Graduation Checking and DARS

Students should check their degree completion status well before their final semester, but especially before registering for their last semester on campus. Students will be held to all degree requirements--including courses and grade-point averages--regardless of plans for graduate work, professional school, or employment. Students can check their degree status via DARS (see specific programs below), on their own, or in consultation with an advisor. Students in programs for which a DARS report is not available will receive a summary of completed requirements from the Registrar's Office (see below).

Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS)

The Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) provides students with an automated summary of their academic progress toward a degree. DARS shows which requirements have already been completed and which remain unsatisfied. The report can offer suggestions about appropriate courses that may be taken to meet specific requirements. (For students who want to explore options in other schools/colleges or other majors within a school/college, DARS shows how completed or in-progress courses may be used in different degree programs. This "what-if" DARS report may be available from an advisor.)

In the School of Education, students admitted to the following programs (and with the accompanying classification) can receive a DARS report:

Art-BS (ART)
Art-BFA (BFA)
Elementary Education, all options (EED)
Kinesiology-Movement Science (KNM)
Kinesiology-Exercise Science (KNX)
Occupational Therapy (OCT)
Rehabilitation Psychology (RPS)
Communicative Disorders (SED)
Special Education (SPE)

Students may order a DARS report on the web through My UW-Madison. A student may request a DARS report be sent electronically if (1) the student is enrolled in a DARS "open program;" (2) the student has an active email account; (3) the student's preferred email address is correct on the student record system. A request for a DARS report before 4:30 p.m. should result in a report sent to the designated email address by the next morning. Please report problems encountered in requesting a DARS report, or non-receipt of a DARS report by the next morning, by calling 608/262-5926 or email dars@doit.wisc.edu.

Students should run a DARS report before registering, to check remaining degree requirements, and then run a DARS report after registering to insure that the courses chosen will indeed fulfill those requirements. Questions about your DARS report can be directed to Barbara Gerloff, EAS Assistant Director, gerloff@education.wisc.edu, 262-4544.

Degree Summary from the Registrar's Office

Students for whom DARS reports are not available should be in touch with their EAS advisor and, in some cases, with their faculty or program advisor. When planning their registration for their last semester on campus, these students should contact the Registrar's Office at 262-3782 and request a degree summary (also referred to as a "degree audit"). A degree summary is a manually produced degree audit. Depending when the request is made, it may take Registrar's Office staff several weeks to fulfill the summary request. Students should check their degree summary immediately upon receipt and contact their EAS advisor if it indicates any unexpected graduation deficiencies.

Why is this requirement not met?

Students will sometimes find that their DARS report or degree summary will indicate a requirement not fulfilled even though their advisor has agreed that the requirement has been met. This means that either a DARS exception or an academic action has not been taken to reflect the met requirement. Since many exceptions and actions are taken during a student's last semester on campus, it would not be unusual for students to find requirements indicated as unmet on their DARS report or degree summary. In these cases, contact your EAS advisor immediately (by email is fine) and ask about the status of the requirement exception or action.

Comments or Problems: easinfo@education.wisc.edu.
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