The Advisor Toolkit is designed for the Missouri State academic advising community
as a tool to assist with Office of the Registrar-related functions. The Advisor Toolkit
contains the following resources:
The following timeline documents have been developed to academic advisors in planning
for the various advisor-related functions that occur during the academic semester.
These timeline formats have the same information, but are provided in different formats
in order to best support the way the advisor wishes to review the information.
The Advisor Question Depository is created from commonly asked advisor questions.
Questions are grouped by topic. Anchor links are provided so you can quickly navigate
to your topic of choice. If you have suggestions for additional content that may be
helpful, please share your suggestion by emailing Registrar@missouristate.edu. Content
will be updated based as new advisor inquiries develop.
Academic Semester Cycle for Advisors (Date Layout) This timeline is a date-driven view to see the various functions that make up each
semester of the academic year by looking up a specific date to see what semester events
occur around the selected date.
Academic Semester Cycle for Advisors (Item Layout) This timeline is a item-driven view to see the various functions that make up each
semester of the academic year by looking up a specific item to see when that item
occurs for a specific semester cycle.
Office of the Registrar Generic Annual Texting Schedule This schedule shows the annual texting schedule of the Office of the Registrar and
includes the specific message used in each text. NOTE-Office of the Registrar texts
are sent to undergraduate students only. Any graduate student related texts are admininstered
through the Graduate College.
This is something the student or advisor has access to see through the student’s Registration
Status link as found for advisors on My Missouri State > Teaching & Advising tab >
Student Information channel > Student Information Menu link > Registration status.
This screen tells the student when their earlier registration date and time is and
shows the items that the student needs to address in order to be eligible to register.
Registration date and time is based on the number of completed credits. In-progress
classes are not included in calculating registration date and time. When we have receive communication from students that they believe they have the
wrong registration date and time, it’s usually because they have included in-progress
coursework.
The Registration Status page for summer and fall registration is typically updated
on February 1 and for spring registration on September 1.
The University Hold Codes page provides information about the various holds, whether they affect registration
and/or transcript release, and provides contact information for the University office
that oversees the hold.
Trial Schedule Builder/College Schedule
The typical reason is that the user does not have the proper parts of term and/or
campuses selected, with campuses being the most common issue. This is particularly
heightened during periods where there are an increased number of online and/or blended
courses. Many students select “Springfield, MO” as their only campus, and therefore
are leaving such courses out of their search.
Trial Schedule Builder will keep the campus selection made during the student's previous
use of the software. It is recommended that students minimally keep the following
campuses selected. The remaining campus selections refer to campuses outside Springfield,
but the student may prefer to just keep all campuses selected.
Off-campus; Online; Springfield, MO; Springfield, MO (No SSF)
Another reason is that if the Course Status selected is "open courses only" and there
are no sections with open seats, then the search would yield no results.
No. The Trial Schedule Builder is an optional resource for students. They may also
register directly through My Missouri State by following the Search for classes link
on the Registration tab, selecting the course(s) they want to register for and clicking
the register button.
If there are existing courses already in the student's registration cart from a previous
session, they can clear them by going to My Missouri State > Registration channel
> Add or Drop Classes > Trial Schedule Builder Cart. Click the check box next to the
classes the advisee wishes to clear from the cart and click the “Clear Cart” button.
Go to Trial Schedule Builder (My Missouri State > Registration channel > Trial Schedule
Builder), which will redirect to the screen where the advisee will pick the desired
term.
The advisee will select the courses in which they wish to register. In this example,
LAW 231 and ITC 201 are used.
The advisee will generate the possible schedules and click the "View" link beside
the preferred schedule.
The advisee can click the Send to Shopping Cart button at the top of the screen.
The advisee will click the Continue button when they get the shopping cart transfer
message.
This will take the advisee to the Registration Cart, where they should click the Register
button to add the courses.
The Registration Webpage is a good general resource about basic registration functions such as adding/dropping
courses, how to register for courses that require permission, how to register for
a closed class (with permission), and similar types of functions. There are also How-To videos available related to registration.
