Pre-Departure
Before Arriving at DIS
The pre-departure phase is one of vast importance and may even last longer than the time you spend abroad. Before you depart, you will be preparing for your experience by choosing classes, housing, study tours, booking a plane ticket, getting a Danish Residence Permit, etc., but you will also need to mentally prepare for the experience. Tell yourself that you will be living in a new and unknown place for four months and allow yourself some time to reflect on that. When you think of this, what gets you excited and what makes you nervous or anxious? Share these feelings with others going abroad or your study abroad advisor. Typically, mental preparation for study abroad is overlooked, but it is crucial.
Advance Preparation
In this section, you will find a guide to some frequently asked questions as well as an electronic version of our student pre-departure and on-site handbook. These resources and many others will prepare you for your experience. However, even if you read all these materials twice, there will still be things that you are not prepared for. To successfully address those matters, you will need to be open minded, curious, able to laugh at yourself, and able to learn from mistakes. You cannot be prepared for all experiences you will encounter while abroad, and these experiences are the ones you will truly learn and grow from.
In addition to the pre-departure materials we will send to you, other useful resources can be found on DIS Forum for Arriving Students. To access Forum, please click here: DIS Forum and click ‘Preview as Guest’. Then under “My Organizations’ click ‘Arriving Students’. Finally, on the left click ‘Files – Resources’ to see what we have uploaded for you.
Pre-Departure Checklist
Below is a list of tasks and registration steps to be completed before you arrive in Denmark:
DIS UPDATE: Receiving Information
- Read the DIS Catalog for your current semester, and review updates and information listed on our website
- Visit the DIS Forum and return often for updates. The link can also be found on the DIS homepage
- Check your email regularly. DIS will send you important arrival and registration information prior to your departure
- Set your email account to accept emails from dis.dk. See student handbook for additional information
Completing your DIS Registration
- All student registration forms should be complete. Please submit any outstanding registration forms as soon as possible to complete your file and to ensure your enrollment in desired housing, courses and study tours
- Submit a current transcript (unofficial accepted) and one digital passport-sized photo to DIS (unless your school will forward these to DIS for you)
- Obtain a passport (valid at least three months beyond your planned stay in Denmark)
- Book a round-trip transatlantic flight
- Four to six weeks before your arrival, invoices will be issued via email to students directly or to any institutions paying for its students. Please refer to the Tuition & Fees webpage
- Notification of DIS-arranged housing placements happens approx. 10 days prior to program start date via email from the DIS housing department in Copenhagen
- Use the enclosed DIS luggage tag on your carry-on bag, so DIS students can easily identify each other on the plane and/or in the Copenhagen airport baggage claim area
- Think about what you expect from DIS, your courses, your housing situation and your overall experience in Copenhagen. Read the website, catalog and the student handbook to see if your expectations are realistic. If they aren’t realistic, let us know how we can help align your expectations with our reality
