DegreeWorks

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

• Introduction to Plans
• Plans for Graduation

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.

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.