More information is needed generally to answer this question. It’s recommended to
start with the Registration Status page to see if the student is eligible to attempt
to register yet. If they are eligible and indicate they have made a registration attempt,
it will be important to have them note the specific registration error they receives
when they try to register as there are a variety of reasons that a student might not
be able to register.
Lists the various error messages that a student may see.
Provides a definition of what that error means.
Provides instruction on how to resolve the error, which typically is something that
needs to be done by an academic department.
Provides instruction on the type of override needed if the department wishes to provide
an override to the registration error.
The student can go to My Missouri State > Registration tab > My Student Records >
Holds. On the View Holds page, they will have a "Drop with a Registration Hold request"
link. They can click the check boxes for the classes they wish to drop and submit.
Their request will be submitted to the Office of the Registrar for processing.
The degree audit system and prerequisite checking are two independent systems, so
the prerequisite system would not have the ability to recognize a course exception
in the degree audit. The student would need to obtain a prerequisite override from
the corresponding academic department.
Even if the systems did communicate back and forth with one another, we would likely
not want such automation to occur. For example, if we have a major called Jellybean
Studies and it required course ABC 123 as a prerequisite and the Jellybean Studies
department decided to substitute some alternate non-ABC course, their decision to
substitute it doesn’t mean that the Alphabet Department would necessarily be okay
with their alternate non-ABC course meeting prerequisites for upper-division ABC coursework
that had ABC 123 as a prerequisite as they would want to ensure the student had the
appropriate background to be successful in the course.
Yes. You may request the "pseudo student proxy" role (RL-MSU-ELLUCIAN-EXPERIENCE-PROXY
CAMS) by sending a request to NicoleMuse@missouristate.edu with Computer Services. With this additional role assigned, advisors who were not
previously MSU students would be able to use the navigate and search features of My
Missouri State and have the same card search results that a student utilizing the
navigation and search feature would find. If you have been a MSU student previously,
you already have this so making this requests would not be necessary.
Mixed Credit and Senior Permission
Mixed credit courses can count towards an UG degree and GR degree. Senior permission
is simply permission to take GR coursework prior to being an official GR student,
but it is not allowed to apply towards an UG degree. Both require approval paperwork.
More information about this can be found on the mixed credit and senior permission website.
In these scenarios, the student is typically a current undergraduate (UG) student
who is admitted as a graduate (GR) student for a future semester beyond the one they
are trying to register for. Since the student is still an undergraduate student in
the semester they are trying to register for, they must have either mixed credit or
senior permission in order to register in graduate coursework for that semester. The
mixed credit/senior permission form must be filled out, the proper signatures obtained,
and returned to the Graduate College for approval. Upon their approval, it will be
forwarded to the Office of the Registrar for the corresponding mixed credit or senior
permission override to be entered, which is what allows the student to be able to
register for the course. It is important to note that the mixed credit and senior
permission forms do not register the student. It gives the student permission to register
themselves for the class.
Students wishing to receive mixed credit must register in the corresponding GR course
(the course they receive mixed credit permission for on the form). At the conclusion
of the semester in which the course is completed, a secondary level of “UG” will be
added to the GR course, which will allow it to apply to both levels. So, as an example,
a student would end up with ABC 678 UG credit and ABC 678 GR credit.
Since the UG level is not added until the end of the semester of completion, the mixed
credit course will not appear on the UG audit until that time. There is a message
on the UG audit explaining this to the user.
Students and advisors can see that the mixed credit permission override is in place
on the student’s Registration Status page for the semester in which the mixed credit
is being completed.
Typically this is caused by one of the following issues:
Student registered in the wrong course (registered in UG instead of GR).
Student received senior permission instead of mixed credit.
Student applied pre-maturely to the graduate program and therefore was eligible to
register in GR courses, and failed to 1) notify the graduate college that they needed
to move back their semester of GR admission and 2) failed to complete mixed credit
paperwork at the time they initially enrolled in the course since they were classified
as GR for the future semester at the time of enrollment. The Graduate College and
the Office of the Registrar would likely need to be involved in administrative clean-up
in these situations.
