Understanding your Degree Evaluation

The Degree Evaluation system is a web-based degree audit / academic advising tool that will help you review your academic progress toward the completion of your degree requirements. For instructions on how to run the Degree Evaluation, click here. You will need to run the Detail Requirement, as specified in the instructions. The Detail Requirements are divided into several sections.

Program Evaluation

The first section is your Program Evaluation, which lists the degree program, catalog year, anticipated graduation date, and any minors or concentrations you may have. If any of this information is incorrect, please contact your advisor. If this information is not correct, your evaluation will not be accurate. Immediately following the Program Evaluation, a summary of your degree evaluation will appear, as shown below. An explanation of each label appears below.

Across the top, there are three columns: Met, Credits, and Courses.

• Met - Will always read either "Yes" or "No" and will tell you if you have met the requirement listed in the corresponding row.
• Credits - Subdivided into two other columns: Required and Used. The Required column under Credits is how many earned hours you need to complete the requirement in the corresponding row. The Used column tells you how many earned hours you have toward that requirement. Our sample student above, for example, has 91 hours fulfilled toward the 128 required hours.
• Courses - Does the same thing as the Credits column, except that it counts actual classes instead of hours. Because ACU does not use classes to calculate graduation requirements, the Required column under this area is blank. The Degree Evaluation will count your courses and put them in the Used column under the Courses column.

The rows represent different graduation requirements based on the degree, program, and major.

• Total Required indicates the total number of required credits or courses (depending on the column) you must have to graduate.
• Last Number Institutional Required is the number of hours that are required to be taken in residence at ACU as a part of this degree program.
• ...Out of Last Earned is the number of the final hours of the degree that must be taken at ACU. All degrees from ACU require that the last 24 hours of the degree be taken in residence at ACU.
• Program GPA is the grade point average for the courses which count toward the student's degree plan. For example, developmental courses (which do not count toward a degree plan) are not included in this calculation. ACU does not use this calculation to determine fulfillment of graduation requirements, so the "Required" column will always be blank. The "Used" column is your actual Program GPA.
• Overall GPA is the grade point average for all courses taken at ACU. For this row, "Required" is the GPA required to graduate and the "Used" is your actual GPA.
• Other Course Information should be blank for all students. It is not used in the ACU Degree Evaluation.
• Transfer denotes the number of credits or courses which you have transferred in to ACU. This row will not have a requirement.
• In Progress specifies how many hours you are taking in the current semester. These In Progress hours are a part of the Total Required at the top as well.

All of these requirements are listed in the University Catalog.

Course Evaluation

The rest of the evaluation lists the courses you are required to take and displays the courses you have taken next to that requirement. Each column of each section in the rest of the evaluation is detailed below:

• Met is exactly like the Met column in the Program Summary above; "Yes" means the requirement is fulfilled, "No" means the requirement is not fulfilled.
• The Condition column should always be blank or say "AND". This means that the requirements above and below it are joined and both are required to complete the area.
• Rule is a label where a selection of classes may be listed. For example, the Bible requirement is written as a rule (labeled "BIBL") and lists the courses that may be taken to satisfy it. If the requirement is not met, some additional text detailing the menu of possible courses will be displayed. When the requirement is fulfilled, the additional text will not appear.
• The Subject column is where the subject code will be listed for a specific course requirement.
• The Attribute column is not used in ACU’s Degree Evaluation.
• The Low/High Columns are where course numbers for specific course requirements will be placed. For example, for the UNIV 100 requirement, the UNIV part will be seen in the Subject column and the 100 will appear in the Low column.
• The Required Courses/Required Credits columns will not be used in ACU’s Degree Evaluation.
• The Term column begins the right-hand section of the page, where courses you have already taken will appear. Everything from the Term column over to the right will be blank until a course which satisfies a particular requirement is taken. The Term column denotes the term in which you took the course that appears to the right.
• The Subject, Course, and Title columns will display that information about the course you have taken.
• The Attribute column on the right side of the evaluation (where your courses are listed) may contain an atrribute that allows a class to satisfy a requirement. For example, HCOR 222 may have an attribute of LIT, which would satisfy a Literature requirement for English.
• The Credits column displays the hours earned for the course you have taken.
• The Grade column is the grade you earned in the course. Transfer courses will be shown as a "TR" in the Grade column since those grades do not count toward ACU GPAs.
• The Source column indicates where Banner found the course. "H" in this column indicates a course from your academic history; in other words, a completed course from a past term. "T" in this column indicates a transfer course. "R" in this column indicates a course for which you are currently registered. The Degree Evaluation counts registered courses as completing requirements. If you fail a course or make a grade below what is specified for your graduation requirement, that course will no longer appear with that requirement.
  

