CAPP FAQs

CAPP Availability and General Information
What is CAPP?
CAPP stands for  Curriculum, Advising and Program Planning.  CAPP will replace DARS as the official tool for degree evaluations/audits. CAPP will help you and your advisor determine where you stand in meeting all degree requirements of your degree program.

How is CAPP different from DARS?
In building CAPP, the Registrar s Office has made every attempt to provide you with the same features you are used to having with DARS. CAPP still checks your core requirements, major requirements, minor requirements, and other degree requirements such as writing intensive, upper division hours, and Missouri Constitution requirements. The biggest difference is that the Registrar s Office will no longer provided printed copies of degree audits. You will need to log on to LioNet to access your own degree evaluation. Any advisor that you are working with can also access your degree evaluation through LioNet.

Will I still be able to get a DARS?
No. As of October 15, 2007, the system which supports DARS will no longer be available.
What should I do if I do not plan to graduate under the 2006-2008 catalog?
CAPP was designed to work in conjunction with the 2006-2008 catalog which is the baseline for the Banner/LioNet system. It is still possible to graduate using the requirements from a previous catalog as long as the catalog is not older than six years and you were enrolled during the time that catalog was in effect. In such cases, it will be necessary for you to run a CAPP evaluation for your major using the requirements in the 2006-2008 catalog. You and your advisor can compare these requirements with the catalog you are using to perform a hand check of the requirements for your degree. Your advisor will note any catalog requirement changes on your graduation checklist.

Why do you recommend the  Detailed Requirements  view?
The  Detailed Requirements  view will show you which degree requirements have been met as well as which requirements are outstanding. It will provide you with the best and most comprehensive analysis of your progress toward degree completion.

What is the purpose of the "General Requirements" and the "Additional Information" views? The  General Requirements  screen will show you the courses that were applied toward your degree evaluation and is useful to see if you have completed all degree requirements, but it will not show you requirements that are unmet.
The  Additional Information  screen shows courses in progress that were used to fulfill program requirements and the areas where those courses are applied. The  Additional Information  screen also shows courses which were not used in performing your degree evaluation. These include courses not applicable to a baccalaureate degree, courses with a grade of incomplete,
courses that have been repeated, courses that you withdrew from, and courses in which you declared academic bankruptcy.

Some courses on my degree evaluation are hyperlinked to the online catalog, and some are not. How can I see the descriptions for all the courses in my program?
The system only hyperlinks courses that you have not yet taken and that are specifically required (i.e., not part of a list of two or more courses) for your program to the online catalog. Due to the way CAPP was programmed, courses that are part of the Core cannot be hyperlinked. To look for other course descriptions, go directly to the online catalog and follow the prompts there.

Are there graduation requirements that CAPP doesn't check?
Yes. CAPP does not check some non-academic requirements such as University Assessment of Outcomes activities, registration with Career Services, graduation paperwork filing, or financial aid exit counseling. Having a CAPP evaluation that shows all requirements as met does not necessarily qualify you for graduation.
Some items, such as piano proficiency exams, foreign language proficiency and immersion experience, and PRAXIS exams for education majors are checked through the use of exam codes. If you have completed these requirements but they show as unmet on your evaluation, please contact your major department.
You should always use CAPP in conjunction with the appropriate University Catalog and any information that your major discipline provides to you to ensure that you remain on track for graduation. In some cases, certification and licensing requirements may take precedence over the University Catalog or your CAPP evaluation.

Interpreting Your Evaluation
What is a program?
A program is the degree you are aiming to complete. At MSSU, programs are broken down into degree and school.
What does  Entry Term  mean? What does  Evaluation Term  mean?
"Entry Term" is the term your requirements will be evaluated against. This corresponds with the catalog year. Currently, the only catalog year available in CAPP is 2006-2008. The old DARS system used the latest year to select the catalog (2008). In CAPP, you will choose the first year that the catalog is in effect (Fall 2006).
The "Evaluation Term" should be the current term. This way, your degree evaluation will include courses taken in the prior semester and courses in which you are currently registered.

What is the request number?
The request number is a sequential number generated by CAPP. You can review previous evaluations generated by you or your advisor by going to the  Previous Evaluations  link. The request number helps you identify which evaluation you are examining. The  Previous Evaluations  will be periodically purged by the Registrar s Office, and it will be necessary for you to rerun your evaluations.
Why does my evaluation say that I must earn 60 institutional hours (for baccalaureate degrees only)?
In order to meet degree requirements, you must earn a minimum of 60 credit hours from a four-year institution. If you did not earn these credits from MSSU, your degree evaluation will indicate that this requirement has not been met and you should contact the Registrar's office and request a manual evaluation of your transfer credits.