The secondary level of “UG” did not get properly added during the end of term processing,
which the Office of the Registrar would need to investigate.
Often the mixed credit course is being allowed to substitute for a corresponding UG
course. The mixed credit course needs to be substituted by the corresponding academic
department into the appropriate program requirement location. To aid with this, the
Office of the Registrar sends department heads a list of students taking mixed credit
courses. This is sent during the second week of the semester (after open enrollment
closes) so they have ample time to review it and apply course exceptions as appropriate.
Even though the courses are not visible on the audit yet, the exceptions can be entered
in advance, and it’s encouraged to do so in order to be in place at the time the mixed
credit course is apply and graduation clearance processing begins.
Yes, but it varies by graduate program. Typical limits range from from 6-12 credits.
The approvers on the mixed credit forms monitor the mixed credit limits as part of
their approval in the processing of the mixed credit form. Questions related to the
limitations on how much mixed credit may be earned should be directed to the Graduate
College for review.
Yes. There is a maximum of 12 senior permission credits. The approver monitors the
senior permission credit limits as part of their approval in the processing of the
senior permission form.
This is really a two part answer. There is 1) at what point they should fill out the
application and 2) for which semester they should apply. It's not the same. For "at
what point they should fill out the application," that should be in advance of the
student beginning to take mixed credit and/or senior permission courses. For " which
semester they should apply," it's the first semester they are taking graduate courses
after they have graduated with their undergraduate degree.
For example, if a student wishes to take their first mixed credit/senior permission
course in fall 2023 but will not graduate until spring 2024, they would want to apply
to their accelerated Master's program in advance of fall 2023 registration beginning,
but the semester they would apply for is summer or fall 2024 (depending on whether
they will take summer classes) has it it the first semester after their intended graduation
semester.
The graduation application includes language to assist the student on this, but students
(and some advisors) frequently misunderstand this and the student instead applies
for the semester in which they wish to take their first senior permission/mixed credit
course. This can cause a variety of issues for the student including and not limited
to prerequisite problems (from no longer being in their declared UG major), overload
issues (as overload limit is less for a graduate student), degree audit problems,
advisor reassignment, and financial aid issues. Students who have applied prematurely
should contact Graduate Admissions to work with them to move the application back
to a later semester. Graduate Admissions will work with the Office of the Registrar
as necessary to restore the student back to their undergraduate status.
For undergraduate students, the primary offices to process these requests are the
Academic Advising and Transfer Center and the Office of the Registrar. College of
Business related transactions are processed by the College of Business Advisement
Center.
For graduate students, they should contact Graduate Admissions as most graduate programs
have a process that requires specific program admission.
No. Each minor specifies the degrees it can be paired with. In the below example,
the Nutrition minor can be paired with a BA, BS, and BSN degree, but not with other
degree types.
Additionally, some departments may have restrictions related to particular major/minor
pairings within the department. Please refer to the corresponding department portion
of the undergraduate catalog if you have questions about departmental restrictions.
Yes. If the department is willing to allow the student to pursue the minor as a personalized
minor, this would allow an avenue for the student to pursue a minor not typically
available. Additional information about this including the form the department uses
to approve the request can be found on the catalog's personalized minor page.
No. A minor must be awarded as part of an earned degree. Therefore:
Students may not enroll at the institution to pursue a minor only.
A student may not attempt to earn a minor post-graduation and seek to attach it to
a previously awarded degree.
Yes. A student may enroll for the purpose of pursuing only a certificate. The admission
process to be followed is the same followed by a degree-seeking student. However,
some certificates do have admission requirements that required a minimum number of
credits to have been earned in order to be eligible to pursue the certificate.
No. Missouri State University's catalog of graduation policy allows for students to
have separate degree (general education/Core 42), major, minor, and certificate catalogs.
The degree audit will read Banner to identify the catalog entered for each independent
item and will pull the corresponding requirements into the degree audit accordingly.
NOTE: When using a "what-if" degree audit, it is not possible to enter different catalog
terms for each section, so be mindful of this when using the "what-if" audit feature.
