Updated and accurate for Fall 2023
Congratulations, graduates! All of your hard work at the University of Illinois has paid off! But before you leave campus there’s a few things you need to do first to make sure your important files and software come with you.
What you need to know
To protect our network, we remove the student status from the NetIDs of all undergraduates, graduate students, and professional students. Your student status will be removed approximately one year after you leave the University. All of your crucial services–email, software, Library access, computer lab access–are tied to your NetID and your status as a student. You can continue to use all of your services until your student status is removed.
How to prepare
Set your password recovery options
You will need to keep your password updated to access services. Update your password and set your recovery options at the NetID center
Set up email forwarding
Once your student status is removed after one year, you will no longer be able to log into your university email account. However, you can still be reached at your NetID@illinois.edu address if you set up forwarding to an outside address.
Learn how to set up email forwarding here
Save WebStore license keys
You will not be able to log into WebStore to access your order history. Take some time now to visit the WebStore and save or store any access keys/codes for your software. Some subscription software will expire prior to your NetID deactivation.
Save or migrate stored online data
If you’ve been using U of I Box or university accounts for OneDrive or Google Apps at Illinois, you may want to save or migrate access to any files.
- U of I Box
- Microsoft OneDrive
- Google Apps @ Illinois
What expires after graduation
Once your student status is removed, you won’t be able to use these services:
- University Exchange (Outlook) Mailbox
- Microsoft Office 365
- Online courses (Illinois Compass 2g, Moodle/learn.illinois.edu, etc.)
- Some computer labs
- Linkedin Learning
- VPN
- U of I Box
- Illini-Alert (after your student status changes, you will be removed from the database and no longer receive emergency notifications)
- Handshake (to create an alumni account, fill out this form)
- Library resource access (information about Library services for alumni is available in this guide)
If you are continuing work with a department after graduation, they may continue to provide you services via your NetID. Check with your department if you will need to access any of their services after graduation.