Making the decision to apply to an off-campus program can be daunting. The necessary steps can feel overwhelming and endless. We’ve gone ahead and broken down the steps into some tips and tricks to help you apply for our program!

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1. Get Your Materials Together: Our application asks for three key items: your resume, your transcript, and a short essay. You’re going to want to contact the registrar for your most up-to-date transcript!

2. Head to the Career Center:  Your career center on campus is your best bet at making sure your resume is up to date, and can even help you gear it towards getting the best internship for you. 

3. Have a Friend Read Your Essay: It can be easy to miss mistakes; getting a friend to proofread your essay will help you catch them.

4. Talk to Your Advisor: Double check that there’s not an on-campus process you need to complete before studying off campus. 

5. Start Brainstorming for Recommendations: To complete your next steps, you’ll need to have two different recommendations — one personal, one educational. The faculty recommendation needs to be someone who has taught you in the classroom in recent years, but the personal recommendation can be anyone!

6. Follow up With Your Recommendations: It can be easy for your two recommenders to forget about the form you sent; schedule an email to go out a week after your original one to ask if they’ve had time to review the recommendation form and/or fill it out. 

7. Talk to Financial Aid: Your campuses’ finance office can help you understand what your bill will look like for your term in Chicago. You can also ask them about any off-campus study grants that may be available to you. 

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Applying is the first real step toward pursuing your career with a passion, and can often be the biggest one you take. With this guidance, we hope that you will find yourself making the city your classroom here soon.