Approving your Plan - Assessment Committees

The college reviews your plan in two ways:

1. for academic content and structure
2. for technical items such as accurate transfer credit and credit amounts and levels.

An assessment committee, made up of faculty and assessment professionals, reviews your degree program in the contexts of: 

• your rationale essay
• ESC requirements for degrees (credit amounts, level, type)
• ESC Area of Study Guidelines for your type of degree
• what the profession expects in your type of degree, if you're pursuing a professionally-based degree
• State University of New York General Education requirements. 

The first context - your rationale essay - is one of the most important.  Committee members want to understand your reasoning and research behind your choices for your degree - the things that make your degree meaningful to you as well as academically and professionally valid.

Once an assessment committee reviews and approves your plan, the college does a final review, double-checking your transfer credit, general education, credit amounts, and other technical aspects to make sure your degree conforms with ESC and SUNY requirements.

These are the types of questions an assessment committee asks:

• Does the title of the degree/concentration reflect the actual contents of the degree?
• Does the rationale essay clearly set the context for understanding the degree by discussing personal-academic-professional goals?
• Do the degree plan and rationale essay show how the degree will actually help you work toward those goals?
• Does the degree have an overall design that's addressed implicitly in the degree plan and explicitly in the rationale essay?   In other words, have you explained why you've included certain pieces in the degree, how pieces of the degree relate to one another, build from one another, and/or provide a variety of perspectives?
• Does the rationale essay clearly discuss how you've addressed the ESC Area of Study Guidelines for degrees in that particular area?
• Does the rationale essay clearly discuss what's usually expected academically/professionally in this type of degree, and provide evidence to show that you have addressed broader academic/professional expectations?
• Do the degree plan and rationale essay clearly show that you have fulfilled the SUNY General Learning requirement?
• Is the essay clearly written in your own voice; with a beginning, middle, and end; clear and correct language; and documentation as needed?