Google Chrome is the recommended web browser for use with DegreeWorks.

Students, If you’re taking any of these courses below for summer or fall, your DegreeWorks worksheet may appear incorrect.  We are working to have this updated for Fall 2021.  No action is required from you at this time.

  • CHMY 121IN = CHMY 121IN Lecture and 122IN Lab
  • CHMY 123 = CHMY 123 Lecture and 124 Lab
  • CHMY 141 = CHMY 141 Lecture and 142 Lab
  • CHMY 143 = CHMY 143 Lecture and 144 Lab
  • CHMY 151 = CHMY 151 Lecture and 152 Lab
  • CHMY 153 = CHMY 153 Lecture and CHMY 154 Lab
  • CHMY 211 = CHMY 211 Lecture and CHMY 212 Lab
  • CHMY 321 = CHMY 321 Lecture and 322 Lab
  • CHMY 323 = CHMY 323 Lecture and CHMY 324 Lab

DegreeWorks Information

DegreeWorks is a web-based degree planning and audit system designed to help students and academic advisors monitor progress toward degree completion. You can check degree progress, plan for upcoming semesters, and even see how your courses might apply to a new major if you decide to change majors or add a minor. It also allows for advising notes and provides a place to create semester plans. DegreeWorks provides an accessible, convenient, and organized way for students to monitor their academic standing and track their progress toward earning a degree. 

Watch a short video on DegreeWorks at Montana State University.

DegreeWorks Features

The worksheet displays a student’s degree progress based on their declared major. This worksheet displays all the degree, general education/Core requirements, major, second major (if applicable), and minor (if applicable) requirements and the classes the student has taken to satisfy them.  The worksheet also shows incomplete requirements, reminding students of what classes they need to take. It illustrates the classes that have not been attempted (in red) and the classes in progress (in blue). For the classes that have not yet been attempted, DegreeWorks offers suggestions as to which class to take, thereby eliminating the hassle of searching for classes to satisfy an unmet requirement.

Use the What If function to see a worksheet/audit for a new or second major, or the addition of a minor.  If the student's default catalog year is not shown, a catalog year must be chosen. Where the current major is shown, pull down the menu and select a new major or option.  The minor selection menu is in the right column.

What If can be used whether a student is currently undeclared or thinking about changing their major.  The What If allows students to view how their progress changes with a new major, which classes can still be applied towards the new major or minor, which classes will not count, and which new classes need to be taken

The GPA Calculator tab is for students to calculate what their term GPA may be based on what grade they predict they will get in a course.  The GPA Calculator can help students in realistic goal-setting at the beginning of the term, as well as help with accurate mapping of their paths for achieving honors, avoiding probation or suspension, or satisfying personal academic aspirations.

PLEASE NOTE – the GPA calculator does not account for courses that are being repeated (taken for a second time).  Institutional policy will generally exclude the credits and grade associated with the first attempt at the course.  The GPA calculator does not do this.

The Look Ahead tab is for a student to see exactly how a future course may be applied to graduation requirements.
The Notes tab is for faculty or staff to enter notes relating to their discussion with a student. The degreeworks tab-notes is intended for sharing information and advice directly related to a student´s progress toward degree including: registration, curriculum, enrollment, graduation application, credential auditing and degree certification. Notes outside of these parameters may be removed by the Office of the Registrar.

Students should review their DegreeWorks worksheet and create their next semester plan before meeting with their advisor.

Video Tutorials

The Plans tab allows students to plot their courses through graduation. Students can create a Plan from scratch, or add courses to a pre-defined template. Some departments require that students complete a plan prior to attending their advising session. 

Beginning or Editing a Plan

  • Navigate to MyInfo via the button below
  • Click on "Log in to MyInfo (NetID)" and login to the secure area using your NetID and password
  • Click on “Student Services”
  • Click on “DegreeWorks”

To begin using Plans, click on “Plans” located in the top left corner of the DegreeWorks worksheet.

If a Plan already exists for the student, or upon saving a Plan and/or exiting Plans, clicking on the Plans tab again will give the advisor and the Student a Calendar view of the Plan. The Plan displaying in Calendar view can be edited by selecting Edit from the View pull-down menu. Select View Plan List to see the list of all of the student’s Plans.

If there is an existing Plan(s), they will be listed under “List of Plans”. You may edit an existing Plan by highlighting it and double-clicking to open it.

If you wish to create a new Plan either from scratch or from a template, select “New Plan”.

There are two ways to build new Plans in DegreeWorks: Use a pre-built "template," or start from scratch with a blank Plan.

Blank Plan vs. Template

If no Plans exist or you wish to create a New Plan, you will be prompted to Create a New Plan. Select from either a “Blank Plan” or “Select Template”. A blank Plan is a Plan built from scratch for one or more terms, whereas a template is built from one of MSU’s degree programs.

Download PDF:Building a Plan Using a Template

Templates are used when a major at MSU is selected and the student wishes to import the 4-year degree program for that major into their Plan.

Selecting a Template

To select a template from the list of MSU’s degree programs, you can scroll through the list of templates to find the appropriate one, or enter a keyword or phrase in the ‘Search by Template Description’ box, then click “Go”. Notice many Templates have multiple Math starts. Upon finding the appropriate template, double click on it to open.