What are unused courses?
The  Detailed Requirements  view of your evaluation will show a total number of unused credits and courses. These numbers indicate the number of credits and courses not used for the degree evaluation. You can view these courses by selecting  Back to Display Options  at the bottom of your evaluation and selecting the  Additional Information  view. Courses not used in your evaluation include courses not applicable to a baccalaureate degree, courses with a grade of incomplete, courses that have been repeated, courses that you withdrew from, and courses in which you declared academic bankruptcy.

What is an area?
An area represents each major component of a degree program, such as Core Curriculum requirements, departmental core requirements, major requirements, supporting requirements, minor requirements, electives, and other degree requirements.

What is a group?
An area may be composed of groups. This is true of Core Curriculum requirements and some majors that needed requirements broken into smaller components. If an area is composed of groups, you will see the area name, a description of the area, and a summary of the groups within the area. Following the summary, the requirements for each group are broken down.

What is an attribute?
An attribute identifies specific characteristics of courses that can be used in degree evaluation. Examples include WI for Writing Intensive courses and UPPR for Upper-Division Hours.

What is a rule?
Complicated requirements are listed as rules. Examples of cases where rules are used are:
Selecting one course from a list of possible courses
Selecting three courses from a list of choices
Core Curriculum requirements that may be met by prior degrees
Generally, rules within an area are named with letters (A, B, C, D, etc). The rule description and text will tell you what needs to be done in order to satisfy the rule requirements. When rule requirements have been met, CAPP will show  Yes  in the Met column. Courses that are built into rules are not hyperlinked to the online catalog.

What do the source codes E, H, T, R, and P mean?
The source codes designate the source of the information that CAPP is using to fulfill the requirement. Use the following chart to interpret them:
E
Exam   The requirement is fulfilled by an actual exam or an exam code. The  E  code is used for Core Curriculum requirements that are met by prior degrees, requirements such as C-BASE, PRAXIS, foreign language proficiency and immersion, and piano proficiency exams.
H
History   The courses you have taken at MSSU are referred to as your Institutional History. An  H  appears in the source column only for courses taken at MSSU. These courses are used to calculate your total institutional hours.
T
Transfer   All transfer courses appear with a source code of  T .
R
Registered   The  R  code appears for courses that are currently in progress, and if you run the evaluation for a future term that you have already registered for, it will include those classes as well. CAPP assumes you will satisfactorily complete the courses for which you are currently registered and that none of these are duplicates or exceed the maximum allowed toward degree requirements.
P
Waiver   This code will show when a requirement has been waived because of an approved petition.

Placement of Courses
How does CAPP decide where to place courses that I've completed?
CAPP processes your courses in chronological order, based on a "best fit" scenario and the way the requirements are defined. It will look through each of your courses, and then assigns each course to the first requirement in your degree program that the course will fulfill. If you have not completely satisfied a requirement, CAPP will assign courses to the requirement that will accumulate the highest number of credits.

CAPP placed one of my courses in two places. Is that allowed?
In most cases, this is okay. For example, courses taken to fulfill Core requirements may also fulfill major or minor requirements. In some cases, CAPP is programmed to only apply courses that have not been used before. Be sure to look through requirements for your major in the General Catalog to make sure that this duplicate placement is appropriate, and if you have questions about whether a course can  double count,  talk to your advisor.

What should I do if CAPP placed a course in one section, when I wanted to use it in another?
CAPP does the best it can to fit your courses into appropriate areas. Sometimes there are multiple areas that a course could fit into and it will choose one. Unfortunately, it does not know where you meant the course to fit into your program. If you wish to change the placement of a course, first check with your advisor to make sure this is allowed, then come by the Registrar s Office to have the course  targeted  to the appropriate requirement.

How will approved petitions appear in CAPP?
Petitions for equivalent course credit, i.e. ELEC 0200 is equivalent to PSY 0300, the course will appear on your degree evaluation as the equivalent MSSU course. Other approved petitions will appear on CAPP as substitutions or waivers. For substitutions, the course that has been substituted will appear in place of the original requirement, and you will see text noting the approved petition. A waiver will be noted as  waiver approved  alongside the requirement.

I repeated a course, and I don't understand how it appears in the degree evaluation. Can you explain this to me?
If the repeated course has been removed from your records (i.e., it is marked  E xcluded in the repeat column on your transcript), the system will ignore the course completely. The most recent repeat of the course will be included in your degree evaluation (i.e., it is marked  I ncluded in the repeat column on your transcript). The excluded course(s) will be listed on the  Additional Information  view. If the repeated course has not been removed from your records, you should contact the Registrar s Office and have your records updated.

Does my CAPP evaluation include courses that are in progress?
Yes, and if you run the evaluation for a future term that you have already registered for, it will include those classes as well. In progress courses appear on your evaluation with a source code of  R  for registered. CAPP assumes you will satisfactorily complete the courses for which you are currently registered and that none of these are duplicates or exceed the maximum allowed toward degree requirements. Your advisor has the option to run a CAPP evaluation that does not show in progress or registered courses.

