Classmates use Schedule Planner to select the classes they want to take for the upcoming semester. Credit: Madelayne Lee | Lantern Reporter
Dominic Hamon sat down with his academic advisor during freshman orientation to plan his first semester at Ohio State. During that semester, he learned how to plan his courses on his own to set himself up for success.
As students move from advisor-built schedules to planning semesters on their own, many must learn to navigate registration tools, degree requirements and long-term course planning for the first time. Academic advisors say understanding those resources early can help students avoid mistakes and build a smoother path to graduation.
Buckeye Degree Planner and Schedule Planner are key scheduling tools that most first-year students learn to use in the survey class each department provides to help them succeed at Ohio State.?
Buckeye Degree Planner, which went live toward the end of the autumn semester to replace Degree Audit, allows students to design potential schedules for each year until they graduate. Its main functions are to track graduation requirements and plan for the future.
“It’s very helpful for when students ask, ‘What are my next four semesters going to look like,’ because they want to have an idea of what to take,” said Kyle Gilbert, an academic advisor in the University Exploration program.3
The resource students use when actually building their upcoming course load is Schedule Planner, which is organized by term and degree type: undergraduate, graduate or professional.
Once a student selects their role, they can enter the courses they plan to take and generate multiple schedule options based on time preferences, desired breaks between classes and instructor availability.
Instead of building a schedule course by course, the tool creates several possible combinations at once.
“Seeing all my options at once made it a lot easier than trying to figure out my schedule on my own,” Hamon said.
Students can compare those options, block off times they are unavailable and choose a schedule that best fits their routine before sending it directly to their shopping cart for enrollment.
By the time Hamon’s spring scheduling window opened, he felt more confident navigating the process on his own.
“We had a full week of just learning how to use Schedule Planner and Buckeye Degree Planner in my survey class,” Hamon said. “We made a full four-year plan—which helped me long term because I had a rough draft for my future.”
With tools like Buckeye Degree Planner and Schedule Planner, students are not just selecting classes, they are learning to take ownership of their future. Learning how to use the tools early can turn what feels like a complicated process into a manageable, and even empowering part of the college experience.
