The Academic Requirements Report

A degree audit, also known as an Academic Requirements Report, is the document that you'll use to monitor your progress toward your degree. This document displays all of the requirements for the major(s) and minor(s) in which you are currently enrolled. The What-If Report will provide the same information for a program that you aren't currently enrolled in. These are also the documents that will be utilized by University staff to designate where course substitutions may be applied, so it's in your best interest to know how to run these reports as well as how to interpret them.

Running the Academic Requirements Report

In order to run these reports, you'll need to navigate to the LionPATH Home Page (if you don't remember how to get here, you can revisit the Getting Started in LionPATH lesson) and select the My Advisors button (see Figure 2.9).  

Figure 2.9. My advisors in LionPATH home page

Once you're on the page that this action directs you to, select the My Academic Requirements button (circled in Figure 2.10).

Figure 2.10. My academic requirements page

You should note that this report will only display information on the major or minor that you're currently enrolled in. If you aren't yet enrolled in a major, or if you want to see how your courses would fit in a different degree program, you'll want to run a What-If Report. We'll cover how to do this in a moment, but first let’s take a look at your degree audit itself.

Sections of the Degree Audit

The first thing you may notice on your audit is the disclaimer that your audit is an “unofficial working copy” of your progress. This is here because it's only the dean of your college who can ultimately approve the completion of your degree requirements. What this means for you is that your degree audit is a helpful tool for you to use to track your progress, but it's also in your best interest to stay in contact with your academic adviser as you work toward graduation.

Entrance Requirements

If your major has certain requirements that need to be met before you can officially enter it, those requirements and the courses that fulfill them will be found here.

Withdrawn, Unsatisfactory, Repeated, and Excluded Academic Renewal Courses

Courses found in this section are those that have either received an F or W (withdraw) grade, are subject to academic renewal because you have earned a grade of C- or below, or have been repeated more times than the Course Catalog allows.

Ineligible Courses

This section will only appear on your audit if your record contains courses that aren't able to fulfill degree requirements. An example of this would be a developmental Math course, such as MATH 4. If you don't have any of these courses, this section of the audit will not appear.

World Language Admission Requirement

Separate from the foreign language requirement that your particular degree program may have, this section indicates whether you have met the Admissions requirement (typically 2 high school units) for foreign language.

First-Year Seminar

If your degree program has a first-year seminar (FYS) requirement, it will be indicated on your Academic Requirements Report here; otherwise, this area will remain blank.  Since World Campus courses don't typically require a first-year seminar, don't be surprised if you don't see anything here.

Writing Across the Curriculum

Many degrees have a “writing across the curriculum” requirement that grants you experience with intensive writing assignments within your area of study. If your degree requires this component, it will be displayed here.

United States and International Cultures (US/IL)

This is the portion of your Academic Requirements Report that deals with both American and world cultures. If you are in an associate's program, you'll need to take one or the other of these requirements, while bachelor’s degrees require both.

Minimum 2.0 Cumulative Grade-Point Average (GPA) Required for Graduation

At Penn State, you need to have at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA to graduate. Your progress toward this goal is conveniently measured for you in this section of your audit. If you have a 2.0 or above, this section of your report will be collapsed.

Residency Requirements

To earn a Penn State degree, you are required to earn a set number of your most recent credits from Penn State. For an associate's degree, 18 of your last 30 credits must be taken at Penn State, while bachelor’s degree programs require 36 of your last 60 credits to be earned here.

This section also monitors how many of your credits have been earned in the last five years. Penn State requires that at least 60 of your most recent credits be taken within this time frame.

General Education

This is the portion of your report that displays your General Education (Gen Ed) requirements. These requirements are covered in detail in the Your Degree Plan lesson. One thing to note is that some of your Gen Eds might be covered by requirements within your major or option areas. If this is the case, you'll see a note that states, “Units also apply to major/option requirements.”

Major Requirements

Your Major Requirements area is where the real specialization in your area of study is displayed. This section may contain several types of courses, most often divided into three main types: prescribed courses, additional courses, and supporting courses. The main difference between these types of courses is that there is more room for choice in the “additional” and “supporting” course types, while prescribed courses are precisely that—prescribed for you.

Another thing to keep note of in this section is that some courses will require you to earn a C or higher (a C- won’t work for these courses) for the requirement to be met. If that's the case, a note—stating that a grade of C or higher is required—will be attached to the applicable area.

Option Requirements

Your degree may contain an Option component to supplement your major courses. If that's the case, this is where you would see them on your report. These courses are much like the additional and supporting courses within your major; they allow you to customize the track that your learning takes within your primary area of study.

Electives and Total Units

Some majors also require you to select a certain number of elective credits to complete your degree. These courses are similar to your Gen Eds with the exception that you aren't given a framework of course types to fulfill. For instance, if your major requires 12 elective credits, you could choose to take all Humanities courses to fulfill the area if that is what you are interested in.

Whether or not your specific degree requires elective credits, your total number of credits required will be shown within this area, along with the number of credits that are currently showing on your record.

Courses Not Used to Satisfy Degree Requirements

If you have any courses that aren't being used to meet requirements within your degree, they will be displayed here. These courses still affect your total number of credits earned (and, therefore, your semester standing) but aren't being used toward completing any sections of your degree.

Penn State Courses, Transfer Credit, Test Credit, Other Credit

The final sections of your report show exactly where the credits on your record are from. Credit is broken down by the method through which it was earned, as denoted by the title of each section. These areas are for reporting only but can be useful to you as a checkpoint as you look over your credit. For example, if you have transfer credit or test credit that isn't showing up in these sections, let it serve as a prompt to reach out to your academic adviser to discuss why it isn't being shown and what actions may be required of you.