Graduate and Professional Admissions (GPA)

GPA Newsletter - March 2008

We have received a high volume of questions regarding the International Student Verification Form (ISVF) at Graduate Admissions.

The ISVF is required for all international applicants requesting an I-20 or DS-2019. If the student submitted this form electronically through ApplyYourself, we require that you print out this document to send with the referral. We are unable to process the admission if the ISVF is not received with the referral.
We ask that you do not request the ISVF at the time the applicant submits the application, but rather wait until you are ready to offer admission. Having the most up-to-date information on the ISVF is vital to determining their current visa situation and issuing the correct visa eligibility document.
Example: In October 2007, a student was residing in Taiwan and requested an initial I-20 on his ISVF. In April 2008, the student is referred for admission and we issue an initial I-20 based on the ISVF from October. However, the student decided to attend another U.S. institution in Spring 2008 and now needs a transfer I-20 for the fall. Having a newer ISVF from February or March 2008 would have let us know that a transfer I-20 was needed.
Please note that the ISVF can also be obtained at the following web site:
www.grad.uiuc.edu/forms/admission/Veriform.pdf
If you have any questions about this form or international application processing in general, please do not hesitate to email gradadmissions@uiuc.edu.

A link to a PDF of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) Resolution Regarding the April 15th Deadline for Responses to Financial Aid Offers, as well as a list of supporting institutions, is available on the CGS web site at: http://www.cgsnet.org/?tabid=201
The CGS Resolution is a voluntary agreement between institutions that have indicated support of the Resolution; the Urbana campus supports this Resolution. According to the agreement, students are given until April 15th to consider all offers of financial aid from admitting institutions.
Students may be encouraged to respond before April 15th, but according to the agreement they should not be required to respond before April 15th. Please note that if a student accepts an offer by April 15th, they are obligated to the institution, and the institution is obligated to the student. Also, if a student first accepts the offer, then declines the offer, another institution is not supposed to make an offer until we release the student. This release should be in writing. Finally, if the student declines an offer of admission with financial aid before April 15th, the institution may offer the aid to another student.

After referring an applicant for admission, you can use the Quick View link on the Applicant Summary page to track the status of the admission. You can see which steps of the Graduate Admissions process have been completed and if a file has been made incomplete, you can see why. Please note that we will continue to contact you each time we make a file incomplete.
You can also use the Status Information block on the Applicant Summary page to track the status of the admission.

For domestic applicants, both the Decision Date and Decision Publish Date fields will have dates if the file is complete and the Notice of Admission letter has been sent.
For international applicants, if both the Decision Date and Decision Publish Date fields have dates, this means that the admission is complete and the first Notice of Admission letter has been sent. If there is a date in the Status Publish Date, this means that the I-20/DS-2019 has been completed and the second (final) Notice of Admission letter has been sent.

Do you need to obtain access to ApplyYourself? Do you need to change a program deadline date? Do you need ApplyYourself training? - If yes, to one or all three, please contact our office at gradadmissions@uiuc.edu.