Developing Your Degree Program
As a student at Empire State University, you'll help design your degree program with your mentor to create an individualized program that meets your goals and needs. In addition, you'll take a 4-8-credit course called educational planning. This is a required course all students take. In educational planning you:
- Look at what you have learned so far in life
- Decide what your goals are
- Work out what you will need to study to reach your goals
1. What You Bring with You: Prior Learning
Empire State University is committed to the idea that people deserve credit for college-level learning no matter how it was acquired. Many people develop learning outside a traditional classroom, and this knowledge is often as valuable as knowledge gained through formal learning situations. This learning can be identified and assessed in a variety of ways to determine if credit should be awarded.
2. Where You Are Going: Degree Goal
The next step is identifying the personal and professional goals that have motivated you to study at Empire State University. You may have decided to earn a degree for a variety of reasons, including:
- Intellectual curiosity
- Career advancement
- Preparation for graduate school
- Personal fulfillment
With your mentor's guidance, you'll identify and research your educational goals.
3. How You Get There: Degree Design and Portfolio Development
You and your mentor select the prior learning topics and sequence of Empire State University studies to build an academically sound degree program that helps you achieve your goals. You'll create a portfolio that supports the degree program you designed. This portfolio is submitted for review and approval by the faculty. Your approved degree program becomes a part of your transcript.
Your degree program will need to meet: