GSTS Advisement Report Structure
This document provides an overview of the Academic Advisement Report structure and the information it contains. Additionally, it provides information to help users read the report and understand the different requirements for graduate students.
Introduction
The Graduate Student Tracking System (GSTS) generates Advisement Reports for program staff and graduate students. These reports track the academic requirements a student needs to fulfill to complete a master's or doctoral degree program at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. The requirements built into GSTS Advisement Reports come from the Requirements tab on a program's Guide page.
Viewers should be aware of the following:
- Double majors, dual degrees, joint degrees, doctoral minors, and graduate / professional certificate requirements are not tracked.
- Students who began a program before Fall 2014 will not have a report. This is due to significant changes in policy for graduate degree requirements.
Report Structure
Each GSTS Advisement Report has five main sections.
- Information: At the top of each report, there is a GSTS Advisement Report Information section with information about what the report shows. Its purpose is to identify where the information for the report comes from and some of the restriction.
- Program Coursework Requirements: This section's requirements come from the Required Courses section of the Requirements tab on a program's Guide page.
- Program Minimum Requirements: This section's information is pulled from the the Curricular Requirements section of the Requirements tab on a program's Guide page.
- Reference Section/Additional Courses taken as a Graduate Student: This section displays additional courses taken in the Graduate Career. These courses may not have been used to fulfill other program requirements or the breadth requirement (minor or graduate/professional certificate). If there is a course listed here that you believe should be counting towards specific program requirements but is not, you may need to make an exception in the student's GSTS Advisement Report.
- Course History: This section displays ALL of the courses a student has taken at UW-Madison. This includes courses taken as an undergraduate, graduate, or Special student.
Satisfied vs. Not Satisfied Requirements
Requirements show up as either Satisfied or Not Satisfied. When a report is generated any requirements that have been satisfied should automatically show up as being closed. Only those requirements that have not yet been completed will be open. However using the arrows at the side of each requirement and the Collapse All and Expand All buttons at the top of the page different sections can be opened or closed.Taken and In Progress Courses
Two different types of courses appear in a student's GSTS Advisement Reports: Taken and In Progress. Taken courses are courses that the student has already completed and received a final grade for, whereas In Progress courses are courses that the student is currently enrolled in that have yet to be completed. The report assumes students will successfully complete any courses that are In Progress. Planned courses will not show up in graduate student's report.