Study Abroad Advising Resources
When advising students about applying to study abroad, please review the Getting Started and Applying to Study Abroad sections of the GLO website, which explain the application process and outline Northwestern’s expectations for student preparation and approval of study abroad plans.
Consult information below about choosing programs, advising, approving applications, and requesting a letter of recommendation (if necessary).
Program Selection
Students may seek your guidance in choosing a program. Since there are over a hundred available programs, we do not expect you to be familiar with all of them. However, to gain a basic understanding, we recommended that you:
Students are strongly encouraged to apply to Northwestern programs, exchanges, or partner programs, since they are regularly evaluated by GLO and the Undergraduate Study Abroad Committee (USAC) for quality in terms of academic standards, housing, cultural immersion, and administrative support services. Additionally, students who participate in these programs may apply their financial aid.
If students are interested in an independent program, they may be granted permission to apply only if they have a specialized academic need that cannot be met by one of our partner programs, and they will not be able to apply their institutional aid. For more information about this policy please read studying abroad on an independent program.
School Advisers
Advising & Approval Process
All students must meet with and obtain approval from their School Adviser(s). If you are a School Adviser, the general procedure is as follows:
- The student will enter your email to request study abroad approval for a specific term
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You will receive an email with a button to complete the approval form
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Subject Line: [Student Name] has requested your recommendation or approval
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Sender: messages@via-trm.com
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- The student will schedule an appointment with you to discuss their study abroad plans.
- During your meeting, you should determine that:
- They are in good academic standing and making satisfactory progress toward completion of their degree.
- Their study abroad plans make sense academically, considering their overall plan of study at Northwestern.
- Once you have met with the student and are ready to provide approval, you will complete and submit the form.
No login or special credentials are required.
Low GPA Support Letter
The University Study Abroad Committee (USAC) expects all study abroad applicants to have a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or above at the time of application.
USAC considers applicants' GPAs important because students will not have access to the same resources available at Northwestern while abroad. In some cases, it may be in a student's best interest to stay on campus and focus on improving grades. Additionally, most of Northwestern's partner study abroad providers require applicants to have a cumulative GPA of 2.5-3.0 or higher.
If a student's GPA is below 2.5, they will be required to request a letter of support through our application portal. Similar to the school adviser approval process, you will receive an email from messages@via-trm.com indicating that the student has requested a recommendation and you will be prompted to fill out a short form.
The form asks you to discuss the following:
- How long have you known the student, and how well do you know them?
- What is your opinion of the student's intellectual motivation in general?
- Does the student have clear intellectual and personal reasons for wanting to study abroad?
- What other personal factors might influence this student's success on the program (e.g. stability, independence, creative ability, responsiveness to feedback, etc.)?