Areas

The course section of the evaluation is divided into Areas, which are essentially pieces of your degree plan. These areas mirror the sections of your degree plan, which are in the Catalog under your major or on-line here at the First Year Programs web site.

Each area will be marked as either "Met" or "Not Met" depending on the status of the requirements within that section. For example, if you have not taken BIBL 101 and you are a student for whom that class is required, the General Education and Degree Core area will be marked as "Not Met". The individual requirements within an area are shown underneath the Met column within each area and are denoted with a "Yes" or "No". All of the individual requirements for an area must be marked as "Yes" for the area to be flagged as "Met" and your degree requirements for that area to be complete.

The areas will appear in the order shown below. An explanation of area is also included:

• The Major area consists of the degree requirements specific to the major of the degree program. Major areas will also include courses from the General Education or Degree Core requirements which are specified by your major. For example, all business degrees require MATH 130 rather than MATH 120.  Thus, MATH 130 will appear in the Major Area, as well as in the General Education and Degree Core area. Refer to the catalog or your on-line degree plan for specifics about your major requirements.
• The Concentration area appears next. A concentration may be referred to as a track or area of emphasis, depending on your specific degree plan. Courses which satisfy both major requirements and concentration requirements will appear in both areas. If you do not have a concentration on your degree plan, the evaluation will skip this step and go on to the next area.
• The General Education and Degree Core area (abbreviated as Gen Educ & Degree Core) combines the university requirements with the requirements for each type of degree (BA, BS, BBA, etc). This section includes requirements for English, Bible, history, and all other courses required by the university and your degree.
• The Minor area will display next on the evaluation. This area will display the courses required for you to complete the minor in your degree area. If you do not have a minor, the evaluation will skip this section and display the next area. Note: Some minors that are specifically tied to a major may appear as concentrations immediately beneath the Major area and before the General Education area.
• The Electives area appears after minors and contains those general elective classes that do not fall into a category above. Electives that are required as part of a major (e.g. electives within a major for courses in that department) will not appear here, but in the major area above. Note: The Electives area will always be flagged as "Met" because these are free elective courses. Even if all areas on the evaluation are flagged as "Met", you are still not complete for graduation if the Total Required hours on the Program Summary at the top are unmet.
• The Upper Division Requirement area is the final area on the evaluation. This section counts the number of classes you have taken which are 300 level or higher. Each ACU student must be complete 33 upper division hours, of which 24 must be in residence (not transfer courses). Courses which count toward requirements in other areas above will also show up in this area.

Additional Requirements

The Additional Requirements page (which is run from the Degree Evaluation Main Menu) lists three specific items:

• The status of your high school foreign language requirement. "Unmet" here means that you are also required to take six hours of the same foreign language.
• The status of your high school science requirement. "Unmet" here means that you are required to take three hours of science in a different area than any high school sciences courses you took.
• A listing of courses that do not count toward ACU degree plans. This area will also list the courses which have been rejected from a particular area, such as excess Exercise Science courses or excess transfer courses from Advanced Hours. Some of the hours that have been rejected from one of the areas may also appear in the Electives area. On this page, there is also a list of courses that are not valid for ACU degree plans.

If you have other questions about your Degree Evaluation or believe that a class is not correctly satisfying requirements, please contact your advisor.

Click here to go back to the Degree Evaluation page.