The student will have separate degree audits for each degree and/or certificate. This
is also how it works for students who are admitted to a future graduate program in
terms of having access to their undergraduate and graduate degree audit. In these
situations, the user may toggle between degree audits by clicking on the degree drop-down
box found in the upper-right portion of the student’s degree audit.
No. You may encounter a situation where a student has such a major during their initial
semester of admission as it is made available in the admission application cycle since
students may not understand the structure of how a pre-professional code works, but
this is not a major with which a student can graduate. During SOAR or the student's
initial semester, the student should receive advice that the pre-professional designation
is not an official degree program and rather an interest indicator that is attached
to a corresponding official program. Pre-professional interest is not listed on a
diploma, degree audit, or transcript.
A second major of a different degree type. This will require degree audit adjustment
to waive the minor requirement. This is typically done towards the end of the student's
enrollment at the University to ensure a minimum amount of coursework was completed
to earn a minor in case the student dropped the second major and need to revert back
to pursuit of a minor.
A previously earned Bachelor's degree. This will require degree audit adjustment to
waive the minor requirement.
Items that may not serve as an alternative to a minor requirement include the following:
An additional option for majors that have multiple options available.
A certificate.
Officially in the Banner system, they cannot. Unofficially, we can work with students
who wish to pursue this. Below are the steps that would need to be followed to do
so.
A student cannot officially be an undergraduate and graduate student in Banner at
the same time. Therefore, the would need to be officially classified in Banner as
pursuing the graduate degree (so that the student would be eligible to register for
graduate classes.)
Since the undergraduate program would not be “officially declared” on Banner, the
student will not be able to use a current degree audit. The student will need to monitor
requirements by running a “what-if” degree audit for the certificate for the catalog
year they are pursuing. It is recommended that the advisor record the catalog information
in Advising Notes for reference.
Since the undergraduate program would not be “officially declared” on Banner, the
student would not be able to use the online Application to Graduate through My Missouri
State as the undergraduate program would not be a selectable option. They would want
to use the printable version of the Application to Graduate and submit this to Registrar@missouristate.edu. In the Additional Comments section,
the student should say the following: “I’m pursuing this UG program while also pursuing
a GR degree, which is why this undergraduate program is not declared. See my advising
notes for further detail.”
Assuming all requirements are met at the end of the intended semester of graduation,
we will post the undergraduate program to the transcript despite the program not being
“officially declared” in Banner.
If the student finishes their graduate program before finishing their undergraduate
program, the student would be switched back to undergraduate status after being cleared
for graduation with the graduate degree, which would restore the student to regular
undergraduate functionality as it relates to degree audit and ability to apply to
graduate.
Any financial aid implications should be discussed with the Office of Student Financial
Aid.
Keep in mind that the advisee would not appear on any department or program related
student lists, so the student may not receive communications sent by the department
to such students.
If any exceptions are needed towards the undergraduate program, you will need to work
with the Office of the Registrar to arrange to process these.
Per the University's General Baccalaureate policy, students who re-enroll after one
calendar year or more (a combination of spring/summer/fall), the student is readmitted
under current program requirements. If a department wishes to allow the student to
be readmitted to their previous catalog, the department head just needs to send an
email to Registrar@missouristate.edu giving permission for the student to be readmitted
to their previous catalog. For education related programs, this may not always be
possible if state certification requirements have changed since last enrolled.
Major, minor, or certificate GPA is made up of the following by default:
The passed courses that are being applied to requirements within the respective major,
minor, or certificate block on the degree audit.
Failed courses that could have been applied to requirements within the respective
major, minor, or certificate block. Those courses do not appear within the block and
are instead listed in the Audited, Failed, Dropped, Repeated section of the Degree
Audit.
Failed course may potentially be eligible to be included if they are excess courses
that will not be repeated to fulfill a major, minor, or certificate requirement. For
example, pretend a major had the requirement of "1 Course in ABC 123 or ABC 234" and
that the student originally failed ABC 123. Currently, the failed ABC 123 would be
included in the major GPA. If the student planned to repeat ABC 123 in the future,
the later ABC 123 attempt would automatically replace the earlier ABC 123 failed attempt
through the natural repeat process.