What happens to courses when I receive an "IN" (incomplete) grade?
These courses are not used in your degree evaluation. They appear on the  Additional Information  view. Students cannot graduate with IN grades. Once your professor has submitted a Change of Grade form and it has been processed, you will need to run a new evaluation to see how the course is applied to your program.

What happens to courses when I receive an  F  grade?
If you earned an F in a course but have not repeated the course, the course will be placed in either the area for Major GPA if it is a course required for your major or in your major department or in the electives area. If you repeat the course, the new grade will appear on your CAPP evaluation, and the  F  grade will appear on the  Additional Information  view in the section which lists courses not used in performing your degree evaluation.

What courses are placed in the Other Courses/Electives Area?
This area shows courses which do not satisfy requirements for the Core Curriculum, your major, or minor. These courses count toward the total hours for graduation, overall GPA, and other degree requirements such as computer literacy, writing intensive, and upper division hours. If you earned an F in a course that is outside your major department and you have not repeated the course, it will appear here.

I have petitions that were approved. Why aren t they showing up on my degree evaluation?
It was not possible to copy all information regarding petitions that was entered in the DARS system into the CAPP system. The Registrar s Office is working to enter petitions that were approved as of January 2007 as quickly as possible. However, in some cases, it may be necessary for your advisor to write a note regarding approved petitions that do not show on CAPP on your graduation paperwork. Hardcopy documents are retained in your permanent file and will be manually reviewed upon degree conferral except for files that have been inactive for more than five years.

I earned an AA degree from an in-state public college before I transferred to MSSU. How does this appear on my degree evaluation?
Transfer students who have completed the State of Missouri General Education Core Curriculum (42 semester hours) prior to enrolling at MSSU are assumed to have met Areas 1 through 4 of the MSSU Core Curriculum requirements. Transfer students must additionally meet requirements for Area 5 of the MSSU Core Curriculum. Your courses will be evaluated on a course-by-course basis, and CAPP will first attempt to insert coursework which meets MSSU Core Curriculum requirements. If you have not taken the exact course required to fulfill a Core Curriculum requirement, CAPP will show the requirement as met by exam and place an  E  in the source column of your evaluation. For Teacher Education students, there are some courses in the Core Curriculum that are required of all candidates for certification. These requirements are noted on your evaluation and will not appear as met unless you transferred the equivalent course or complete the course at MSSU.

I am working on a second baccalaureate degree. How does this appear on my degree evaluation?
Transfer students who have been awarded a baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited U.S. college or an accepted foreign equivalent, prior to enrolling at MSSU, are assumed to have fulfilled all lower division Core Curriculum requirements except the State Legislation Requirements. All transfer and post graduate students must also fulfill the State Legislation Requirement for the U.S. Constitution, Missouri Constitution, and U.S. History. Your courses will NOT be evaluated on a course-by-course basis, but the Transcript Analyst will check to see that you have taken the equivalent of HIST 110 or HIST 120 and PSC 120. If you have, then all Core Curriculum requirements will show as met by exam and an  E  will be placed in the source column of your evaluation. If any State Legislation Requirements are outstanding, these requirements will show as unmet until you complete the coursework at MSSU. For Teacher Education students, there are some courses in the Core Curriculum that are required of all candidates for certification. These requirements are noted on your evaluation and will not appear as met unless you transferred the equivalent course or complete the course at MSSU.

I am a transfer student, am I still required to take five writing intensive courses?
Students transferring to Missouri Southern from another college will fulfill the Writing Intensive requirement as follows:
Total hours at time of transfer to MSSU
Minimum Writing Intensive courses required
Fewer than 30 hours
Five courses as outlined on your degree evaluation and in the University Catalog
30 to 89 hours
Four courses, including English 101 & 102 or 111, with two additional upper division courses, one of which must be in the major.
90 hours or more
Three courses, including English 101 & 102 or 111, with one additional upper division course which must be in the major.
CAPP is programmed for students who begin as freshmen at MSSU or transfer with fewer than 30 hours. If you are a transfer student with more than 30 hours and you will not complete five writing intensive courses as outlined on your degree evaluation, then you may see the Registrar s Office for an adjustment. Please wait until you have formally declared your major to do this because if you change majors, another adjustment will need to be made.

Why are some of my courses numbered in the 300 s and 400 s not appearing in the Upper Division group?
This group looks for a minimum of 40 hours of courses that have an attribute of UPPR for upper division. The upper- or lower-division status of a course is assigned at the time of transfer articulation. Courses taken at two-year colleges do not qualify as upper division, even if you petition for them to be the equivalent of a 300- or 400-level MSSU course. Transfer courses from four-year colleges that are taken at lower division but are the equivalent of 300- or 400-level MSSU courses are also considered lower-division. Therefore, it is possible for a course you took at lower-division to meet course requirements for your major but not requirements for upper division hours. If the course does not show in this section, it is not upper division. Please contact the Registrar s Office if you question the upper division status of a transfer course.

