Visiting and Non-Degree Seeking Students

A visiting student is one who does not wish to seek a degree at Illinois State University. This is an "unclassified" status in which the student is not in a degree program.

Typically these are students who are taking classes at Illinois State to transfer them to another institution or taking dual enrollment classes as a high school student. Alternatively, a visiting student may be establishing a GPA at Illinois State in hopes of being admitted to a degree program at a later time.

Some courses at Illinois State are only available to students in that major, so we cannot guarantee you will be able to take any course you wish. You can search course offerings through Course Finder, and we will email you when course registration is available. If you need help registering for undergraduate classes, contact our academic advisors at Advising@IllinoisState.edu or (309) 438-7604. Graduate students can contact the Graduate School at GraduateSchool@IllinoisState.edu or (309) 438-2583..

If you wish to transfer the courses you take at Illinois State to another institution, we highly recommend that you consult with your academic advisor at your current institution about course transferability before you sign up for the course. Our Registrar Service Center can provide you or your institution with an official transcript.

Taking Classes

Only students admitted to Illinois State as a degree student or a visiting student may take graduate classes. You should check to see whether or not the classes you want to take are available to you before submitting a visiting application. Some departments do not permit visiting student enrollment and others, because of limited staffing or physical constraints, restrict access to certain courses to their degree students. Visiting students will need to obtain a course permission/override to be eligible to register for any course at the University.

It is also recommended that you reach out to the Graduate Coordinator overseeing the graduate course you wish to complete.

Using Credits Towards a Degree

Visiting students who later decide to pursue a degree at Illinois State may petition that coursework taken as a visitor be accepted in meeting program requirements. The petition must be recommended by the program and granted by the Graduate School. Normally no more than 12 credit hours of visiting enrollment will be approved toward a degree but, under special circumstances, up to one-half of visiting credit hours may be applied. There is no guarantee or expectation that any coursework taken as a visitor will be accepted toward program degree requirements. All graduate courses taken as a visiting student will be computed into the graduate grade point average.

Connect With Your Program

If you plan to seek a graduate degree, be sure to discuss the pros and cons of visiting enrollment with the graduate coordinator of the program to which you plan to apply.

Visiting graduate students are not degree students and are, therefore, not typically eligible for most forms of financial aid.