Come to the application hackathon
Bring your laptop and knock out both applications in one sitting, with professors there to answer questions as you go. We'd love to see you there, whether you're well underway on your application or you haven't started!
Get the most out of the day: complete your Study Abroad 101 session before the hackathon. That session unlocks your Hogs Abroad application, so you'll have more to work on when you arrive.
Apply in both places
You will need both applications, so it helps to keep them moving together. Each one is staged, which means the forms you see on day one are only part of what you will eventually complete. More will load as you finish earlier steps.
University of Arkansas
Through Hogs Abroad
CIMBA
Through CIMBA / The University of Iowa
Where the two columns meet
Upload your CIMBA acceptance letter to Hogs Abroad
Once you've received an acceptance letter from CIMBA, upload it to Hogs Abroad. This is the step that connects the two applications, and we don't want you to miss it! It's what moves your U of A status from conditionally accepted to committed.
Until you do it, Arkansas does not know you got in, and your application sits unfinished.
Lock in your classes and get ready to go
Your spot is secured. A few things are still left, and these three are the ones that shape which classes you get and how your credit transfers back to Arkansas.
Things that surprise people
What you see when you first open Hogs Abroad is only part of the total. New forms load as you finish earlier ones, so keep checking back even after a screen looks complete.
It is tempting to wait and hear back from one before starting the other. Working on them side by side gives you a lot more breathing room.
Almost every prompt arrives by email, much of it from messages@via-trm.com. Add that address to your contacts, and make sure the address on file with Hogs Abroad is one you check often.
Approval can take up to twelve weeks, and you cannot register for classes until it clears. Submitting in January keeps you comfortably ahead of it.
Listing backups now saves you a lot of trouble later. If a first-choice class fills and you have no pre-approved alternate, you would have to start that approval over.
Getting into CIMBA is wonderful news, and your spot is held once you submit the Intent to Enroll form. Uploading your acceptance letter then wraps up the Arkansas side.
If you are a parent helping a student stay on track
Two checkpoints are worth asking about, since both involve waiting periods that are easy to underestimate. The first is the Study Abroad 101 session, which has to be scheduled in advance and tends to fill up as deadlines get closer. The second is the DICE form in January, where approval can take up to twelve weeks and class registration waits on it.
A helpful question to ask is "which of the two applications are you further along on, and what is the next form waiting on you." Because there are two columns to finish, students sometimes feel done once one of them is complete.
The October 22 hackathon is also a great nudge. Students who come tend to leave with most of the hard parts behind them.