Planning Your Academic Program
All degree programs have University-wide requirements, college-wide requirements, and departmental requirements. The college rules include requirements about distribution (courses or knowledge in different subject areas), number of hours at each level 100, 200, 300 and 400), hours needed for a degree, number of hours spent in residence, and other matters. These requirements are listed in the current UNL Undergraduate Bulletin at the page-noted overleaf for each college. The college advising office probably has these listed in a checklist form for easy planning and record keeping.
Majors (see the Index at the back of the current Undergraduate Bulletin to find each major) requirements include such matters as the number, level, sequencing and distribution of courses; these are listed separately for each college department and program. (The English Majors for TC and for A&S are quite different, e.g.) Minor requirements are set by each Major department, sometimes different from minor rules standard in the college. The Gen Ed Requirements are University wide, they too can be found in the current Bulletin.
College-wide advisors are good for the rules in their unit, and often for general rules and requirements. Faculty advisors in the discipline you are studying are likely to be better for specific advice on courses, on work-school interface, for letters of rec, and for talk about content.
If you have not selected a major, begin planning your program and schedule with the Distribution (Group) Requirements of the College most likely to be your choice. This way you will get a broad experience of the available areas of study before you choose one or another; you may discover an interest in an area that you had not expected to enjoy.
As a general rule for planning purposes, reverse the process as soon as you have a major. Begin to plan your work in the smallest unit whose requirements affect you--the department(s). When you know what you will do there, then expand your attention to the next larger unit (the College). Finally look at the University requirements. Do it this way so that, whenever possible, you can use the most specific requirements to serve the College and University requirements as well; similarly, the College is more demanding than is the University. Arranging your program in this way can expand the number of elective hours available.
Keep the UNL Undergraduate Bulletin current when you plan your academic program. In almost all cases policy permits you to graduate under the bulletin in effect when you entered UNL and for 10 years thereafter or for the same period any other single Bulletin in effect while you are here; your college advisor will know of any exceptions to this policy. The bulletin also contains The Student Code of Conduct, The University Disciplinary Procedure, and the exceptions of The Student in the Academic Community.
-- Written and/or compiled by James A. McShane
