Graduation Planner - Helping Students to Choose, Plan and Succeed
By Clair Strand

In the 2007-08 academic year a new dynamic Web-based planning tool will be made available to students and their advisers.

With Graduation Planner, students will be able to access all current course information and program requirements in one easy-to-use program, creating customized plans that will help them stay on track for timely graduation.   The tool will be useful for students who have declared their majors or minors, but it will also allow for detailed major exploration--with the ability to create numerous plans in a consistent format, students will be able to compare among and choose between different plans.

Graduation Planner also serves as an advising tool for advisers and a communication tool for advisers and students.   Advisers will be able to view students' plans and comment of specific issues within the application, or request that students bring printed plans to appointments, making for more productive advising sessions.   This could be an ideal way of doing Annual Planning.   Also, course-selection issues tackled early and up front, advisers and students can have more time to discuss students' potential life and career paths.

The goal of the tool is to simplify the degree-planning process for students, providing them with clear expectations and allowing for focused and meaningful interaction with advisers.   Graduation Planner is an exciting new tool that can help students achieve the goal of graduating in four years.