Note: You may have heard the Educational Plan referred to as a My Academic Plan or MAP, or as a Student Educational Plan or SEP. All of these names are referring to the same thing.
Degree Planner is an academic planning tool which allows you to view your counselor-created Educational Plan online, anytime and from anywhere. It allows you to monitor your progress toward your degree completion. Once your counselor has approved your Educational Plan, you will receive an email in your Sierra College email inbox to view your approved plan.
On this page, learn how to:
How to Access Degree Planner
- To access Degree Planner, visit www.sierracollege.edu and log into mySierra.
- Scroll down to click on Sierra Connect
- From your home screen in Sierra Connect, select the menu icon in the top left corner. See Figure 1.
Figure 1
- Select "Degree Planner"
How to View Your Degree Plan
You will see the plan that has been approved by your counselor. To view, click on the plan.
Please note, the plan created and approved by your counselor will be identified as ‘Approved’ and ‘Active’. See Figure 2.
Figure 2
How to View Your Courses
Once you have selected the plan, you will be taken to the ‘Courses’ tab (See Figure 3). The courses tab allows you and your counselor to plan courses required for GE and your declared major.
Figure 3
The ‘Courses View’ page displays all the courses and placeholders currently included in your plan. Figure 4 below identifies what each of the different course cards represents:
Figure 4
A. Courses are displayed with a solid border in the first column
B. Requirement placeholders are displayed with a broken border. This allows you to pick from appropriate course options to meet that specific requirement.
C. Warnings indicate issues with the plan such as if ‘you have more units than typically allowed’.
D. Some courses may be listed in your plan as unscheduled course sections. As the future course schedules are added at your institution, the courses will be updated with scheduled sections.
E. The variable Credit courses card displays for both unscheduled and scheduled sections. Note: The Variable Credits label will no longer display once you complete the course successfully.
F. Courses missing prerequisites will be identified on the course card.
How to View Your Counselor's Comments
If your counselor has made any comments pertaining to your plan, a ‘Show Comment’ link will display on the far-right hand side of the Courses tab. To view the comment, click on the link as shown in Figure 5a below.
Figure 5a
Sample comment page in Figure 5b:
Figure 5b
How to View Requirements
The ‘Requirements Tab’ (Figure 6) identifies which requirements have been met and what remains outstanding. It displays courses required for your major first and then general education requirements.
- Many of the courses for your major have been pre-selected based on the order in which the courses should be taken.
- Requirements are considered met when they have been planned or completed with a grade that meets or exceeds the major requirement for that course.
- You can select your courses from this tab as well and then return to the Courses tab to rearrange them, if needed.
Figure 6
NOTE: Your counselor will plan courses based on prerequisites, corequisites, etc. and if courses are rearranged, it could cause courses to be out of sequence and it will also take your plan out of approval.
We advise you to speak with your assigned counselor if you would like to make any changes to your plan.