Terminology
A Group is a cluster of Careers. Groups are primarily used to include or exclude students from reports. Three Groups are defined: Traditional, Professional, and Non–degree.
A Career is equivalent to current classification levels—Undergraduate: Class 1-4; Graduate: Class 5; Non-degree seeking: 0, 6, 7.
Many system functions use Career as a defining point. Some examples of processes that use Career as a defining parameter are academic calendars; financial aid eligibility and distribution; and fee assessment.
A Program refers to the degree a student is seeking. A Program is admitted to and graduates from a Program. The degree level equates to program. Four programs are defined: Bachelor’s, Master’s, Specialist, and PhD.
A Plan is a combination of degree type (BS, BA, BFA, MS, MA, MPA, etc.) plus a major. Plans can also define minors or additional majors.
A Program/Plan Stack (“Stack”) represents the academic structure (comprising degree level, degree type, and major) as it is applies to each student. A Program/Plan Stack Change refers to a change in the student’s program, plan, or both. Every time a change is made to a student's record, a new row reflecting that action is created in the student's Program/Plan record.
An Academic Organization can be a college, a school, or a department, such as the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Communication, or the Biology Department.
NOTE: The academic organization syntax is as follows:
The first two letters represent the college AS (Arts and Sciences), BU (Business), ED (Education), and so on.
Please be aware of two changes:
- Human Science is now HS not HE, and
- Communication is now CI not CO.
The next 3 letters represent the department ACC (accounting), HIS (History), and so on. Some departments may have _INT appended, indicating an interdisciplinary department.
Some departments may append another string representing a sub-unit within the department (mostly found in Modern Languages. For example, ASMLLFRE designates the Department of French: AS/Arts and Sciences; MLL/Modern Languages and Linguistics; FRE/French Language Program).
And some academic organizations are not departments at all, but are centers that coordinate degree programs and/or courses.
Scenarios
The academic scenarios below are translated into a tabular representation of various program/plan structures. Consult the Plan Naming Conventions page for an overview of abbreviations.
| Student Central | Single Major—Undergraduate Student pursuing a BS in Exercise Science |
| Career | UGRD |
| Program | BACH |
| Plan | EXERCSIBS |
| Student Central | Single Major—Graduate Student pursuing an MA in Psychology with Thesis |
| Career | GRAD |
| Program | MASTR |
| Plan | PSYCALGYMB |
| Student Central | Double Major—Undergraduate Student pursuing a single BS with a double major in Criminology and Criminal Justice and Psychology |
| Career | UGRD |
| Program | BACH |
| Plan | CRIMCJUSBS |
| This student has only one career and one program, but two plans. The two majors are posted under the same degree. | |
| Student Central | Two Bachelor's Degrees, each with a Minor—BS in Criminology and Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology and a BA in English with a minor in Philosophy |
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| Career | UGRD | |||
| Program | BACH | BACH | ||
| Plan | CRIMCJUSBS | PSYCALGYMN | ENGLABA | PHYLPOLYMN |
| This student has only one career, but two program/plan stacks. The separate program/plan stacks allow independent posting of the degree associated with each program/plan combination. | ||||
| Student Central | Combined Degree Program—History BA with a Political Science minor to an MA in History | |
| Career | UGRD | |
| Program | BACH | |
| Plan | c | POLITSCIMN |
| GRADUATION | BA: History; Minor: Political Science | |
| Career | GRAD | |
| Program | MASTR | |
| Plan | HISTROYMA | |
| This student has only one career active at a time, and only one program/plan stack active at a given time. | ||
| Student Central | Simultaneous MA with thesis in Biology and BS in Accounting | |
| Career | GRAD | UGRAD |
| Program | MASTR | BACH |
| Plan | BIOLOGYMT | ACCOUNTBS |
| This student is pursuing two degree levels at the same time, and thus has two careers, each of which has its own program/plan stack. The separate career/program/plan stacks allow independent posting of the degree associated with each career/program/plan combination. | ||
| Student Central | PhD in Institutional Research with an 'inflight" MA in Instructional Systems | |
| Career | GRAD | |
| Program | DOCT | MASTR |
| Plan | INSTRESHPD | INSTRSYSPD |
| This student has one career but two separate program/plan stacks. The separate program/plan stacks allow independent posting of the degree associated with each program/plan combination. | ||