iPOS

The Interactive Plan of Study (iPOS) is a tool for you to plan your course of study. Your academic advisor reviews the plan and any changes to ensure you're meeting all of the SOLS and Graduate College requirements, making sure you're set up to succeed. Often students find that it replaces the spreadsheet they've created of the courses that they want to take and when. Please keep in mind that the iPOS serves as an agreement between you, your academic unit, and the Graduate College.

🎥 Watch this video for an overview of the iPOS and how it supports you as you navigate your degree requirements.

 All SOLS Graduate students are required to submit their initial iPOS by the end of their first semester.

You will find instructions for submitting the iPOS in the Initial iPOS Guide for Master's and Certificate Students, and in this iPOS video tutorial.

To access your iPOS, log onto your MyASU and look for your My Programs box on the bottom right-hand side of your home page. Click on your program > iPOS > Graduate Interactive Plan of Study (iPOS).

A few tips for completing the iPOS:

1. You can save your work. You can always adjust your iPOS. 

2. The "Degree Requirements" to select are 30 credit hours including the capstone course (BIO 597) for Coursework & Capstone students.

3. Your program's Course Offering Sheet is helpful as it is structured similarly to the Course Admin page. 

4. Use the "add from transcript" to add the coursework you've enrolled in as it shows on MyASU.

5. Go to "Advisors" > "Faculty Committee." For Coursework & Capstone students, your Program Directors and Co-Directors are the Co-Chairs of your committee. Thesis students, please contact the Grad Office for instructions.

While we require you to submit your initial iPOS for approval by the end of your first semester, we also understand that many of you are planning coursework multiple semesters or years in advance. That said, you are able to (and expected to) update your iPOS as you progress through your program. We want to ensure you have an initial plan that satisfies your program requirements, and as you update that plan, we will verify the new version still meets them. Failure to initially submit or update your iPOS can have serious ramifications on your ability to progress and complete your degree.

Please see the How-To Guides below for assistance in making updates:

• How to Submit Course Changes

• How to Add Professional Development Items

Pre-admission credits are credit hours completed at ASU or at another regionally accredited U.S. institution or international institution officially recognized by that country associated with a non-awarded graduate degree (i.e., did not finish the program or were a non-degree seeking student), before the semester and year of admission to an ASU graduate degree program.  

With the approval of SOLS and the Graduate College office, students may include a maximum of 12 hours of graduate-level, pre-admission credits that are:

• grades of “B” or better 

• not used towards a previously awarded degree

• within three years of admission to the ASU degree or certificate program to be accepted

All SOLS graduate programs allow you to apply up to 6 credit-hours of 400-level coursework toward your degree. 

If you attempt to add more than 6 credits, a petition will populate in your iPOS, which is the system's way of telling you that you have added something that violates a Graduate College policy. Petitions of this nature will not be approved, so please do limit your 400-level coursework to 6 or fewer credit hours. You may take more than 6 credits of 400-level coursework if you'd like, but you may only add up to 6 in your iPOS. The additional credit hours will not be able to count toward your degree.

Courses below 400-level are not eligible to be used to count toward your degree. All other coursework must be 500-level work or higher.

If you have specific questions, please check out the iPOS FAQ section on our FAQ page. If your questions are still not answered, we encourage you to reach out to solsonline.grad@asu.edu  or schedule an advising appointment.