Overview of the Academic Review Process

Once you develop your degree plan and rationale essay, these documents proceed through an academic review process on two levels:

1. a review for academic content and structure
2. a review for technical items, such as accurate transfer credit and credit amounts and levels

In the review for academic content and structure, an academic review committee, made up of faculty and assessment professionals, reviews your degree program in the contexts of

• your rationale essay,
• ESC requirements for degrees (credit amounts, level, type),
• ESC Area of Study Guidelines for your type of degree,
• what the profession expects in your type of degree, if you’re pursuing a professionally-based degree, and
• State University of New York General Education requirements.

The first context—your rationale essay—is one of the most important.  Committee members want to understand your reasoning and research behind your choices for your degree, the things that make your degree meaningful to you as well as academically and professionally valid.

Both reviews examine the academic soundness of your degree plan.

Questions an Academic Review Committee Asks

• Does the title of the degree/concentration reflect the actual contents of the degree?
• Does the rationale essay clearly set the context for understanding the degree by discussing personal-academic-professional goals?
• Do the degree plan and rationale essay show how the degree will actually help you work toward those goals?
• Does the degree have an overall design that’s addressed implicitly in the degree plan and explicitly in the rationale essay?   In other words, have you explained why you’ve included certain pieces in the degree, how pieces of the degree relate to one another, build from one another, and/or provide a variety of perspectives?
• Does the rationale essay clearly discuss how you’ve addressed the ESC Area of Study Guidelines for degrees in that particular area?
• Does the rationale essay clearly discuss what’s usually expected academically/professionally in this type of degree, and provide evidence to show that you have addressed broader academic/professional expectations?
• Do the degree plan and rationale essay clearly show that you have fulfilled the SUNY General Learning requirement?
• Is the essay clearly written in your own voice; with a beginning, middle, and end; clear and correct language; and documentation as needed?

Academic Review in Action

To see a committee in action, watch the video “What Happens in an Academic Review Committee?” in which an academic review committee reviews a degree program and rationale essay from student Jenny Palmer.  Also attached is Jenny’s degree program and rationale essay, so you can actually follow along with the documents that the committee is discussing.

• Jenny Palmer Sample DP & Rationale
• Interdisciplinary Studies