LSA Undergraduate Student Services Reference
Manual
Chapter 1 Declaring
Once students have earned 55 credits, they are expected to declare a concentration by
meeting with a Departmental/Program advisor. At this meeting the advisor reviews the
concentration requirements and the pacing of those requirements. The student usually
receives a checklist of requirements. The Departmental/Program advisor should discuss
relevant issues concerning the concentration before the Declaration Form is signed.
The department to which the student is changing to has the authority to remove a
student's previous concentration from their record.
Things Students Should Know When They
Declare
1. Special requirements that students must meet before they can concentrate in the
discipline, e.g., grade point minimum for prerequisites.
2. Students must have at least a 2.0 GPA in the concentration as well as a 2.0 GPA
overall to graduate.
3. Courses from the department of concentration and cognate courses for the
concentration may not be used for distribution. Prerequisites from other departments,
however, may count toward distribution. Exception: if a student declares a double
concentration, courses from one of the concentrations may count for distribution.
4. Courses from the department of concentration and cognate courses for the
concentration may be used to meet the race & ethnicity, quantitative reasoning, and
upper-level writing requirements.
5. Students electing a double concentration may, with department approval, apply
courses (including cognates) elected as part of one concentration towards the other
concentration. Note: this does not hold true if one of the concentrations is an ICP
(Individual Concentration Program)
6. Pass/Fail elections may not be used to meet concentration requirements; but
prerequisites to the concentration may be elected Pass/Fail, if they are not in the
department of concentration.
7. Exceptions to the concentration requirements are made only by the
Departmental/Program advisor and must be documented in the student file.
8. A student may not count more than 60 credits from a single department or from the
area of concentration (including all prerequisites in the department of concentration, all
required concentration courses and cognates, and all electives in the department of
concentration) towards the 120 credits required for the degree. Exception: The 60 credit
limit on courses in a concentration may be exceeded if these extra credits are used to
meet the Language requirement or the First Year Writing Requirement.
M-Pathways
Entering concentration declarations is done by departmental staff who have completed
the SRE109 - Plan/Subplan Maintenance M-Pathways class. SRD101 - Student
Records Introduction is a prerequisite for this class.
If for any reason a department needs help in getting declarations entered, the staff can
send the forms to the Academic Auditors at 1228 Angell Hall, and the auditors will do
the entry.
LSA-specific instructions for declaring students can be found on MAIS
LINC. All LSA staff responsible for declaring students are required to
follow these instructions.
Entering Plans – A.B. or B.S.?
When you are ready to enter a student's plan into M-Pathways, you'll notice that there are
two choices for every plan in the drop down menu in the Academic Plan field on the
Student Plan panel - there are A.B. plans and B.S. plans. How do you know which to
enter?
The difference between an A.B. (Bachelor of Arts) and a B.S. (Bachelor of Science)
degree in LSA is that a B.S. degree includes 60+ hours of approved Math and Science
courses.
At the point when a student has decided to declare a concentration, they fill out an LSA
Plan Declaration form. The newly revised version of the form asks this question in such
a way that the student must indicate either A.B. or B.S. By choosing one or the other, the
student is indicating their intent, the same as when the student fills in the Expected
Graduation Date at the bottom of the form. Students are not bound by either of these
things - but it is helpful for advisors in future appointments to see what the student's
intent is to better help them reach their goals.
At the point when a student is ready to graduate, they are asked to fill out a Diploma
Application. On that application, the student fills in, again, whether they desire an A.B.
or a B.S. degree. At that point, when the student's senior audit is done, the auditors will
determine whether they have fulfilled the requirements for the degree that they desire. If
the student writes B.S. on the diploma application and they have not fulfilled the
requirements for that degree, they'll be notified that they haven't met the requirements,
but, if appropriate, that they have satisfied the requirements for an A.B. degree. This
gives the student the opportunity to decide to either accept the A.B. degree, or to continue
their studies if they want to graduate with a B.S. degree.
So, how do you know which to enter when you are entering the student's plan declaration
into M-Pathways? If it is indicated on the LSA Plan Declaration Form, you can use that
as your guide. If it is not indicated, use your best judgement. If the student is declaring a
non-science concentration (i.e. English, a language study, etc.), you could probably
assume that they are pursuing an A.B., and if the student is declaring a scienceconcentration (i.e. Math, Chemistry, Biology, etc.) you could probably assume they are
pursuing a B.S. degree. Whatever you enter, just remember that the student is not bound
by that declaration - this is just an indication of their intent. When their academic record
is undergoing a senior audit, the determining factor to indicate the degree that the student
believes they have accomplished is what they enter on the blue diploma application.
SOURCE: W. Harry Marsden, Associate Director LSA Student Academic Affairs, 6/01