However, if the student decided not to repeat ABC 123 and instead meet the requirement
by successfully passing ABC 234, ABC 123 becomes an excess course at that point that
is no longer being used to fulfill a major requirement. In those cases, it can be
manually removed from major (or minor or certificate as applicable) GPA inclusion
upon request. Such a request should be sent from the student's (or academic advisor's)
email account to Registrar@missouristate.edu so that Office of the Registrar staff can review the request and process if applicable.
NOTE: this only affects the corresponding major/minor/certificate GPA. It does not
affect the MSU cumulative or combined cumulative GPA.
DG/DX (Application to Degree Program) Holds
These holds are designed to encourage the student to be admitted to their undergraduate
degree program so as to lock in their graduation requirements. These holds are applied
to students who 1) have declared programs with admissions requirements to which they
are not yet admitted or 2) are undeclared majors. DG holds are applied to students
who have completed 75-99 credits and DX holds are applied to students who have completed
100 or more credits.
They are applied twice per academic year. They are generally applied a few days before
the class schedule becomes available for the fall and spring/summer semesters respectively.
Departments which have programs with admission requirements are given a couple of
weeks advanced notice so they can submit degree program admissions in advance of the
application of the holds.
At the time the hold is applied, the student receives an email explaining the purpose
of the hold and with instructions on how to resolve the hold. They generally receive
this about two months prior to the start of sequenced registration, and the email
encourages the student to resolve the hold well in advance of the beginning of registration.
The options to resolve the hold are:
Become admitted to the declared program, at which point the office processing the
transaction can remove the hold.
Change programs to a program that does not have admission requirements, at which point
the office processing the transaction can remove the hold.
If not eligible for admission, the student may request temporary clearance to register
for the upcoming semester. To do this, the student should log into My Missouri State
and navigate to Registration > My Registration > Registration Status. From there, click on the DG/DX hold link which will allow the student to submit
the request. For DG hold students (those with 75-89 undergraduate hours), this request
has to be approved by the department head. For DX hold students (those with 90 or
more undergraduate hours), this clearance has to be approved by both the department
head and college dean. Once approved, the student will receive an email letting them
know the hold was removed and that they may register as long as no other registration
issues exist.
Pass/Not Pass Courses
Pass/not pass coursework that students elect to put on pass/not pass may apply towards
the following types of requirements:
120 minimum undergraduate credit count.
40 hour upper-division credit count.
Pass/not pass coursework that students elect to put on pass/not pass may not apply
towards the following types of requirements:
General education or Core 42
Major, minor, or certificate requirements
Other related requirements
Note: A one-time COVID-related exception to this was made for spring 2020 courses
only.
Since pass/not pass does not normally apply and spring 2020 was a one-time exception,
all applicability to general education and program requirements had to be done manually
through course exceptions. The following transactions done post-spring 2020 may necessitate
additional manual intervention:
Student adds an additional program (such as a minor or certificate) that the pass/not
pass course is applicable towards.
Student changes programs and the change is to a program that the pass/not pass course
is applicable towards.
Student change the catalog they are pursuing for their program, which would break
the originally applied exceptions and they would need to be reapplied as applicable.
Students in this situation can contact the Office of the Registrar at Registrar@missouristate.edu
to request application of the needed spring 2020 pass/not pass related course exceptions.
They do not directly. A pass/not pass course has no GPA affect in terms of inclusion
into GPA hours and quality points earned. They can indirectly affect a GPA when they
are used to replace a previously graded attempt. For example, if a student earned
a "D" in a course previously and repeated the course as a pass/not pass course, the
"D" would end up excluded from GPA and the new "P" attempt would have no GPA impact,
so the net results would be the removal of the "D" from the GPA calculation. Of course,
the new attempt would be subject to the usability limitations of pass/not pass coursework.
Often advisors are prompted to ask this question when they notice that a student is
enrolled in a program course but the course is not applying towards the program requirement.