Majors and Minors
What is a "What-If" Evaluation?
The "What-if" option allows you to run an evaluation for any available program and major. This option is also used when generating an evaluation for a second major. You have the option to add minors to  What-if  evaluations. CAPP will allow you to select up to two majors and four minors per major. A  What-if  evaluation does not permanently change your major or minor. You must go to the Registrar s Office to do this.

What do I do if CAPP lists my major or minor incorrectly or if I want to change my major or minor?
The Curriculum Information listed by CAPP is the program and major the Registrar s Office currently has on file for you. To update your major or minor, complete the change of major form at the Registrar s Office in Hearnes Hall. In the meantime, you can run a  What-If  evaluation.

I'm a double major. How can I check my other major?
It is possible to view majors that fall under the same degree at the same time. However, this can get a bit messy because program requirements such as Core Curriculum and Degree Requirements are selected based on your major, which results in multiple sets of repeated requirements. The best way to evaluate a second major or an additional degree is to use the "What-If Analysis" link at the bottom of the page after you have completed the first evaluation. Please refer to the University Catalog for information about earning additional baccalaureate degrees.

I'm a pre-major. How can I be sure that I'm keeping up with all of my degree requirements?
If you have not formally declared your major yet, you may run a  What-If Analysis.  We encourage you to declare your major as soon as possible so that you can begin working with an academic advisor to ensure you meet degree requirements.
What are the Dental Hygiene, Radiology, Respiratory Therapy, Medical Technology and Nursing Applicant major requirements, and how are they different from the actual major requirements?

If you are planning to major in a health science field which has competitive admission requirements, you may declare Applicant status and run a CAPP evaluation that will show you prerequisites and provide information about applying to the program. This evaluation will not show you courses that are only open to students who have been admitted to the program.

How do I check to see if I'm eligible for a minor?
Use the  What-If Analysis  link at the bottom of the degree evaluation pages. After choosing a program and major, select  Add More  to go to the minor selection area. Enter the minor you re interested in earning, and run an evaluation. You can do the same thing if you re checking for another major, or thinking about changing your degree program.

I m working toward a Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) degree. Can I use CAPP?
Yes. You can run a CAPP evaluation for the BGS degree that will check Core Curriculum requirements and degree requirements such as the Missouri Constitution, computer literacy, writing intensive, and upper-division hours. The BGS evaluation includes an area that lists all courses in which you have earned a grade of  D  or better. You and your advisor can use this list to compare it with courses listed on your BGS application.

I changed majors, and now some of my petitions are not showing on my degree evaluation. Why is this?
CAPP selects which areas to use based on your major. When petitions are processed, changes are made to the specific areas which apply to your major. If you change majors, CAPP may select an entirely different set of areas which have not had the petitions applied. In this case it will be necessary to come by the Registrar s Office to have them review your approved petitions and apply them to your new major.

Grade Point Averages
What are the program and overall grade point averages that are listed on the first page of my evaluation?
The program and overall GPAs listed on the first page of your evaluation reflect your current overall cumulative grade point average for all courses applicable to your degree, including transfer courses. These two GPAs should be the same.

Where can I find my major GPA?
You major GPA will be listed in a separate area following any areas containing major requirements, supporting requirements, or major electives required for your major. It will contain all courses required for your major, both inside and outside your major department, and all courses taken within your major department. Your major GPA includes any courses in which you have earned a grade of  F  but have not repeated the course.

Resolving Errors or Questions
What if I think my evaluation is wrong?
You should contact your academic advisor. While we have done everything we could to ensure your evaluation runs correctly, it would have been impossible for us to predict every possible situation or problem. If this occurs, you should print a copy of your evaluation and bring it with you to your advisor. (It is important to print a copy in case your advisor is not able to duplicate the problem.) Please note that if you have petitions or transfer credit pending, it may be a few weeks before they are added to your evaluation.
 

Who should I contact if I still have questions?You should first contact your academic advisor. If you still have questions after that meeting, contact the Registrar s Office, Hearnes Hall 100. If you have questions about the information you received on your degree evaluation, please print a copy to bring with you in the event that the problem cannot be duplicated.

Why is the Expected Graduation Date on my degree evaluation incorrect?
This date does not always reflect the actual Expected Date of Graduation and should be ignored. The Expected Graduation Date is set for financial aid purposes so that loan companies do not put students into repayment status. You should not use this date as a reflection of how long it will take to complete degree requirements because it does not take into account course offerings or your course load.