Degree Completion Planning

Degree Completion Planning is a new advising process designed to more efficiently map your path towards graduation.

Common Questions About the Degree Completion Plan

Questions & Answers

Q: What is an Individualized Degree Completion Plan (IDCP)?
A: An IDCP takes the suggested four-year plan of study for your major (or concentration) and personalizes it for your academic career, based on your unique needs, goals, and aspirations. This plan could help you save time and money by highlighting a more direct route towards degree completion and graduation.
Q: Who needs to complete an IDCP?
A: All the University System of Maryland students — this includes all Towson students will be — are required to complete an IDCP during their semester of transfer or their semester of completing 45 credits.
Q: How do I start to create an IDCP?
A: Please, follow the IDCP guidelines below.
Q: Who can help me?
A: Your mathematics advisor will help you finalize the plan that you draft by following the IDCP guidelines below.
Q: How does creating an IDCP affect my advising hold?
A: They are not directly connected. In the semester that you must complete your IDCP, you will see two different holds: the usual advising hold and a separate, one-time "degree completion hold." When you meet your advisor to finalize and sign your IDCP, he/she will release both holds. 
Q: Where are the Suggested Four-Year Plans located? And are they called that?
A: In the online catalog. See the links under Step 1 in the IDCP guidelines below.

As to the name, the heading "four-year plan of study" is a convenient label, but it neither indicates, nor promises that a major can be completed in four years. Transfer students may only be at TU for two years. Double majors or art, music, and dance education majors may need five years. Part-time students may need more than five years. Consequently, it is more accurate to think of your IDCP as a "degree completion" plan without a time component.
Q: Why am I doing this?
A: Your IDCP is required by Maryland Senate Bill 740 (SB 740). SB 740 is the Career and College Readiness and College Completion Act of 2013. It was signed into law May 2013 and requires all students to file an IDCP.

 

Individualized Degree Completion Plan Guidelines

STEP-by-step Instructions

Step 1: Check the Requirements and Suggested Plan of Study for Your Concentration
Go to your concentration's requirements page in the online catalog. Print the degree requirements and the suggested four-year plan of study, available under a different tab in the same location:  

Pure Mathematics Concentration
Applied Mathematics Concentration
Actuarial Science and Risk Management Concentration
Mathematics Secondary Education Concentration
Combined Major in Computer Science and Mathematics 
Combined Major in Computer Science and Mathematics with Security Track
Step 2: Open Your Academic Requirements
Go to Towson Online Services, click on Self Service, and then Student Center. On the left hand side, next to your schedule, select Academic Requirements from the drop-down menu.
Step 3: Write Down All Non-Completed University Core Courses
Using your Academic Requirements, write University Core courses that you have not completed.
Step 4: Write Down All Non-Completed Major Courses
Using your Academic Requirements, write down all major required courses (from the list you printed in Step #1) that you have not completed.
Step 5: Create an Individualized Degree Completion Plan
Using the Individualized Degree Completion Plan spreadsheet, create a plan with the courses you still need to complete in order to graduate. Keep in mind prerequisites (the spreadsheet contains a list of the math courses and their prerequisites), the courses you have not completed, and the suggested plan of study for your concentration:

    1. Click on the IDCP spreadsheet to open it in Microsoft Excel or to save it to your computer.
    2. After the spreadsheet is open in Excel, input the total units earned in prior semesters or transferred.
    3. Input the number of units you are enrolled in during the current semester.
    4. Fill in the remaining schedule by term (use drop down menu for each term). Use the Frequency of Mathematics Course Scheduling guide to see when courses are offered.  
    5. You must have a minimum of 120 credits showing in the “Total Career Units” box.
    6. You must satisfy all University Core and major courses.
    7. When you are done, save your file and attach the file in an email to your advisor.
Step 6: Meet With Your Advisor
Schedule a meeting with your advisor. Bring a copy of your IDCP to the meeting. You and your advisor will review the plan, and when finished and approved, you will both sign the approved plan. You will keep a copy of the signed, approved plan; and your advisor will keep a copy of the signed, approved plan. Your advisor will then remove your registration hold.