Exchange students at Purdue must be admitted to a specific academic unit, which should align with the Purdue department where most of the student’s preferred courses are offered. To ensure you are admitted to an appropriate unit, the majority of your course requests should come from the same department and begin with the same course code (for example, HIST for History or ME for Mechanical Engineering).

The course preferences identified in your application are not binding, nor can access to specific courses be guaranteed prior to acceptance. Course registration takes place after admission to the exchange program.

Researching Course Offerings 

To research course offerings, view the schedule of classes, which lists the courses that are offered each semester. The classes that will be available when you are here will be posted during the semester prior to your arrival, mid-October for spring semester and mid-March for fall semester. If the courses for the semester you will be at Purdue are not yet listed, look at the comparable semester one year earlier. The listings do not change appreciably from one year to the next.

To search the schedule of classes:

• Choose the semester you will arrive at Purdue in the Term pull-down menu. If that term is not available, choose the comparable term one year earlier.
• Once on the Class Schedule Search page, you must select a Subject, and
• You MUST choose Campus: West Lafayette. If you fail to do this, you will see courses that are offered at distant Purdue campuses that you cannot take.
• To be legally in the USA, undergraduate international students must be registered for a minimum of 12 credit hours.
• Courses numbered 49999 and below are undergraduate classes and 50000 and above are graduate-level classes. Occasionally, but not always, advanced undergraduate students are able to take one 50000-level class, with the permission of the instructor; 60000-level classes are not an option.
• In general, Purdue exchange students should plan to pursue traditional taught coursework rather than research or thesis work.

The schedule of classes will allow you to view a description of each course. If you need more detailed information, please contact your international office to view any Purdue syllabi and/or past course approvals that they may have already or, if necessary, to ask them to request syllabi from Purdue Programs for Study Abroad. To request syllabi, your international office may send a list of course numbers and titles for up to eight classes. Until you’ve been officially admitted to Purdue, please do not contact any academic departments or Purdue faculty members.

Registration 

Once you have been officially admitted to Purdue, you will be assigned an academic advisor with expertise in your host department’s course offerings and registration processes. Your academic advisor’s name and contact details will be shared with you via email shortly after admission.

Your advisor will receive information about your academic background, along with the list of preferred courses from your application. Based on this, they will help you finalize your course selection and guide you through the process of registering for appropriate available classes. If you have questions about registration or other academic matters, feel free to contact your academic advisor.