Frequently Asked Questions 

Confirm that you are entering the correct spelling of the student’s name or the correct student ID number. If everything is correct, contact your Degree Audit Coordinator. 

Contact your Degree Audit Coordinator.

If a student has taken any OSU quarter coursework (started any time prior to Summer 2012), you should select “Started Quarters, Graduate Semesters.” For any students who enrolled in Summer 2012 or later, use your college or departmental rules to select the term and year. 

If the course is only applying for one student, exceptions cannot be used to make a course count in two separate requirements that are not encoded to allow it. If the course is eligible to complete the requirements for all students, it can be encoded to accomplish this by contacting your Degree Audit Coordinator. 

If the requirements are already encoded to allow double counting, then you can perform an exception (example: Insert Course) to place the course into the requirements, and they will allow the course to act as designed. 

If the requirement is not encoded to allow a course to double count, then you will have to place the course into one of the requirements using an exception (if it is not already there). Then perform another exception to waive the necessary hours/courses in the other requirement. Although we can’t put the actual course in both places, you can put the course name into the “Exception Note” or “Displayed As” section, and it will list the course that you are waiving. It won’t look exactly the same, but it will display the course. 

In each exception, there is a section where you can alter the hours/number of courses the requirement is searching for. If you are not performing another exception, a Waive Hours or Requirement Modification will allow you to do so.

Note: When subtracting courses/hours, always put a - in front of the number except when using Waive Hours or Waive Course

There can only be one “alternate identity” to a course. There may be an OAN/TAG or OTM number attached to the course. Please contact your Degree Audit Coordinator for assistance. 

When the other required coursework is fulfilled, the course being replaced will not disappear immediately. You may perform a Delete Course exception on the course you would like removed. 

The department abbreviation should be entered in all capital letters. It also requires following the exact spacing that totals 15 characters: 

1st-7th positions: The first seven characters are OSU’s official seven- character Department Abbreviation. For example, the department abbreviation for courses offered by the Department of Political Science is “POLITSC.” If there are fewer than seven characters in a department abbreviation, then there must be enough spaces entered to total seven characters. 

8th position: The eighth character is a space. 

9th-15th positions: The course number. The ninth character is where the 4 digit number begins for OSU courses or OSU equivalent transfer courses. For transfer courses that came in with an S (special credit) or T (technical credit) character, that character will appear in the 9th space. 

Note: Due to the quarter-to-semester conversion that took place at the end of Spring 2012, there may be a few remaining courses with 3-digit numbers on transition student audits. These will require an extra space in the 9th space, instead of beginning the course number. The course number will then begin in the 10th space. 

Pseudo names can easily be accessed by running a List All audit. Pseudos are notated in each sub-requirement by a $:, and in each requirement by a PSNAME:. OANs (Ohio Articulation Numbers) also have a $: indicator, but will always start with an “O” and have at least three letters followed by three numbers; these are not pseudos and should not be used in exceptions. OT36 (Ohio Transfer 36) codes also have a $: indicator but will always start with a “T.” Pseudos generally have text relating to the requirement or sub-requirement. Do not use a Pseudo that begins with an X. These are not configured for exceptions to be posted online. 

Example Pseudo: $: BRIT LIT 

Example OAN: $: OSC003 

Example OT36: $: TMM001 

The college that the minor originates from should be contacted for approval. An advisor in the student’s home college must post the exception, even if the approval comes from another college.

The major advisor will perform the exceptions to remove the course(s) from the major.

Instructions for using exceptions to remove a course from the major: Do a Delete Course exception for the requirement in which the course is currently falling. Repeat as necessary for requirements that grab the course until it is no longer counting in the major. The course should then flow into the minor. If it does not, an additional exception may need to be used, with the approval of the department who owns the minor. 

There are often multiple versions of a major/minor available to run. The program requirements are determined by the requirement term for the student. Check SIS to see if the requirement term for the major (on the plan tab) is correct. A student can have different requirement terms for the major and minor in the same stack; however, the audit will run the minor with the requirement term associated with the major on the plan tab.   

If the minor needs to be run on a different requirement term, it’s possible to use an A2 exception to change it. Be sure to use the 5 digit catalog year, as opposed to the 4 digit requirement term, in the A2 exception. 

The student’s program may pre-date the degree audits available. You can run a what-if for them in a more recent plan. Be sure to select the transition plan for students who have OSU quarter coursework on their record. It is recommended that you add a requirement of AU90 or earlier in SIS so that a default audit will be assigned. 

We do not currently have the capability to run what-if double major audits. 

The M2 will appear on any audit run for that student in that career if it is added in SIS. If you have a student with a properly added M2 in SIS, you should see both majors appear on the audit when you run the default audit. You will not need to run a what-if audit for MAJOR 2.