The University of Montana course catalog is the official source of information regarding your degree requirements. To access the course catalog for the most recent academic year, go to www.umt.edu/catalogs.

The essentials to include in your graduation plan are:

1. Your major, minor, and/or certificate requirements, which can be found under the Colleges, Schools and Programs link at the top of the main catalog page (montana-catalog.coursedog.com/colleges-schools-programs/overview),
2. The general education requirements, which can be found by clicking the General Education Information button on the right-hand side of the main catalog page (montana-catalog.coursedog.com/academics/general-education-requirements), and
3. Any remaining credit requirements and courses that you plan to take to fulfill those (all students are required to complete a minimum of 120 total credits, with a minimum of 39 of those credits in upper-division courses numbered 300 and above). If you are pursuing dual degrees (e.g. a double-major with one Bachelor of Science program and one Bachelor of Arts program), you will need to complete a minimum of 150 total credits. More information about that can be found in the Degree/Certificate Requirements for Graduation section of the catalog (montana-catalog.coursedog.com/academics/graduation-requirements)

Now that you are familiar with your overall degree requirements, it is important to know what you have satisfied and what you still need. To determine this, you can use Degree Works to run an audit. Log in to Cyberbear (cyberbear.umt.edu) and click on Student Services, then Degree Works. An audit will automatically run based on the major/minor/certificate program(s) that you have officially declared.

If you have not declared a program or your requirements do not appear in full, you can use the What If link to manually select a program of study and run an audit.

A checklist of your degree requirements will display, with a green check mark  for requirements that have already been completed, a blue tilde  for requirements that are currently in-progress, and a blank box with a red outline  for requirements that have not yet been completed.

If you have additional questions, you can visit the frequently asked questions (FAQ) page for Degree Works (www.umt.edu/registrar/students/DegreeWorksFAQ.php).

An easy tool to build a graduation plan, save it, and update it as you progress through your studies is the Graduation Planner in Degree Works (cyberbear.umt.edu > Student Services > Degree Works).

Here are the basic steps to building a graduation plan in Graduation Planner:

1. Click on the Plans tab in Degree Works and then select Blank Plan to start building a plan.
2. Use the Add Term button to insert each semester you plan to attend through the end of your fourth year.
3. Use the Add Requirement button to add courses or placeholders to your plan.
4. Using the Course Requirement Search, go through each semester and plan out your major-required courses first. Be sure to reference the catalog and/or degree audit for help in identifying these courses. Repeat for any additional majors, minors, or certificates.
5. Using the same Course Requirement Search, go through each semester and plan out courses for any remaining general education requirements that were not satisfied by your major/minor/certificate courses. Again, be sure to reference the catalog and/or degree audit to see what general education groups would still be remaining.
6. Verify that you have either met or exceeded the minimum credit requirements (120 total and 39 upper-division credits). If not, add any elective courses/placeholders that you would like to take to hit those credit thresholds.
7. Run a final audit to make sure you have factored all requirements into your plan. This can be done by clicking the Audit button at the bottom of the planning tool or, if you prefer, you can do this manually (note: placeholders will not show up in the audit). Your academic advisor can also assist with double-checking your plan, answering questions throughout the process, or filling out any gaps that you are missing.

Once your plan is complete and audited to ensure there is nothing missing, you will need to complete a Four Bear Graduation Plan Submittal Form. This indicates that you are done making changes to your plan until the following academic year's update, so that an advisor can review it. Per the Four Bear Program Requirements, you will need to submit your plan by the last day of spring semester each year for your first three years. Doing so indicates your intent to continue participating in Four Bear.

The online form is linked above or can be accessed at https://umt.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/Requests/TicketRequests/NewForm?ID=OEPPyyctc84_.