Next, you will be prompted to select a starting term. Choose the term for which you would like the degree program to begin, then click “OK”.
 
Note: most templates are intended to begin in the Fall semester.

Editing/Personalizing a Template

Templates are the department’s recommended order of courses to take each term. However, once a template has been selected in DegreeWorks Plans, as it appears below, it can now easily be edited and personalized for the student.

To move existing courses into another term, simply move your cursor to the blank area directly surrounding a requirement (shown in blue), then click and drag the entire line to the desired term.

To add new requirements to the term, you can select a requirement from the term’s + icon, or you can click and drag specific courses from the Still Needed or Master course lists on the right side of the screen into the term.

To delete a requirement from a term, click on the appropriate requirement until it is highlighted in blue, then click the "minus" icon.

Download PDF: Building a Blank Plan

When creating a Blank Plan, enter a description of the Plan, then click the + icon to add the term for which you are Planning. Be sure to Save the Plan periodically.

Adding Requirements to Plan

Once you have entered a description for the Plan and selected a term, you are ready to add requirements to the term. There are multiple ways to add requirements to a term. You can select a requirement from the term’s + icon, or you can click and drag specific courses from the Still Needed or Master course lists on the right side of the screen into the term.

  1. To select a requirement from the term’s + icon, choose from Choice, Course, GPA, Non-Course requirement, Placeholder, or Test Score.
    1. Choice allows you to enter a course among one or more options. You can select options for a specific course or select options among CORE categories by using Attributes.
    2. Course allows you to type a specific course into that term. Note: the course must be typed exactly as it appears in the course list, including CORE abbreviation.
    3. GPA allows you to specify a GPA requirement for that term.
    4. Non-course requirement allows you to select from non-course options needed for graduate students.
    5. Placeholder requirement allows you to enter notes about a requirement for that term.
    6. Test score allows you to specify a test score requirement for that term.
  2. To select a requirement from one or more course lists on the right side of the screen, select from CORE 2.0 requirements, Major requirements, Minor requirements, Honors requirements; or select from the Master List of all MSU courses. Upon finding the course, click and drag it into the term box.

Using Plan Notes

Advisors can add notes to an individual requirement within a term, to the term as a whole, or to the entire Plan. Note: students can view notes but cannot enter notes themselves. Hint: Advisors may use Notes to include student’s registration PIN.

Advisors: to add a note, click on the "page" icon to open it, then click “Add Note”. Upon completing the note, click “Done”. When a note is entered, the solid "page" icon turns to one with lines and can be opened by an advisor or student to read fully, or hovering over it will display the first few words of the note.

Back on the Plans homepage, the Notes view displays a summary of all notes entered for that Plan.

Pre- or Co- Requisite Errors

If the Plan is missing some pre- or co-requisites for one or more courses, this Validation Error will appear upon clicking Save:

As the error message states, you can click ‘Cancel’ to go back into the Plan to see which courses within the Plan have missing pre- or co-reqs and resolve the error. Or, an advisor can continue without resolving the error by clicking OK. Note: students don’t have the ability to save their Plan without resolving pre- or co-req errors; they must resolve the error before being able to save.

Upon clicking ‘Cancel’ to view and resolve the error, you will see a yellow warning symbol, whereby you can hover over it to view the specifics of the pre- or co-req error and edit the Plan accordingly to include the pre- or co-req.

Note for Advisors: The yellow warning symbol will only appear once with the indication to fix the error. Upon saving without fixing the error, the warning will disappear. But for the student who is building or editing a Plan, the yellow warning symbol will always appear.

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite Errors in Templates

Note for Students: DegreeWorks does not recognize courses on a Choice Requirement as courses that are Planned to be taken, so the Validation Error will also appear if a pre- or co-requisite is listed as a Choice.

To resolve this error, doubleclick to open the Choice Requirement, then select one of the choices by clicking the appropriate radial button, then click “Done”. The Plan will now indicate the selected choice, but the choices still appear if you change your mind later. Now you can Save the Plan without pre- or co-req errors. 

Auditing a Plan

Audit from the Plan is a way to ensure the requirements entered into the Plan match what is required for the degree program. Planned courses will display in blue on the Plan Audit.

Note: A Plan Audit cannot be saved; the student’s worksheet remains the most accurate checklist of requirements.

Locking & Activating a Plan

The ‘Active’ box allows for a Plan to be tracked with the student’s worksheet and/or audit.

An advisor can ‘Lock’ a Plan. Use the Locked check box if you want to Lock this Plan for advising records and prevent a student from being able to alter it. Also, locking and activating a Plan will allow the Plan to be sent to CatCourse where the student will register for courses. 

Known Issues with DegreeWorks: If you took a course at MSU before fall of 1991 DegreeWorks will not apply this course to your worksheet because it does not convert quarter credits into semester credits. Please meet with your advisor to determine what courses apply to your degree and find out your GPA and course credit totals. Additionally, DegreeWorks cannot show second concentrations at this time (except for Business and Elementary Education majors).

Questions?

  • Check out the DegreeWorks FAQ page.
  • For issues regarding your worksheet, general questions or to schedule a training, email degreeworks@montana.edu.
  • For questions regarding your progress toward your degree, please consult your academic advisor.