To confirm if the student is taking the course on pass/not pass, you can look at the
course's grade mode on the Student Schedule Detail as found on the Student Information
Menu in My Missouri State.
Transfer Reevaluation and Pre-Approval
A common misunderstanding is that this is done through the degree audit. It is done
instead through the University's Transfer Credit Reevaluation and Preapproval system,
which is administered by the Office of Admissions. This can be accessed in the following
ways:
By the student through My Missouri State > Student tab > My Transfer Info channel.
By the authorized department head through My Missouri State > Teaching and Advising
tab > Faculty and Advisor Resources.
This system utilizes a workflow system to route the student's requests to the appropriate
approver. The approver's decision is recorded as an advising note and routed to the
Office of Admissions for processing, where it submits to a hub for later processing.
It also appears in a column on the student's transfer evaluation indicating an approval
has been made but not yet processed. The approver will be able to indicate if this
is a one time approval just for the student or a permanent change that will prompt
a change to the University's Transfer Equivalency Guide. Once processed by Admissions,
the change is picked up in the degree audit during overnight updates.
Questions about this system should be directed to the Office of Admissions.
There are multiple reasons that a transfer reevaluation may be more beneficial than
a course exception. These reasons include the following:
Course exception apply only to an individual student. If the department head wants
to make this a permanent reevaluation, doing so would eliminate the need to continue
to make exceptions for the same transfer course over and over in the future.
A course exception has no impact on the prerequisite system for course registration.
So, if a department substitutes a ABC 000 elective course for ABC 123 rather than
reevaluate the course as ABC 123, the course maintains its evaluation identity. So,
if the student tries to register for a course that has ABC 123 as a prerequisite,
a substitution does not help that situation while a reevaluation does.
Applicability to the upper division course requirement is based on course evaluation.
So, if a course was evaluated as ABC 000 and you substituted it for ABC 345 instead
of doing a transfer evaluation, it would continue to count as lower-division since
ABC 000 is a lower-division course. If you reevaluate it as ABC 345, it would count
towards the upper-division requirement.
Course evaluations would be made based on the best applicable decision for the course.
A department would not want to miss an opportunity to provide a more accurate transfer
equivalency solely because "an easier way" existed to administratively not have to
submit a transfer reevaluation request at the time. Plus, if the reevaluation causes
the course to now naturally apply to the requirement, a course exception would no
longer be needed.
The University's Transfer Equivalency Guide maintained by the Office of Admissions allows users to look up how classes will transfer
to the university. Search options include to search by institution (See how courses
transfer to Missouri State) or to search by course to see what institutions offer
an equivalent to a specific MSU course (Search for an equivalent course at another
college).
Students Returning After Extended Absence
If they have been out for more than a calendar year, they will need to apply for readmission
to the University in order to become eligible to register again. If they were suspended
at the time they left, they will additionally need to apply to be reinstated through
their academic dean.
By default, they will be admitted under the current general education. Upon their
request, they may be returned to their previous general education requirements if
they were within 2 or less courses of completing it. This can be checked by running
a "what-if" degree audit for their previous general education catalog term.
By default, they will be admitted under the current program requirements. Upon request
of their department head, they may be returned to their previous program requirements.
There are some limitations that may apply if they were previously pursuing a program
that is no longer offered by the University or if the program was education-related
and state teacher certification requirements have changed.
EContact the Office of the Registrar at Registrar@missouristate.edu to request for
the student to be pulled into Degree Works. The Office of the Registrar has a process
(provided the student's academic record is in Banner versus microfilm, which is generally
students last here prior to 1982/1983) they can run to pull the student into Degree
Works. Keep in mind that it will show the student's previous requirements, which may
not even be programmed in Degree Works, but you would be able to run "what-if" degree
audits for the current program requirements until such time that the student was readmitted
to the University under a current program.
