DegreeWorks FAQ

DegreeWorks is a web-based program that enables you to track your academic progress easily. You will be able to see how specific College requirements have been met and what courses you can take to fulfill the remaining requirements. With the click of a tab (the ‘What If’ feature), you will also be able to see how your academic requirements might change if you were to change your major.

Starting August 4, 2017, users will access DegreeWorks using one of the following methods:

• DegreeWorks link in the CUNYfirst Student Center
• Sign into DegreeWorks here
• College’s website DegreeWorks link

• Determine what requirements you need to fulfill to complete your degree.
• View individual course grades, cumulative grade-point average (GPA), and major average.
• Determine which courses you have taken or transferred, and which ones count as electives.
• View transfer credits, waivers, and exemptions applied toward degree.
• See how your coursework can be applied toward another major, minor, certificate or major concentration using the ‘What If’ option.
• Confirm your academic standing.
• Estimate how many semesters it will take you to graduate.
• Learn the requisites for courses by clicking on the course number

If you think that a requirement is incorrect, you should meet with an Academic Advisor or consult the official College catalog.

NOTE: Students who have graduated may not see an audit once the graduation notation has been posted to their transcript. Students considering readmission will not be able to see a degree audit until they officially readmit to the College. 

DegreeWorks is not your academic transcript nor is it an official notification of completion of degree requirements. Changes made to your official academic record will take at least 24-48 hours to be reflected in your DegreeWorks report. This progress report does not supersede the College Catalog and/or academic policies. Your transcript, however, is your official College record, and it must be requested from the Registrar’s Office. Go to the College website and search for Transcript Request for more details. 

To find out what other requirements you might need, you may go to an Academic Advisor who will review your requirements.

Transfer and Permit courses may be equivalent to College courses, but may not satisfy the residency requirement for the major or minor.

DegreeWorks counts completed and in-progress courses (currently in-progress and future courses you have registered for) in the ‘Credits Applied’ category.

Newly registered courses and information from CUNYfirst usually takes least 24-48 hours to be reflected and uploaded to DegreeWorks. If you would like to preview how your new classes would apply to your DegreeWorks worksheet, you can use the ‘Look Ahead’ tab.

Changes made to CUNYfirst typically take least 24-48 hours to be updated into DegreeWorks. These changes include changes to Majors and Minors, newly registered courses, grade changes, and changes to transfer credits. An Academic Advisor can also ‘Process New’ (refresh) your DegreeWorks Worksheet with the most up to date information available, if your information seems outdated.

SEP stands for Student Educational Planner and it’s the newest feature of DegreeWorks, as of July 2017. SEP allows students and advisors to plan courses for every semester of enrollment to ensure that your program can be completed within the time allotted. If you are a student who is interested in having a SEP plan created, you should talk to your academic advisor.

Some majors have varying tracks (concentrations); DegreeWorks will show ‘Concentration is required’ until the entirety of the concentration has been completed (i.e.: you have completed your major). The term concentration refers to a sub-plan of the major. Some departments may refer to sub-plans as concentrations or tracks. Confirm that you declare concentration and corresponding requirements are also appearing on DegreeWorks.

When a concentration is missing from your record the system will display ‘Concentration Block is not found.’ Please follow up with your Advisor to confirm that you’ve declared the appropriate major concentration and, if not, follow the instructions to declare/update it on your CUNYfirst record.

You can use ‘What If’ located on the side bar of your DegreeWorks worksheet. ‘What-If’ will show the courses you currently have completed as well as courses that are in progress and will apply them to different majors and minors. First, you must select the Major, or Minor as needed and select the current catalog year. Some majors also have concentrations.  Be sure to pick a concentration and an additional catalog year for the concentration.

If you have recently changed your major, the new major information will be available within 24-48 hours and by having an advisor ‘Process New’ (refresh) your DegreeWorks worksheet.

Questions regarding requirements should be directed to an Academic Advisor.

The catalog year for degree is determined by the time you were admitted to the College. Other catalog years, such as Major or Minor requirements, are determined by the time they were declared. To determine when you declared your Major or Minor, you can go to CUNYfirst Student Center Academics tab to see the Requirement Term listed, or consult your unofficial transcript and search for the first term in which the Major or Minor appears.

‘Not Counted’ are courses that will not be applied to your record and will be subtracted from your total credit count. These courses may be duplicate courses (if there are duplicates, the program will automatically select the one taken first), cross-listed with another course also on your record, or courses that exceed the maximum allowable transfer credit limit.

Students are allowed a different number of general electives depending on the amount of coursework completed, as well as the number of credits required by a student’s major, certificate or minor, to meet the total number of credits required for the Degree program. A student with an undeclared major will have a higher number of elective courses than a student who has declared a major or minor, and the elective classes allowed may change as majors are declared.

‘Electives not allowed’ may count towards the degree and total credit count.  However, any course that exceeds the number of credits for Elective Classes Allowed or do not apply to any requirement, will fall into this section. Students should pay attention to this area, since ‘In-Progress’ courses that appear in this section can affect financial aid eligibility ‘Electives not allowed’ are still counted towards the degree and total credit count.

If you have a substitution or exception made for you individually, first consult the Academic Advisor who made the approval to confirm it was submitted to the appropriate office for processing. Individual exceptions must be signed and stamped by the appropriate academic department.

Grade changes will take 2-3 weeks from the time they are submitted to be entered in CUNYfirst. Once this has been processed in CUNYfirst, the change is available in DegreeWorks in about 24-48 hours.

If you are an incoming freshman or transfer student who has not yet registered for classes, you may receive this error message.  After 24-48 hours of registration, If you are still receiving this error, please visit the Student Helpdesk.

In most cases, yes, this is not a problem. DegreeWorks is programmed to recognize that some courses can fulfill more than one requirement. If you have any concerns, you should contact an Academic Advisor.

This is a ‘wild card’ in DegreeWorks programming. If the @ sign appears after a course prefix (i.e. PSY @), it means you can take any course with that subject prefix (any course in Psychology). Similarly, 1@, represents anything at the 100-level etc.

You will need to apply for graduation via CUNYfirst during the semester prior to the semester in which you plan to complete your degree requirements for graduation (See College Academic Calendar for exact application deadline dates). Students can apply for graduation on CUNYfirst via the Student Center or Self Service.

After you have successfully applied, you will undergo a review conducted by the Registrar’s Office and will be alerted if you have any issues. It is best to meet with an Academic Advisor and Departmental/Faculty (Major) advisor in the semester prior to applying for graduation.

More information on DegreeWorks is available on the DegreeWorks homepage.  Although, the best course of action, regarding any questions about your requirements, would be to consult an Academic and/or Faculty Advisor.