ACES Academic Programs
128 Mumford Hall
1301 West Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801
217-333-3380
cacesoap@illinois.edu
1301 West Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801
217-333-3380
cacesoap@illinois.edu
You can track your progress toward your degree in several ways. Your ACES Student Handbook includes a check sheet you can use to mark off the requirements you've met and see which still need to be met. You can also consult your academic advisor for help in determining the graduation requirements you still need to meet.
You also can find your current progress report (often referred to as a degree audit or DARS audit) by following instructions at the DARS audit link. This audit is updated daily, so it includes all information as of the day before. Your DARS report offers a detailed breakdown of which degree requirements you've met and which courses you took to meet them. It also shows which requirements you still need to meet and, where appropriate, which courses you must take to meet them. Your audit will show how any courses you took at another institution were counted toward your UIUC graduation requirements, as well as how you stand with respect to the residency requirement, the hours of credit earned in College of ACES and major courses, and the total hours of credit required for graduation.
First, remember that your web audit is only updated each day, and any changes in your registration or awarding of transfer course credit occurring since the day before won't show up on the audit. Your audit also will not show credit earned at other institutions or while studying abroad if that information hasn't yet been officially posted to your record by the Registrar’s Office. Also look carefully at the audit to make sure a course you think should count toward a graduation requirement isn't being counted toward some other requirement. Finally, make sure any missing credits you're looking for don't exceed limits on independent study, Credit/No Credit or other hours that you're allowed to count toward the total needed for graduation.
If you still think there's an error, or if you want to change which requirement a course counts toward, go to the ACES Academic Programs office and explain your concern to one of the admissions and records staff there. This person will explain your audit for you, and if they agree there is an error, they'll see that it is corrected.
If you're not sure whether there's an error in your audit, or if you want help interpreting it, contact your academic advisor, your departmental advising coordinator, and/or ACES Academic Programs.
You may take as many hours as you like in independent study and seminar courses; however, only 12 hours in such courses toward the minimum needed for graduation. All internship and independent study hours completed will be counted in determining your full-time status and your grade-point average, however.
Note that hours earned in internship courses do not count against the 12-hour limit. Similarly, experimental courses taught via "traditional instruction" -- that is, 199 courses that use regular lecture and discussion -- are not counted against the 12-hour limit. However, the College of ACES limits to 12 the number of hours in 199 courses that you may count toward graduation.
You must earn at least 60 hours credit on this campus, of which 21 hours are 300-level or 400-level UIUC courses. You also must be enrolled full-time in the College of ACES for at least two semesters prior to graduation.
It's up to you to plan your program so you'll be able to complete all your required course work in the time available before you expect to graduate. Work with your academic advisor to build a plan that takes into account that some required courses are offered only in fall or only in spring. A careful plan is the best insurance against finding yourself in a situation where you're unable to meet all your graduation requirements on time.
If you follow the plan you worked out with your advisor and you later discover that a course you'd counted on taking during your senior year isn't going to be offered, contact your advisor to find a substitute course or other plan of action. Once you've found a substitute course, obtain a Petition for Substitution of a Required Course from the Academic Programs office or from the ACES’ forms and petitions website, (scroll to and select “Substitution of a Required Course”).. Complete the petition and gather documentation to support the substitution, such as the syllabus from the substitute course and a statement approving the substitution from the instructor of the required course. Then take the petition to your advisor, who will complete a portion of it, and to your departmental advising coordinator. The dean's office will contact you with a decision about the substitution within about two weeks of receiving your petition.
Asking to substitute for a required course is equivalent to asking to change your "contract" with the university to complete a prescribed course of study in exchange for your degree. Consequently, substitutions are only approved under extraordinary circumstances, and only after all other avenues have been exhausted.
Obviously, planning ahead is the key basis for making an exception. If you've worked with your academic advisor throughout your undergraduate years to craft a plan of study, your petition for substitution is more likely to be approved. Likewise, a request for a substitution made before you take the substitute course is more likely to be approved than one you make after the fact.
You can earn credit in many introductory courses (and some advanced courses) by getting a high enough score on a proficiency examination. To learn more about the most common UIUC proficiency exams, go to About Proficiency Exams or check with the department offering the course you want to earn credit for to learn about exam schedules and other requirements.
To earn a degree in a College of ACES major, students must complete either:
So if you completed at least three years of a language in high school, you don't need to take any more language courses to meet this graduation requirement. But if you completed only two years of any language in high school, you'll need to complete a third-semester course. If you took a language placement test before coming to U of I, those results will determine which language course you should take first. In many cases, you'll need to start with the second-semester course here before you can enroll in the third-semester course you must complete before you'll be able to graduate. If you can't remember what language course you placed in, contact the ACES Academic Programs office (217-333-3380).
Be aware that if you met your non-primary language requirement by completing three or more years of the same language in high school, you cannot earn credit for first- or second-semester courses in that language. For example, if you took three years of Spanish in high school, you cannot earn any graduation credit for SPAN 122, a second-level course. You can, however, earn credit for SPAN 103 or any higher level SPAN course, or for introductory courses in another language.
If you want to take courses in a different language from the one for which you took the placement exam, or if it's been more than a year since you took a UI language placement exam, it's a good idea to take (or re-take) the exam to get a reliable guide to which course you should start in. Contact the department offering courses in the language you want -- your advisor or Academic Programs staff can help you identify the correct department -- and ask to take the placement test. Many times, you can take the test within a day or two of the time you call. When you've completed the placement exam, you can use those results to see where you should start your language sequence.