By Joshua Needham | Editor-in-Chief
When you make the decision to go to college, you often start by selecting your major, but what happens when you’re part of the way to your degree and the college drops your program? It is a nightmare that, hopefully, most students will never have to deal with, but one that does sometimes occur.
Holly Tata, a student on the Liberal Arts/Communication track here at MWCC was one student that found out the hard way that her major was dropped. Tata signed up for classes using Degree Works through the iConnect home page, as most students do after their first few semesters, and thought things were going alright. It wasn’t until an issue came up in regards to required equipment for the class that Tata found out: not only was she misinformed about requirements for that particular course, but the course didn’t even count toward her degree, and her degree had been dropped!
So, what happens when the school drops your degree program? According to Stephanie Marchetti, a former student advisor, when a degree program stops being offered, it means no new students will be accepted into the course track, however, students currently on that track will be able to complete their program. She continued that, often, they don’t email the students within a degree program to tell them the program has been dropped, unless the change affects the courses they still need to take, or if the change could benefit them. After all, students have enough to worry about without getting emails saying their program is no longer offered, but not to worry about it.
Marchetti informed me that, in some cases, when certain required courses are no longer offered that originally pertained to your degree course, advising can help you apply other, similar courses as substitutions so that you’re still able to meet all of your requirements to graduate. She added that it’s important, after you register for courses using Degree Works, to check back over the next couple of days to make sure all of your selected classes will count toward your program. There is a little known section on the degree works page that lists “not counted” courses and the system takes 24 hours to sort selections after you’ve registered for a class. Sometimes, students could sign up for an elective course, like a lab science elective, or a health elective, and later find out that it doesn’t count toward their major, so be sure to check before classes begin in case you have to make any changes or speak to an advisor.
In a follow up, Tata said that, although things were frustrating and confusing for a bit, the advisors were able to get things sorted out and she’s back on track. She had the following message for her fellow students: “If you find yourself in a similar situation, you shouldn’t give up and keep reaching out to advising/advisors. It’s easy to complain and be frustrated, but going to them is easier. Believe it or not, they’re there to help.”
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