What You Need To Know: Non-IU Programs: Programs: Education Abroad: Indiana University (2024)

The non-IU process is independent. Here are the key players and their roles:

• The student:
  • read the guidance we provide and complete the tasks required by IU’s deadlines
  • check your emails and respond promptly
  • share information with any concerned parties (e.g., your parents)
  • review the non-IU policies (link)
• IU Education Abroad:
  • guide students through the non-IU process
  • help students enroll in the OVST placeholder course
  • sign study abroad approval and financial aid forms
• Your academic advisor:
  • help you with course selection or understanding your IU degree requirements
• Your study abroad program:
  • answer questions about your program and logistics, including visas
  • clarify course availability abroad and help you access syllabi

1. Students must submit a Credit Transfer Agreement and Notification of Acceptance by IU’s deadline:
   • Deadlines:
     • November 15: Spring programs
     • March 15: Summer programs
     • May 15: Fall or Academic Year programs

2. To fulfill the World Language & Cultures requirement, students must be enrolled in the OVST placeholder course and must participate in a program that is at least six weeks long and yields at least six credits
3. Students cannot fulfill the College of Arts & Sciences Global Civilizations and Culture requirement on a non-IU program
4. Students must transfer back the equivalent of full-time credits from their term abroad (12 for semester; 6 for summer)
5. Grades must be C or higher in order to transfer to IU
6. Students cannot take classes pass/fail abroad
7. International Admissions cannot transfer internship credit
8. IU’s Spanish and Portuguese department will not articulate Spanish credit from a CEA-CAPA program

Common study abroad providers include (note: these are not endorsed by IU; this is a list of providers previous IU students have used):

• AIFS
• ASA
• CEA-CAPA
• IFSA-Butler
• ISA
• Semester at Sea
• SRISA
• TEAN
• Wells College

IU approves some programs with providers such as CIEE, CIS Abroad, and IES Abroad, but not all programs. Searching online for your preferred program or location is the best way to begin researching, but students also can explore IIEPassport.org.

IU does not approve students to participate in programs in countries under Level 3 or 4 Department of State travel advisories.

IU’s International Admissions maintains the Credit Transfer Service (CTS), which contains transfer credit not just from study abroad students, but from all students. Therefore, it’s important that you know how to use this tool.

Gather these resources to make your research more efficient:

1. Your Academic Advisem*nt Report, so you know what types of requirements or classes you need to graduate on time.
2. Your program’s list of courses for your term abroad.
3. IU’s Credit Transfer Service, so you can see how or whether IU has already accepted transfer credit.
4. IU’s list of general education courses, so you can research whether a course abroad might be comparable to an IU gen ed AH, SH, or NM course.

Know Your Program's School of Record
Study abroad providers cannot issue their own grades; they must use transcripts from a School of Record. When you visit IU’s Credit Transfer Service, you’ll research by country, then state, then college/university.

Here’s a handy chart of the most common providers and Schools of Record. (Some programs yield a transcript directly from a university abroad, e.g. schools in Australia. Check with your study abroad program if you are unsure.)

Internships abroad

Any internship abroad must be reviewed and approved by an IU department before the study abroad experience if you wish to obtain transfer credit. International Admissions cannot transfer internship credit, so students would need to make independent departmental arrangements, which usually carry IU tuition (since most departments do not grant transfer credit for internships, either).

Students can have courses evaluated for IUB transfer credit for a few reasons:

• the course is not in the Credit Transfer Service (as in, it’s never been transferred to IUB, and you’d be the first student, so you want to see how it would transfer)
• the course has already transferred at least once but is undistributed (i.e. DEPT-UN 100) and you want to see if the IU department can give it a specific transfer equivalent
• students are seeking gen ed or CASE AH/SH/NM designation from a specific class

Follow these steps to arrange transfer credit:

1. Confirm via the Credit Transfer Service that the course has not been evaluated yet.
2. Get the syllabus from your study abroad program.
3. Send the syllabus to the relevant IU department for their faculty to review.
   1. Faculty are busy, and they can’t review an entire catalogue for you. Only send a small number of courses that you may take abroad.
   2. Start with the IU academic advisor for a department, and they can liaise with the IU faculty for you. Here’s a list of College of Arts and Sciences academic advisors.
   3. Review time varies depending on department, so plan accordingly.
   4. If the IU department agrees to grant transfer credit, ensure that they notify our office via a Course Approval Memo. Then, we will share it with International Admissions, so they can post the accurate credit to your transcript after your program.

Pro tip: you can get courses evaluated before you go abroad, when you are abroad, or after you return. Some departments may wait to review a course until they see your body of work, so be sure to save your academic materials (e.g. papers, tests, artistic portfolio)!

IU’s Spanish and Portuguese department will not transfer Spanish language credit from CEA-CAPA programs.

Follow your program’s deadline and application instructions. If your program requires IU approval, ensure that you list IU Education Abroad (edabroad@iu.edu), not your academic advisor.

Our office is happy to sign approval forms once students attend a non-IU info session. Learn how to sign up for a session on ourMeet with an Advisorpage.

Our office cannot sign any approval forms if a student is on academic probation for any reason. There are no exceptions.

For questions about housing, arrivals, visas, course registration, paying your bill, etc., contact your non-IU program directly.

IU allows students to use much of their financial aid and scholarships toward a non-IU program abroad, but there are exceptions to financial aid transferability. If you have questions, contact Student Central. If you plan to apply for summer financial aid, you must also complete a summer aid application with IU’s Office of Student Financial Assistance.

Students must be in an OVST placeholder course to use financial aid issued through IU.

Here’s the process for how to use financial aid on a non-IU program. See specific links on our What You Need to Do page when you’re ready to get started.
Step 1:
Submit your Credit Transfer Agreement by the IU deadline (all students)

Deadlines:

• November 15: Spring programs
• March 15: Summer programs
• May 15: Fall or Academic Year programs

Step 2:
Submit your Notification of Acceptance by the IU deadline (all students)

Deadlines:

• November 15: Spring programs
• March 15: Summer programs
• May 15: Fall or Academic Year programs

Step 3:
Complete either the Application for OVST-Y 498 (an e-form that outlines your program’s cost, which IU’s Student Central requires) – OR –

Complete the Application for OVST-Y 496 (an e-form that your academic advisor will sign, verifying that your classes abroad will help you toward graduation) (only if you currently or previously use federal financial aid or private loans)

• Step 3a (only for OVST-Y 496 students): Complete a Consortium Agreement (a form that you sign, we sign, and your study abroad program signs, which tells IU’s Student Central how much your program costs).

Note: if you need to defer your payment to your study abroad program, contact them about their deferral policies. Our office is happy to sign any financial aid deferral forms.

Step 4:
Receive instructions on when and how to enroll in a 0-credit OVST placeholder course. There is a service fee of $100.82 associated with enrolling in the placeholder course. Students do not pay IU tuition on top of this.

Financial aid is released 10 days prior to the start of either the study abroad term or the IU term, whichever is later. IU releases aid to students via the Bursar (e.g. direct deposit), and students are responsible for paying their program costs directly to their program.