Expected Graduation Semesters

About expected graduation semester

The expected graduation semester represents a student’s anticipated final term at your institution.

Separately, the degree end date represents a student’s last expected day of participation in the academic program (major). Typically, the date represents the last day of the semester in which the student is expected to graduate. However, the degree end date could be earlier if your institution allows students to graduate prior to the end of the student's final semester.

The expected graduation semester and degree end date are used by the financial aid module as well as the IPEDS and Clearinghouse reports. Groups of students may be found based on the expected graduation semester by using the Student Finder.

You may configure Campus Cafe to automatically set students’ expected graduation semesters based on their admission semester and their academic program’s length.

Prerequisites

• Semesters created.

• Majors created.

Required permissions

View expected graduation semester and degree end date

1. Go to the student’s profile.

2. Click the Student Degree tab.

Edit expected graduation semester or degree end date

1. Go to the student’s profile.

2. Go to the menu > Person Selected > Degrees/Majors.

3. Next to the degree under Edit, click the pencil.

4. Enter a new Degree End Date (May Override) or select a new Expected Grad Sem. Changing the expected grad semester doesn’t update the degree end date.

5. Click Save.

Configure anticipated graduation semester to automatically populate

Rather than set every student’s expected graduation semester manually, you can tell Campus Cafe the length of your academic programs. Using that plus the student’s admission term, Campus Cafe calculates the student’s expected graduation semester. For example, journalism is a four-year program and students who enter in Fall 2024 are thus expected to graduate in Spring 2028.

Your institution may have programs of different lengths. For example, 2-year associate programs and 4-year bachelor programs. To ensure accurate expected graduation semesters, you’ll set each semester-major combination. For example, you’ll configure the semester Fall 2024 tied to the 2-year communication’s associate major then the Fall 2024 semester tied to the 4-year journalism bachelor major.

Set program lengths

1. Go to Admin > Majors.

2. Click Submit.

3. Next to the major to edit, click the pencil.

4. In Years To Complete enter the number of years required to complete the program for a student attending full time.

5. In PT Years To Complete enter the number of years required to complete the program for a student attending part time.

6. Click Save.

Set expected graduation semesters rules

1. Go to Admin > Semester Date.

2. To find a semester, set the search options and click Submit Query.

3. Next to a semester, click the pencil. If all your majors are the same length, you’ll only have each semester listed once. If you have majors with different program lengths, then click the pencil next to the semester with the associated major code.

4. Select the End Date of the semester. This is typically the last day of classes or the last day of a required final examination period. Campus Cafe needs to know this date so it can calculate a student’s exact expected graduation date required for federal financial aid. For this reason, you’ll need to set up your semesters well in advance. For example, if you have 4-year programs, you’ll need to establish semesters for the next four years to accommodate incoming students who will graduate in four years.

5. Select the Expected Grad Sem for Year 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 as required by your institution. Year 1 represents the expected graduation semester for a 1-year program. Year 2 for a 2-year program. Year 3 for a 3-year program, year 4 for a four-year program and so forth.

   Open

   

   In this example, students entering in this semester and in a 1-year program are expected to graduate in Fall 2016. Those entering in this semester and in a 2-year program are expected to graduate in Spring 2017.

6. Click Save.

Populate degree end date on student degree automatically

To let Campus Cafe automatically place the student’s expected degree end date on their degree record follow these steps.

1. Go to Admin > Custom Control.

2. In Search enter DEGREE_OVR.

3. Next to DEGREE_OVR click the pencil.

4. In Parameter Value 1 enter Y

5. Click Save.