Where to Start: Some Considerations

All courses selected as part of your degree plan curriculum, regardless of the subject area, are all related by one common thread: your Academic and Professional Goals Statement. Keep this statement in front of you as you are searching for and selecting potential courses for your plan. It may be helpful to also consider the following when reviewing class options:

• Will the content of the course help me advance in my professional or academic goals?
• Will the course help me develop the soft skills (e.g. critical thinking skills, communication skills, advanced writing skills) necessary for me to be successful, in relation to my goals? 
• Does the course have any prerequisites I might need to take first? Will the need for these, if any, prerequisites require I extend the length of my degree plan.
• Is the course major-restricted (i.e. only students in a specific major are permitted to enroll in the course) or is the course part of a program that requires formal admission prior to being able to enroll (e.g. Teacher Education Program, School of Business Administration).

Degree Plan Resources

There are multiple online resources students should utilize when searching for courses for their degree plan curriculum:

• Undergraduate Degree Listings in the UM Catalog — Browsing through the baccalaureate degree requirements helps give students a sense of the types of courses required for degrees in the specific disciplines from which students are taking courses as part of their degree plan.
• Detailed Course Descriptions — Course descriptions are listed by subject area in the course catalog. Course descriptions may also be found in Academic Planner (click the title of the course in your search results).
• Academic Departmental Webpages — In addition to providing advisor contact information,  the mountain campus advisor directory webpage contains links to all departmental webpages (the first column on the left). Also, one can go to any UM webpage, and then search for the department using the search bar in the upper-righthand corner of the header bar. Departmental webpages sometimes provide printable worksheets of specific major requirements, and may have more general information regarding their courses, prerequisite structures, etc.
• General Education Requirements —  Students should read through the General Education Requirements section of the UM Catalog for information on all General Education Requirements.