We’re already at that time of year again. Scheduling; that crazy dash to signing up for classes for the next semester. A time where hopes and dreams are made or shattered.
You know how sometimes your friends are like “Oh, when are you scheduling? What are you taking?” and you’re just like: please, I have no idea. I need to check. I’m a poor college student with ‘nary an idea. Help.
In the past, students would need to keep track of everything on their own, the good ol’ pencil and paper tactic. For some people, this was no problem. They could look through their orientation packet and find all of the courses and general education tags they needed to complete, and match things up accordingly. Sometimes crying in frustration or throwing a pen across the room was an optional symptom.
I personally made up a Google Sheets document that listed out my academic plan for each semester, and a list of all the tags I would be completing. That way, I wouldn’t have to continue writing everything out, or worry that my advisor wouldn’t understand what I was doing. Everything was planned out, and let me tell you that advisors love that.
However, this past year ONU has released revolutionary new software that has been changing lives ever since.
DegreeWorks allows students to pull up a list of all of the requirements they need to complete for their general education tags, general college courses, and courses for their major. They can then see what has already been completed, and what still needs to be filled.
In addition, you can actually go in and input classes you plan to take to see what requirements they will also fill. This could save a lot of headache later on, because now you’ll simply know ahead of time whether or not a certain class will fulfill a certain requirement. So now you won’t have to be tricked into taking some religion class with your friend only to find that it DOESN’T ACTUALLY COUNT FOR THAT TAG YOU THOUGHT IT DID.
This is life changing, people! Now all the slackers and the plan-aheaders can be on the same page. No more shady alleyway rap fights about who’s planning better.
What classes do I still need to take to fulfill my major’s requirements? Let’s check DegreeWorks! BAM.
Will this drama class fulfill the informed responses to aesthetics tag? Check DegreeWorks. BAZOOMBA.
I’m pretty sure the commercials for this software would have some student with bleach white teeth hitching rides on the golf cart and raising their fist in the air as the wind makes their towel cape flutter. Everyone they pass wants to give them a bro-shake, give them a Mac cookie, etc.
So go forth, my friend. Now you, too, can now be a scheduling superhero.