Information for All Graduate Students

The information below is for graduate students in French and Francophone Studies; Germanic Studies; Hispanic and Italian Studies; and Polish, Russian, and Lithuanian Studies.

Important Dates and Deadlines
Health, Vision, and Dental Insurance (CampusCare)
Transit Card (U-Pass)
Tuition and Fees
Conference and Research Funding
Get Involved!

Also check Heading link

Important Dates and Deadlines Heading link

To find the start and end date for each semester as well as holidays, see the Academic Calendar.

Semester deadlines

Week 2

noon on Friday

  • Deadline to submit Credit/No Credit applications to Grad Program Admin
    ⤷ Get the form from the Grad Program Admin
    ⤷ Credit/No Credit registration counts toward semester registration minimum/maximum
    ⤷ Max of 1/6 of graduate courses for your program can be taken under the CR/NC option.

end of day Friday

Week 3

11PM on Friday

  • Deadline to file Intent to Graduate for the current semester through my.uic.edu (detailed instructions here)

Week 4 (Fall) / Week 5 (Spring)

Sunday

Week 11

Monday

  • Registration for next term begins
  • Intent to Graduate for next term opens

UIC Graduate College Award Deadlines

early to mid-October

  • Award for Graduate Research (Fall)
  • Provost’s Graduate Research Award
  • Outstanding Thesis and Dissertation Award

beginning of December

  • Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award

mid-February

  • Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois Fellowship

early to mid-March

  • Three Minute Thesis
  • Dean’s Scholar Fellowship
  • Award for Graduate Research (Spring)
  • Provost’s Graduate Internship Award

late March

  • Access to Excellence retention fellowship
  • Graduate Mentoring Awards

Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance (CampusCare) Heading link

UIC requires all students to be covered by major medical health insurance.

When you register for classes, you are automatically registered for CampusCare and the fee is charged to your student account. There is no enrollment form to complete.

CampusCare coverage periods are:

  • Fall semester: 8/16-12/31
  • Spring semester: 1/1-5/14
  • Summer term: 5/15-8/15

If you are covered by insurance (through a parent/legal guardian, spouse, or employer), you can waive out of CampusCare by submitting the online Waiver Form before the Enrollment Period Deadline.

Cost

CampusCare is charged directly to your student account at the beginning of the semester. The fee can be found on the CampusCare website. Students receiving a tuition and fee waiver from UIC (TA, RA, GA, Fellowship, or BOT) will have a portion of their CampusCare fee covered by the waiver. (See our Information for Graduate Employees page for details.)

Dependents

If you need to add your spouse, civil union partner, or child/children to your CampusCare coverage, you can do that through the mycampuscare.uic.edu website.

There is a fee for each dependent added. (Students with a tuition and fee waiver will have a portion of this fee covered.)

Dependents can be added during the Enrollment Period or within 31 days of marriage, birth, or loss of other health insurance. (Documentation is required!)

Dependents will carry over from semester to semester unless they are dropped by the Enrollment Period Deadline.

Summer Coverage

Students who are not registered for Summer term can request to continue their CampusCare coverage as long as they were registered in Spring. To do this, submit the Summer Continuation Form by the Enrollment Period Deadline.

Dependents do not carry over into Summer, so a Continuation Form must be submitted if you would like to continue their coverage in Summer.

The fee for Summer CampusCare is not covered by any tuition waivers.

How to Use CampusCare

Students and dependents covered by CampusCare will use UI Health’s Family Medicine University Village facility (722 W. Maxwell, 2nd floor) as their primary care provider. To make an appointment call 312-996-2901.

For care by a specialist, you will need a referral, so you should always start with Family Medicine University Village for any health issue.

In the case of a serious medical emergency, you do not need a referral and should go to the nearest emergency room. (Calling Family Medicine University Village first is encouraged when possible.) All follow-up care must start with your primary care provider.

You are strongly encouraged to read through the “Benefits” section of the CampusCare website to be sure that you understand your coverage and how it works. If you have questions, you can reach out to CampusCare at cchealth@uic.edu or 312-996-4915.

Dental and Vision Care

Students and dependents covered by CampusCare have access to discounted dental and vision care as part of their coverage. Please see the CampusCare website for details on how to access these services: dental benefit detailsvision benefit details

Note: Students receiving a tuition waiver as a GA, TA, or RA or as part of a Graduate College fellowship receive additional dental and vision benefits. Please see our Information for Graduate Employees page for details.

U-Pass Heading link

All students registered for 6 hours or more are eligible to receive a U-Pass that provides unlimited rides on all CTA buses and trains during the semester.

There is a fee of $163 for the pass.

To take advantage of the U-Pass, students must opt-in at the beginning of the Fall. Status will carry over into Spring. (You can check your status via the opt-in link.)

U-Pass is valid from 5 days before the start of the semester until 5 days after the end of finals.

To ensure that your U-Pass is activated at the start of the validity window, you should be registered at least two weeks before the start date. If you register after this, your U-Pass may take 1-3 additional days to be reactivated (returning students) or 6-8 additional days to be created (new students).

New students will be issued a U-Pass card. Distribution of these cards begins August 16th.

Returning students will have their U-Pass cards reactivated.

For semester specific dates and details see the UIC U-Pass website. If you have any questions or problems with your U-Pass, you can write to upass@uic.edu or go to the ID Center in Student Center East.

Tuition and Fees Heading link

Access Your Student Account

To access your Student Account, log in to my.uic.edu, click on your Student tab, and then click on the “Student Self Service – Account Billing” icon.

You will need to read an acknowledge several statements before you can access your account by clicking on “UI-Pay”.

Pay Your Tuition and Fees

To pay your tuition and fees, click the “Make Payment” icon. You can pay by credit card (additional fee added!) or using a US bank account (no fee). Follow the prompts to make the payment.

Payment Plans

If you want to break the amount you owe up into smaller amounts, you can sign up for the payment plan. This will automatically charge your credit card or withdraw money from your bank account on the 20th of the month. There is a $40 charge to sign up.

Once in UI-Pay, click the “Payment Plan” option on the left-hand menu and follow the prompts. The number of payments depends on when you sign up. For details and dates, see the payment plan page on the Bursar’s Office website.

Important Dates

Tuition payment deadlines (if you are not on a payment plan) are:

  • Fall – September 28
  • Spring – February 28
  • Summer – June 28 (Term 1); July 28 (Term 2)

Refunds

You should consider setting up a direct deposit on your student account in case you end up with an overpayment/positive balance.

If UIC owes you money from your student account and you do not have a direct deposit set up, they will mail you a paper check.

Conference and Research Funding Heading link

Graduate students are encouraged to participate in conferences and conduct original research. To support that, there are multiple means of financial support. Please see our funding page for detailed information.

Get Involved! Heading link

We are happy to host a number of graduate student-organized events. Please visit the below pages for additional information:

There are also numerous events organized throughout the School. Please visit our events page for details. You will also receive emails from our School listserv as well as your departmental listserv about events that may be of interest to you. Be sure to check your UIC email frequently!

Other Help: UIC Student Resources Directory