Course Search & Enroll - Degree Planner

Overview

The Degree Planner is a tool for you to do just that, plan your degree. This tool helps structure and plan your courses during your time at UW–Madison.

Use the tool to quickly and simply view the courses you have planned for each term, grades from past terms, credit load per term, and more to help you succeed in meeting your academic goals.

This is a planning tool. If you have questions about your plan or degree, contact your advisor.

• Choose/Add a Degree Plan
• Select/Add an academic year
• Add course
• Course menu
• Move course
• Save course for later
• Tab options - Completed, In Progress, Transferred, Cart
• Show grades
• Credit counter
• Add/Edit notes to your term
• Create a PDF
• Warnings and icons

Using the Degree Planner

Choose/Add a Degree Plan

Under Degree Plans, click on the arrow to the right of the degree name to show a drop down menu of degree plans. In the drop down menu, select a plan to view.




If there is no degree plan to choose from, or you would like to create a new plan, there are several ways to add a degree plan.

• Click the settings icon to the right of the Degree Plan name and select “Add degree plan” from the drop-down menu.
  
  
  
  
• In the right-hand sidebar menus section, select “Add degree plan.”
  
  
  
  

Select/Add an Academic Year

Select an academic year to view by expanding and collapsing the individual years using the arrow to the right of the year title.

This way of viewing allows you to view a single year or several years at a time. You can also expand or collapse all the years using the options at the top of all the years on the right-hand side.

Note: When an academic year is expanded, the three terms are laid out next to each other: Fall, Spring, Summer.



There are several ways to add an academic year to your plan.

• Click the settings icon to the right of the Degree Plan name and select “Add academic year” from the drop-down menu.
  
  
  
  
• In the right-hand sidebar menus section, select “Add academic year.”
  
  
  
  

Add Course

There are several different ways for you to add a course to your degree plan. Courses can be added to active and future years, they cannot be added to past years.

• From the Course Search
  When you use Course Search, courses will automatically be added to your degree plan. All courses you are enrolled in, are waiting in your cart, or you have saved for later will appear in the Degree Planner. While courses in your cart will appear in your degree plan, courses you have saved for later will also appear in the right-hand sidebar under “Saved for Later”.
• Directly from the Degree Planner
  In the expanded view of an academic year, at the bottom of a term there is an + Add course button.
  
  
  
  
  When you click on the button, a Course Search menu will appear on the right-hand side of the page. This search will allow you to search using Term, Subject, and Keyword, number.
  When you find and select a course, the course details will appear in a pop-up on the screen.
  
  
  
  In the course details, select "Add to plan" in the top right of the pop-up. Be sure the appropriate term is selected.
  
  
  
  

Course Menu

When a course is added to your degree plan for active or future academic years, you will notice the three stacked dots across from the course name. This is the course menu.

• Course details
  This will show a pop-up with the course name, requisites, number of credits, subject notes, and other details. You can also access the course website, undergraduate information and graduate information. Another way to view the course details is by clicking on the course.
• Move to
  Move a course from one term to another, and between academic years by hovering over the option and selecting the term you want to move the course to.
  You can also move courses from term-to-term or between academic years by dragging and dropping the course.
• Save for later
  Move the course out of your degree plan and cart and save the course for later. This action will effect the Degree Planner, as well as the courses in your Cart.
  You can also save a course for later by dragging and dropping the course to the right-hand sidebar menu.
• Remove
  Remove the course from your degree plan. This action will effect the Degree Planner, as well as the courses in your Cart.
  
  
  
  

Note: These options do not appear for completed courses. The three stacked dots only appears courses in active and future terms/years (these courses appear in white boxes, while the completed courses are gray).

Move Course

If you decide that you want to change your plan and take a course in the fall of next year rather than the spring, you can easily move courses between terms and academic years.

This can be done in multiple ways.

• Drag and drop
  Simply click and hold on the course you want to move and drag and drop it to your desired locations. Make sure that if the location is in a different year, you have that year expanded.
• Course menu
  Click on the three stacked dots across from the course name – these only appear in the future academic years and courses in a cart. A drop-down menu will appear; when it does, hover over “Move to,” and then click on your desired location from the options provided.
  
  
  
  

Save Course for Later

You can move a course from your degree plan and cart into Save for Later in two different ways within the Degree Planner.

• Drag and drop
  Simply click and hold on the course you want to save for later and drag it to the area in the right-hand sidebar marked “Save for later.” Drop the course in this area.
  
  
  
  
• Course menu
  Click on the three stacked dots across from the course name – these only appear in the future academic years and courses in a cart. A drop-down menu will appear; from this menu, select "Save for later."
  
  
  
  

Note: Moving a course to “Save for later” in the Degree Planner will also move the course in your cart in My Courses.

Tab Options - Completed, In Progress, Transferred, Cart

• Past academic years
  View courses that were completed, transferred and courses that were in your cart at the time.
• Active academic years
  View courses that are completed in terms that are completed.
  View courses that are In Progress in terms that are active.
  You can view courses that were/are in your cart, and transferred courses in all terms within and active year.
• Future academic years
  You can only view the courses as part of your plan, since there is no cart for enrollment yet you will not have the tab options.

Show Grades

Grades will show for all completed courses in past and active academic years. To do this, toggle the circle under the Degree Plan name to blue (the right). The grades will now appear near the course name. In the same way you can toggle the circle to gray (the left) and turn this view off.

Note: Grades will not appear for courses in your cart since you were not enrolled in these courses.

Credit Counter

View how many credits are planned/scheduled/occurred/transferred for a term by viewing the credit counter. A credit count is kept at the top of the term in an academic year, across from the term name.

This credit counter keeps track of the number of credits planned or completed in a term. As you add and remove courses to active and future years and terms, this counter will keep track.

Note: Grades will not appear for courses in your cart since you were not enrolled in these courses.

Add/Edit Notes to Your Term

Across from the term name, next to the credit counter, there is a blue sheet icon with a plus sign in the center. This is the Add note icon. This icon will appear in every term in every academic year.

By clicking on this icon, you can add notes to your term, allowing you to set a reminder to talk to your advisor, set a reminder to apply for graduation, note a future term you want to study abroad during, etc.

Note: Grades will not appear for courses in your cart since you were not enrolled in these courses.

Create a PDF

Creating a PDF of your plan allows you to share your plan with others and keep different versions of your plan, and more.

There are two main ways to create a PDF of your plan. Once you have created a PDF, you can download or print from the PDF view.

• Degree Plan settings
  Click on the settings icon next to the degree plan name and select “Create PDF” from the drop down.
  
  
  
  
• Sidebar menu
  Under the sidebar menu, click on "Create PDF.”
  
  
  
  

Warnings and Icons

• Course key denotes different icons that will appear to indicate different warning and/or alerts for individual courses.
  These alerts are course/section specific and do not apply to the whole term.
  check_circle Course is in progress
  warning Course is wait listed
  report Course is not offered in term
  not_interested Course is no longer offered

• Error messages may also appear within a term, under the term name.
  The message will be in regards to the entire term (i.e. credit overload).