Important First Steps

Graduate Life

Learn the basics of being a graduate student at Case Western Reserve University. Student Affairs provides information about housing, campus parking, public transportation, athletic facilities, discount programs and much more on their Graduate Life site.

Below you’ll find important first steps to launching your graduate studies at CWRU.

1) Accept our Offer of Admission  —  Upon admission, you received an email to look at your online account in the application system for the admissions decision; the link to accept or decline admission is contained within your offer letter. If you have not accepted admission online, please do this now. 

NOTE: You will not be able to access your Student Information System (SIS) account and other key services until you have accepted admission online.    

2) Activate your CWRU Network ID  — You will receive an email from Graduate Studies containing your 7-digit Student ID number and steps to activate your Network ID. Your Network ID is your passport to CWRU’s networking and computing services including Student Information System, Google Apps, the Software Center and more. It is composed of your first, middle and last initials followed by numbers (e.g. abc123). 

You will also need to enable two-factor authentication to access CWRU's networking and computing services. If you did not get those instructions or can't find them at this time, please go to https://case.edu/utech/duo for additional instructions on how to enroll your device in DUO.

If you still need additional assistance, please go to https://case.edu/utech/new-cwru to review the instructions on how to contact [U]Tech for additional help. REMINDER: Please be sure to clarify you are an incoming student if/when you need to speak with [U]Tech.

3) Login to your CWRU Email Account  —  Once your network ID is activated, you will also be able to access your CWRU email account.  Official communications from the university will be sent electronically using your university-assigned e-mail address. 

NOTE: Once you have accepted admission online, depending on your admission status and how close we are to the start of the term, you may or may not matriculate right away. This may delay your accessing of SIS and other single-sign-on services.   

INTERNATIONAL ADMITS: We cannot begin working on your visa until you have accepted our offer of admission. Once you accept the offer and have activated your Network ID, refer to the second page of your offer letter for instructions on starting the visa process at visas.case.edu. All questions about your visa should be directed to International Student Services, not Graduate Studies. 


NEW STUDENT CHECKLIST  — For degree seeking students, this checklist will help you keep track of what needs to be completed in order to make a smooth transition to CWRU. The checklist contains information on getting your ID card, parking, orientation registration, medical history, course registration, financial information, computing, policies, procedures, and more. Bookmark this site to keep on top of the tasks that will help to get you set up as a student at Case Western Reserve. 

Do not be alarmed if you receive the error message "You do not currently have any active checklists. Please wait up to 2 business days after you pay your deposit for the checklist to be active." The checklist has yet to be posted for your start term and you will receive an email from Graduate Studies when the checklist is open. Please disregard the part about a deposit (unless you are pursuing a Master’s degree in Engineering Management) – the deposit is meant for undergraduates. Regardless of when you receive access to the checklist, please complete as many items as possible.  Do not worry if the deadline has passed on a specific checklist item, just complete what you can.


4) Find a Place to Live  —  Most grad students live in off-campus rental housing in Cleveland or one of the surrounding communities.  The Graduate Life Living Off Campus section provides information on rental basics, off-campus housing listings, neighborhood connections, and more. The Office of Graduate Student Life has also put together some resources on Housing Options

5) Explore Your New Community!  —  Check out the Discovering Cleveland section of our website to learn about the arts and culture scene, sporting events, parks, festivals, shopping, student discounts, and more. You can also learn about getting around town, via shuttles, rapid train, car, bus, and air.