UAlbany or your home SUNY campus's Office of International Education can only register you for study abroad. If you are not a UAlbany student, check with your home campus about how to register for the semester when you return from overseas. Many schools will send you materials at your program site if they have your mailing address.

You must register yourself for the courses you wish to take after you return from overseas. You are encouraged to pre-register using the procedures in place at your home campus. UAlbany students do not have to pre-register, but are strongly advised to do so. You may register in person or by touch-tone phone during the registration period or at any time permitted by the Registrar.

If you have access to the Internet from overseas, you can view the UAlbany schedule of classes online and plan your own schedule. You do not need your AVN to do this. If you are studying in a place where access to the Internet is limited, we will do our best to get a copy of the Schedule of Classes to you. If you are going to need us to do that, you can tell us when you send in your Overseas Enrollment Report Form. You can then make arrangements to have someone else actually register you when it is your day to register for the coming semester. This is explained below.

Pre-Registering

To pre-register, you will need your AVN (Adviser Verification Number) for the coming semester. This takes some advance planning on your part. The Office of International Education cannot get it for you, but a friend can, or you may be able to get it from your adviser by email. For a friend to be able to get your AVN, you will have to have made arrange-ments with your academic adviser beforehand.

Once you have your AVN and the schedule of classes, you can then register yourself by phone from overseas during the early registration period. [Remember that the phone registration is not available between the hours of 3 and 5 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Also be aware that you cannot register until the day and time established for you by the Registrar.] You should register yourself from overseas by phone if at all possible so that you have maximum control of your schedule. The Registrar strongly advises against giving your PIN to another student, and your PIN is required for phone-in registration to take place.

If you are studying in a country such as Russia or China where access to touch-tone phones is limited, you may use the procedure described below to advance register with the assistance of a friend or parent. Through a special arrangement with the Registrar, the person who arranges for your classes will not need your PIN. Please be sure to follow the steps below carefully.

1. Meet with your adviser before you go away or correspond with your adviser from overseas to determine which courses you should register for.
2. Send a letter to a friend in residence at UAlbany or to a parent authorizing that person to assist you in registering.
3. Have your friend prepare a list of courses and alternates for you. This list MUST contain the specific call numbers of all of the courses and sections and alternates that you are interested in. If courses require permission, your friend should also obtain the SKNs for those courses.
4. Have the friend go to your adviser to obtain your AVN if you have not already obtained one from the Registrar before your departure. These numbers are only available from your adviser about one month before the start of early registration.
5. Have your friend bring your letter giving permission for you to be registered, your AVN, and the list of courses and alternates (with call numbers for each and every one of them) to the Registrar's office before the end of the advance registration period but after the day and time that you are authorized to register.
6. The Registrar's office will register you. If workload permits, it will be done at the time your friend brings in your papers, but this cannot be guaranteed.

Special Note to Those Who Elect to Use This Procedure: You, not the Registrar and not the Office of International Education, are fully responsible for your course selections.

Special Note to Albany Students: Some study abroad programs end after classes for the next semester have already started at Albany. If your program is like this and you are going to miss a few days at the start of the semester, contact your professors so that they will not deregister you as a "no-show" after the sixth class day of the term (not the sixth meeting of a particular course).

Holds on Registration

Remember, if you have any holds at your home campus, you will not be able to register for study abroad, and if you have any holds added while you are overseas, no one will be able to register you for the second semester you are away. Therefore, be certain that all your library books have been returned and that you have no outstanding bills or fines of any kind before you go away. If you cannot be registered, you cannot officially do your study abroad program, and your financial aid may be canceled, so this really matters.

We don't like to do this, but if you have any unpaid charges from your period of study abroad, and you do not make arrangements to have them paid in full, the Office of International Education will hold your grades and will also have holds put on your records at Albany and at your home campus.

Planning for Student Teaching

If you are enrolled in a teacher education program, try to make the arrangements for your student teaching assignments before you leave for overseas. Contact the Department of Teacher Education early in your planning.

Pre-Med, Pre-Law, Other Professional Program Students

Contact the appropriate offices to learn of the proper procedures and deadlines for paperwork, exams, and interviews. Many professional exams are also administered overseas, but you may want to arrange to take them in the U.S. anyway.