Hi Vikings!
Here’s a piece of advice for every single Salem State student – use your degree tracker. It will be beneficial moving forward! It’s pivotal in selecting, tracking, and ensuring that you are on the right path towards graduation. In order to graduate, you must have taken 120 credits; most students typically take 4-5 classes per semester and it takes around 8 semesters to meet all your requirements if you’re completing 30 credits per year. But don’t let these figures make you anxious, everyone is different – if you are done sooner or take a bit longer, that is completely okay! As long as you are picking the best courses for you and don’t fall behind, you will succeed and find your calling while here at Salem State!
As we all know, the Spring advising period will be starting up the week we return from Spring Break. To make the most out of your meeting, you should bring a list or have an idea of what courses you would like to take for the Fall 2018 semester. Utilizing your degree tracker is the best way to determine where you currently are and where you want to go in terms of your academics.
Your degree tracker is separated into different drop down menu’s and each of them contain a list of categories and/or classes that will fulfill a certain requirement. Everyone has the same 13 General Education requirements as well as their own Major Core requirements. If need be, you may also have Foreign Language, concentration, and/or minor requirements as well. Every title as a small green triangle to the left of it; you will know if it’s completed it if that triangle is facing towards the title and you cannot see any further information. This indicates that you have taken a class that is satisfactory towards that specific requirement, but if you see a description and/or a list of classes available, that means you have yet to complete it.
Here is my degree tracker as an example. As you can see, I have finished all of my General Education requirements since all the tabs are closed.
Another piece of advise from an upper class student? Try and finish your General Education requirements as soon as possible. Of course you don’t have to, some students stretch them out across their years in order to have some variability each semester. But from someone who is finishing them this semester – it’s a great feeling. I now only have to worry about classes for my own major, concentration, and minor. General Education classes are what most students look at first when determining their course schedule for the upcoming semester.
In conclusion, start planning this out now! Your personalized Degree Tracker will assist you with picking classes that you are both interested in and that are needed to fulfill each of your requirements. Everyone has a different Degree Tracker that is created to best suit YOU as a student here at Salem State, nobody’s is the exact same. Use some time over Spring break to look through your Degree Tracker and get a sense of what you would like to take and what you need to take.
If you need some help figuring it out, feel free to stop by the FYE Office (Meier, 100A) and meet with one of us Mentors! We are here to help create schedules and are knowledgeable about how to use both Navigator and Degree Tracker.
I hope this helps and I hope everyone has a fantastic Spring break!
– FYM Shannon 🙂
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