Graduation and Commencement
Check to see if the student has applied to graduate. Even if all requirements are
in order, the student will not be reviewed for eligibility if they do not apply. The
easiest place for advisors to see this is at the end of the Student Information box
on the Advising Notes page. If a student has a declared semester of graduation (meaning
they have formally applied), it will appear as follows:
If the student has not applied to graduate, it will display as "undeclared" and will
appear as follows:
Check the student’s audit to look for the combination of 98% degree progress (which
is the default if all items are met but part of those items are currently in-progress)
paired with an “in-progress” indicator in the degree block. If you have the percentage
but don’t have the “in-progress” indicator, it means there is still an unresolved
item on the degree audit.
Ensure the student is not repeating a previously passed course for grade improvement
as such situations can affect graduation eligibility if not taken into account. There
is a warning message on the degree audit about this. Methods for checking this include
comparing the student’s current registration to a transcript of their previous coursework
or using the Administrative Audit to look for these scenarios. For those not familiar
with using the Administrative Audit, instructions can be found at the end of the corresponding
Degree Works User’s Guides.
Note: For graduate graduation candidates, any questions about audit status should
be directed to the Graduate College as they program the degree audit and provide the
graduation clearance review for graduate students.
The student should apply for summer graduation when filing their Application to Graduate.
Summer applicants are given the option of selecting their semester of commencement
participation as part of the application process, so the student will be able to select
spring or fall commencement participation (since there is no summer commencement ceremony)
at that time.
Items that appear on the diploma and transcript are the following:
Student name
Degree (or Certificate)
Major (including title of individualized majors)
Scholastic Honors as applicable
Items that will not appear on the diploma but will appear on the transcript are the
following:
Minors as applicable
Program options
Items that will not appear on a diploma or transcript are the following:
Unofficial emphasis. Some programs have a group of electives where students are encourage
to pick some combination as an "emphasis" but it's not something that is part of the
official program code or option title.
Foreign language studied as part of the Modern Language major as the language is not
part of the option title.
Program accreditation information
Extra-curricular activities
Students receive one diploma per degree. As an example, if a student earns two Bachelor
of Science majors, they will receive one Bachelor of Science diploma with both majors
included. If a student earns one Bachelor of Science major and one Bachelor of Arts
major, they will receive two diplomas (BA, BS). Certificates are issue on the same
paper used to produce diplomas. Additional information about these requirements can
be found on the diploma policy page.
Students who have pending issues (e.g. incoming transfer work, incomplete grades,
pending course exceptions) must resolve their graduation deficiency no later than
the last day of June for the spring semester, the last day of August for the summer
semester, and the last day of January for the fall semester. Students who do not resolve
their pending issue by the deadline will need to reapply for a future semester of
graduation.
No. The University does not prevent a student from graduating due to a hold. Depending
on the hold, it can block the release of the student's diploma and/or transcript until
such time that the hold has been resolved, but the student still would have been officially
cleared for graduation on-time.
It will be the semester in which the issue is resolved and the student successfully
files for graduation. For example, let's say a student applied for spring 2020 graduation
but was not officially cleared because their transfer work did not arrive on time.
In September, the student had their transcript from the other institution sent to
MSU and reapplied for graduation for fall 2020. Their official semester of graduation
(what's recorded on their transcript and diploma) would be fall 2020.
Yes. Bear Intelligence/ARGOS users can access a report that lists students who have
applied to graduate. There are a number of filters available including level/college/department/program.
An additional filter is to filter by academic advisor. The report is called Graduation
Candidates for Advisors/Departments/College and can be accessed at:
ARGOS>Student>Campus-wide Graduation>ODSPROD-Graduation Candidates for Advisors/Departments/Colleges
On the Wednesday and/or Thursday of the week before a new semester begins, the Office
of the Registrar and the Graduate College participate in a process called Student
Type After Graduation. For students who were successfully graduated and who are no
longer pursing a degree, they are changed to post-baccalaureate (for UG graduates)
or post-Master's (for GR graduates) status and their advisor is inactive effective
the upcoming semester. For students who are continuing on to pursue an additional
program, their advisor is kept active as applicable.
The most common graduation deficiencies for both undergraduate and graduate students.
Detailed instruction on how to run and understand the ARGOS graduation candidate report.
Explaination of the advisor's role in graduation.
