{"id":308,"date":"2018-10-26T15:01:39","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T15:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=308"},"modified":"2018-12-11T17:33:40","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T17:33:40","slug":"how-to-plan-your-degree","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/chapter\/how-to-plan-your-degree\/","title":{"raw":"How to Plan Your Degree","rendered":"How to Plan Your Degree"},"content":{"raw":"There's no one way to plan a degree; much of the process depends on you and your mentor, and the different things you need to consider.\u00a0 Know, though, that educational planning actually starts informally in your first conversation with your mentor, who may ask you about your interests, goals, what type of degree you want to pursue, and more.\u00a0 The educational planning course simply formalizes and structures this ongoing conversation.\r\n\r\nHowever you approach planning your degree, there are a few general\u00a0planning strategies that may help:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>You will be asked about your preferences, so start thinking early on about what you really want to accomplish via this degree.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Ask questions at any time.\u00a0 Connect with your mentor as needed.\u00a0 Connect with other students.\u00a0 Connect with college resources.\u00a0 Don't sit alone worrying and wondering about how to approach degree planning; just get in there and start.\u00a0 There's always someone to talk to and help.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Start reading the Undergraduate Area of Study Guidelines relatively early for degree areas in which you're interested.\u00a0 Guidelines list the competencies - the academic knowledge and skills - that are expected in degrees in certain fields.\u00a0 Understand that some of the guidelines are intentionally vague in order to offer maximum flexibility.\u00a0 Again, ask questions and discuss these guidelines with your mentor.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>If you're considering including credit from prior learning assessment in your degree plan, it's a good idea to talk about that early on with your mentor, and to start the process relatively early.\u00a0 Your degree cannot go through academic review and approval until all prior learning credit recommendations are done.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Finally, know that even after you plan your degree and get it approved, there might be a little room for change if it makes sense.\u00a0 For example, you might want to switch one course for another one, a new one that was not available when you planned your degree.\u00a0 Know that this is possible, with only one restriction -\u00a0you cannot remove or switch a course that's needed to address a guideline or fulfill a requirement (e.g., advanced-level, liberal credit, general education).<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h3><\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_639\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"925\"]<img class=\"wp-image-639 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3676\/2018\/10\/16123808\/Visual-Overview-of-dp-process-2.jpg\" alt=\"3 Components of Degree Planning: 1) Goals (What do I want to do? What do I want to know?); 2) Prior Learning (What do I already know? PLA requests?; 3) Research (What do I need to know professionally? What do I need to know for ESC?) - leading to &quot;Planning Results&quot; (Degree Program and Rationale Essay)\" width=\"925\" height=\"456\" \/> Overview of the Degree Planning Process[\/caption]","rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s no one way to plan a degree; much of the process depends on you and your mentor, and the different things you need to consider.\u00a0 Know, though, that educational planning actually starts informally in your first conversation with your mentor, who may ask you about your interests, goals, what type of degree you want to pursue, and more.\u00a0 The educational planning course simply formalizes and structures this ongoing conversation.<\/p>\n<p>However you approach planning your degree, there are a few general\u00a0planning strategies that may help:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You will be asked about your preferences, so start thinking early on about what you really want to accomplish via this degree.<\/li>\n<li>Ask questions at any time.\u00a0 Connect with your mentor as needed.\u00a0 Connect with other students.\u00a0 Connect with college resources.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t sit alone worrying and wondering about how to approach degree planning; just get in there and start.\u00a0 There&#8217;s always someone to talk to and help.<\/li>\n<li>Start reading the Undergraduate Area of Study Guidelines relatively early for degree areas in which you&#8217;re interested.\u00a0 Guidelines list the competencies &#8211; the academic knowledge and skills &#8211; that are expected in degrees in certain fields.\u00a0 Understand that some of the guidelines are intentionally vague in order to offer maximum flexibility.\u00a0 Again, ask questions and discuss these guidelines with your mentor.<\/li>\n<li>If you&#8217;re considering including credit from prior learning assessment in your degree plan, it&#8217;s a good idea to talk about that early on with your mentor, and to start the process relatively early.\u00a0 Your degree cannot go through academic review and approval until all prior learning credit recommendations are done.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, know that even after you plan your degree and get it approved, there might be a little room for change if it makes sense.\u00a0 For example, you might want to switch one course for another one, a new one that was not available when you planned your degree.\u00a0 Know that this is possible, with only one restriction &#8211;\u00a0you cannot remove or switch a course that&#8217;s needed to address a guideline or fulfill a requirement (e.g., advanced-level, liberal credit, general education).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_639\" style=\"width: 935px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-639\" class=\"wp-image-639 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3676\/2018\/10\/16123808\/Visual-Overview-of-dp-process-2.jpg\" alt=\"3 Components of Degree Planning: 1) Goals (What do I want to do? What do I want to know?); 2) Prior Learning (What do I already know? PLA requests?; 3) Research (What do I need to know professionally? What do I need to know for ESC?) - leading to &quot;Planning Results&quot; (Degree Program and Rationale Essay)\" width=\"925\" height=\"456\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-639\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Overview of the Degree Planning Process<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-308\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>How to Plan Your Degree. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Susan Oaks. <strong>Project<\/strong>: Educational Planning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":81366,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"How to Plan Your Degree\",\"author\":\"Susan Oaks\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"Educational Planning\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-308","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":50,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81366"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":760,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/308\/revisions\/760"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/50"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/308\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=308"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=308"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-educationalplanning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}