View the requirements for any undergraduate degree program.
Explore major options by seeing how courses they have taken would apply to various academic programs.
Monitor and plan their progress toward degree completion.
DARS is also used as an advising tool.
DARS is used to grant official approval and documentation of approvals to apply specific courses to a student's degree program. In conjunction with the Declaration of Graduation (DOG) form, this process has replaced the old "Program of Study" process.
The Graduation Office uses DARS to confirm that a student has met all graduation requirements before degrees are awarded.
DARS is an engine that produces reports, called a "Degree Audit" or "DARS Report" when supplied with three pieces of information:
DARS then matches courses on the student's transcripts with the requirements of the specified academic degree program.
The
ASU degree audit is organized in a common format following the order listed
here:
The areas listed above are made up of one or more requirements. Requirements are separated on the audit by rows of asterisks.Each requirement is broken down into one or more numbered sub-requirements. Here is an example of the University Mathematics requirement with two sub-requirements.
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0074 ***************************************************************** 0075 NO University General Studies Requirement 0076 MATHEMATICAL STUDIES 0077 0078 - 1) MATHEMATICS (MA/N1) 0079 Select one course from the General Studies list 0080 NEEDS: 3.0 HOURS 1 COURSE 0081 0082 - 2) COMPUTER/STATISTICS/QUANTITATIVE (CS/N2 or N3) 0083 Select one course from the General Studies List 0084 NEEDS: 3.0 HOURS 1 COURSE 0085 ****************************************************************** |
Students take some
courses that apply to two or more requirements, for example to a University
General Studies Requirement as well as to a College requirement.
In these cases, courses appear multiple times:
in each requirement to which they apply.
A DARS Exception is coding in the Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) that:
Applies a course to a specific sub-requirement in a specific degree program for a specific student, or
modifies a sub requirement in a specific degree program
for a specific student.
The process of approving and posting, or coding, DARS exceptions grants a student:
The official approval to apply a specific course to a degree requirement or
allows a requirement to be modified for the student
In the
past, such approvals were made official when the student’s advisor, department
chair and a Dean signed the student’s Program of Study.
DARS exceptions need similar approval.
Unlike the old
Program of Study, however, most students do not have all of their DARS
exceptions approved at one point in time. In
practice, General Studies and other University Requirement exceptions are
approved by the Academic Advising Coordinator and posted soon after the
student’s admission to the College of Technology and Innovation.
Exceptions to College and Major Requirements are normally approved and
posted when the student files his or her Declaration of Graduation (DOG).
Students receive approval of a catalog year for their graduation
requirements by filing the DOG. Posting College and Major exceptions after this helps to
assure that they are coded to apply to the correct catalog year requirements.
College and Major Requirement exceptions should be reviewed and approved
by both the student’s advisor and department chair before they are forwarded
to the Deans Office.
Remember:
All DARS exceptions must be properly authorized by the appropriate person(s).
DARS
exceptions need to be noted, signed and dated in a way that clearly
communicates to the person who will do the coding what is being approved, by
whom and
Students must not be given opportunities to alter DARS reports on which DARS exception have been approved. Send approved DARS exceptions directly to the Dean’s Office. Do not allow students to hand carry them.
Final authorization of exceptions to College and Major Requirements rests with College Deans. Therefore, DARS exceptions to these requirements are subject to the Dean’s approval. On occasion, a DARS exception may be returned to you from the Dean’s Office with a note of explanation.
Authorizing
DARS Exceptions
The
following are guidelines for marking and authorizing DARS exceptions on a DARS
report:
Mark exceptions to Related Area, Core, Major, Concentration and Technical Elective Requirements only
Also, make a note next to the sub-requirement where the course is to be applied.
If a course replaces a course appearing in the course list, indicate this. Keep in mind that when a course is followed by “(R)” in a course list it means that the course is required. DARS will not allow the requirement to be satisfied, no matter how many credits are applied, unless exceptions are coded so that each required course is replaced by another course.
Note any other modifications that are to be made to sub-requirements—for example, an hour is to be waived in one place and added to technical electives.
Initial each exception you are authorizing.
Sign and date the DARS report.
Example 1: AMT 496 is being approved as a substitute for AMT 491
Example 2: MET 230 is being approved to apply as a technical elective.