Frequently asked questions about Commencement and the graduation clearance process
including timelines for when graduation deficiencies must be resolved.
Additional Advisor Resources
Policies to which advisors are commonly referred
General Baccalaureate Policy This policy contains our University's undergraduate rules about majors/minors, catalogs
of graduation, University GPA requirements, the University exit survey, the Civics
exam, and residency requirements.
Scholastic Honors Policy This policy contains the eligibility requirements for scholastic honors. NOTE: Scholastic
honors are for undergraduate degrees only. There are no scholastic honors for graduate
programs.
Transfer Credit Policy This policy contains the policy information that governs our transfer policies, such
as AA degrees waiving general education requirements and information about what types
of credits are accepted.
Supplemental websites that may be helpful to advisors
Academic Appeals Procedures This website contains information about the procedures for the various types of academic
appeals about which a student may inquire.
Bear Intelligence Bear Intelligence is the University's data resources. It provides access to ARGOS
queries, but it organized in a way to make it friendlier for users to find the reports
they need. Some commonly used reports that are available related to advising include
the following:
Advisee List by Department and Primary Advisor with BearPass Number (Bear Intelligence
> Faculty/Advisor Reports > Advisor Reports)
Advisee List by Department and Secondary Advisor with BearPass Number (Bear Intelligence
> Faculty/Advisor Reports > Advisor Reports)
Final Graduation List (Bear Intelligence > Academic Departmental List > Graduation
Lists)
Graduation Candidates by College or Department (Bear Intelligence > Academic Departmental
List > Graduation Lists)
List of Students without an Advisor (Bear Intelligence > Faculty/Advisor Reports >
Advisor Reports)
Student Majors by Department (Bear Intelligence > Academic Departmental List > Student,
Academic, and Directory Lists)
Student Minors by Department (Bear Intelligence > Academic Departmental List > Student,
Academic, and Directory Lists)
Catalogs The website is a gateway to the undergraduate catalog, graduate catalog, and online
catalog archives.
Civics Exam This website contains information about the state-required Civics Exam for undergraduate
students. Information includes who is eligible to have this requirement waived and
study guides for students who need to complete the exam. It also contains contact
information should students have questions about the exam.
Core 42 This is the University's Core 42 page. It is designed in a FAQ format and contains
a link to the state's Core 42 website as well.
Course Teaching and Class Modalities This website explains the various class modalities that are available. Information
included are schedule expectations, tuition charges for the modality, student service
fees status, and the instructional method code. NOTE: These modalities go into effect
during the spring 2022 registration cycle.
Credit by Exam access (Transferring Credit to MSU) This page contains links that allows the user to see how Advanced Placement (AP),
College Level Exam Program (CLEP), International Baccalaureate (IB) and other credit
by exam times transfer to MSU.
Curricular Proposal Information Housed on the Faculty Senate website, this page houses the Curricular Action Workflow
System. Users can track changes that have been proposed to the University curriculum
for both courses and programs. Login required.
Degree Works This page houses information about our degree audit and student educational planner
software. Highlights include the user's guides designed for the various user roles
who utilize this software.
GPA Calculator This page houses the University's GPA calculator. It includes a GPA Calculator user's
guide to assist advisors and students in how to use the calculator for various GPA
scenarios.
Graduation Information for Academic Advisors This website walks advisors through the graduation process in more detail and contains
information about Commencement participation.
Information for Academic Advisors This page housed on the Academic Advising and Transfer Center website contains a variety
of advisor related resources, including information about training/development opportunities,
advising/transfer councils, award recipients, and other useful resources.
Student Affairs Faculty Resources Page Developed by the Student Affairs Bridge-Building Committee, this page contains resources
related to support Student Affairs can provide to faculty and advisors for a variety
of various topics.
Tuition and Fees This page contains tuition and student services fees information.
University Exit Survey This website contains information about the university exit survey required of all
undergraduate degree-seeking students. This exam is loaded into Brightspace for the
student to complete once the student has reached 102 completed undergraduate credits
(as it is intended to be completed during the student's last semester or two). It
also contains contact information should students have questions about the exam.