Drafting Your Degree Plan

Degree Content

As you draft your degree plan, make sure to address Undergraduate Area of Study Guidelines that identify expected knowledge and skills for degrees in your academic field.  You can address knowledge and skills that the guidelines indicate through transfer courses, ESC courses, PLA, and/or a combination of courses and experience that you write about in your rationale essay. Also make sure to include courses and studies that address any expectations that the workplace will have of individuals who have degrees in your professional area.  Address general workplace competencies as well as knowledge and skills specific to your professional focus.

You can find more information about all of these expectations in the Academic Expectations and Professional Expectations sections of this textbook.  Degree content is key to drafting your degree plan.

The rest of this page is devoted to the more “nuts-and-bolts” information on degree format, which you will find useful as you draft and complete your degree in DPPlanner.

Degree Formats

You may choose between two degree formats for the associate or bachelor’s degree:

Two-Column Format with Concentration

In this format, you list each of your courses in one of two columns—the concentration column or the general learning column—for your degree plan.  This kind of degree should have a good balance between studies in your concentration and general learning.  On the associate degree level, concentration courses are usually foundation courses in an area that interests you such as business, psychology, or human services.  Quite often these introductory-level courses provide a foundation for future advanced-level courses.  On the bachelor’s degree level, concentration courses include both foundation courses and more advanced-level courses that broaden and deepen your knowledge in your focus area.

The general learning courses in this format provide a level of breadth and exposure to the degree.  Fulfilling the SUNY general education requirements will usually provide this breadth.

One-Column Format

This format has no concentration and is expected to be broad and include a sampling of studies from the arts and sciences, although some technical and professional studies also may be included.  On the associate degree level, one-column degrees are relatively common, as they cover general education and provide a broad spectrum of coursework upon which to build.  On the bachelor’s degree level, one-column degrees are more rare, but still very viable, as they offer the opportunity to do a degree with a wide range of studies of interest to the student, especially if the student does not need to focus the degree in any particular area.

Technical Requirements

Associate Degrees

  1. Your degree plan must be exactly 64 credits.
  2. SUNY General Education Requirements: At least 7 of the 10 knowledge and skill areas must be fulfilled, including Math and Basic Communication. At least 30 credits of your degree plan must be general education. For more information, check the courses that fulfill general education requirements in the online catalog.
  3. A maximum of 40 advanced-standing credits can be applied to your degree. “Advanced standing” credit refers to all potential sources of transfer credit such as credit from previous colleges you attended, exams such as CLEP, and/or credit gained through prior learning assessment.

Bachelor’s Degrees

  1. Your degree plan must be exactly 124 credits.
  2. At least 45 credits in the degree program must be advanced-level (junior-senior level courses or PLA), with at least 24 of the 45 advanced-level credits in the concentration.
  3. SUNY General Education Requirements: At least 7 of the 10 knowledge and skill areas must be fulfilled, including Math and Basic Communication. At least 30 credits of your degree plan must be general education. For more information, check the courses that fulfill general education requirements in the online catalog.
  4. A maximum of 91 advanced-standing credits can be applied to your degree. “Advanced standing” credit refers to all potential sources of transfer credit such as credit from previous colleges you attended, exams such as CLEP, and/or credit gained through prior learning assessment.

Additional Information

To further understand what’s expected in your degree, read the Student Degree Planning Guide chapter on Degree Types and Requirements. Make sure you understand the following concepts:

  • degree type (A.A., A.S., B.A., B.S., B.P.S)
  • liberal learning credit, lower- and advanced-level credit
  • concentration and general learning