions on behalf of the student who is away. It is important that students discuss in depth the range of options that might be available as housing is concerned so that the proxy can make appropriate decisions in the student’s absence. ORL contacts all students studying abroad to remind them to have a proxy and to notify the proxy of their housing choices.
If you have questions, contact Matt Damschroder in ORL.
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.”