How to Read a Degree Audit

A degree audit maps every course you have taken against every requirement your catalog year demands, and marks each requirement complete, in progress or unmet. Advisors give advice; the audit governs.

Your catalog year is fixed at the point you enrolled. Requirements can change for later students without changing yours — which is why comparing plans with a friend is a poor substitute for reading your own audit.

Work top to bottom in blocks: total credits, general education, major, minor, electives, and residency requirements. For each block note credits required, credits earned, and credits still needed. Unmet lines are the entire point of the document.

Watch for courses landing in the elective bucket when you expected them to satisfy a major requirement — a substitution form filed by your department fixes this, but only if someone notices.

Run the audit before you register, after grades post, and before you apply to graduate. Use the what-if function to test a major or minor change before committing to it. Bring the printed audit to advising so the conversation starts from evidence.