The What-If Report

As we mentioned earlier, you can also run a What-If Report if you aren't yet in a major or if you're curious about how your previous work might fit within a different degree program. This report will have all the same areas as a standard Academic Requirements Report—just for a different major.

Running this report is almost the same as running your Academic Requirements Report. You will need to select the My Advisors button on the LionPATH Home Page. This time, however, you will select What-If Report from the menu (see Figure 2.11).

Figure 2.11. What-if report

This action will direct you to a screen where you will have an opportunity to either create a new report or select one that you previously generated. For the purpose of this lesson, select the Create New Report button; however, if you would like to revisit a previously run report, it's as simple as clicking on the link for the date it was created.

The next screen is where you'll create your what-if scenario. There are multiple options for you to choose from here. Let’s go over them now.

Career Scenario

Penn State Career indicates your academic level, such as Undergraduate or Graduate Student. Choose the appropriate level for your degree program.

Program Scenario

This section will populate with the program, degree plan (major), and subplan (option) in which you're currently enrolled. This is where you'll make the selections that allow you to see your courses as they would populate into a new degree program.

The first thing to select is your Academic Program. This is the academic college in which your major is housed. If you aren't sure which college to choose, you can reference this chart of World Campus degree programs.

Program Chart.pdf Download Program Chart.pdf

Once this has been selected, the Plan pull-down box will populate with the majors offered by the selected college. When selecting the degree, make sure that you choose the correct degree type. The selections will be labeled A.S. (associate degree), B.A. (bachelor of arts), or B.S. (bachelor of science). Do not select any plans that are labeled with something else ( e.g., PRMAJ, UMNR), as they won't show you all of the requirements or the program you’re looking for. 

Finally, if the degree that you're interested in has a subplan (option), be sure to select that in the Subplan pull-down box. If the degree has a subplan, and you don't select it, the generated What-If Report won't contain all of the appropriate sections.

Course Scenario

This final section allows you to create a “What if I took course XYZ123?” scenario. You can input courses here to see whether they would cover multiple requirements or whether they would cover any requirements at all. To use this function, simply select the Browse Course Catalog button.

This action will bring you to the Course Catalog, where you will select the course you're proposing for your scenario. (For information on how to do this, you can look over the “Searching for Courses” lesson.) Once the course or courses have been selected, they will appear in the What-If Course List on the "Create a Scenario" page. These courses will stand out on your What-If Report because they will have a status indicator of “?” on the report.

Running the Report

Now that all of your selections have been made, select the Submit Request button to run your What-If Report. The report that's generated will be identical to the Academic Requirements Report that we discussed earlier.

Further Instruction

For tutorials and further instruction, you can always access the documentation and instructions on the LionPATH Support page Links to an external site..