Filing for Graduation and Audits in Chemistry

Filing for graduation

To graduate, you must file for graduation with the Registrar's Office and indicate your degree (BS or BA), major(s) and option(s) on the form. You cannot graduate with a BS in chemistry without indicating an option on the form.  You should file three terms before you expect to graduate. Filing for graduation will generate an audit of the university and department requirements that you can view online.

You should have declared your option previously on a Change of Program form but this information does not apply to the audit.  YOU must specify your option(s) again on graduation form.

To graduate in chemistry, students must meet all university and major requirements (core and option) listed on the Chemistry Checklist for your option.  Finally, chemistry students that choose minors or majors in other departments must meet all the requirements in the other department.

Audits

Audits are generated only for students who apply for graduation as noted above.

Audits formats

1. electronic format

Students can view their own audit from the Student Online Services WEB page.

Faculty with approved access to the student data base as an advisor can view the same audit form.

2. hardcopy

The hardcopy is generated from the same data and sent first to the College of Science and then to the chemistry department. The academic advisor receives the hardcopy audit which is the audit of record and can show it to the advisee. The hardcopy audit has the same information as the electronic audit but is formatted differently

Note that the audit shows both University (baccalaureate core) requirements and chemistry requirements

Either the electronic or hardcopy audit will indicate if certain requirements are met or not met.  If the audit indicates that requirements are not met, do not panic.  See your academic adviser about those requirements that are specified as not fulfilled and also check some of the details below. The computer program that compares your courses to the requirements and provides the audit does not correctly evaluate all possible situations.  The computer-generated audit provides guidance to the student and the academic adviser. The academic adviser make the final decision about approving the audit for departmental requirements.  The College of science advisers approve University requirements. 

The audit will work best for students who started as Freshmen at OSU and have been chemistry majors the entire time.  For such students, the courses taken should exactly match the courses specified in the curriculum for a specific option.  The automatic audit will generally not work if the course numbers on your transcript do not match the specified required course numbers in the curriculum unless substitutions have been included in the audit program.

Reasons for "errors" in the audit

Reasons that electronic or hardcopy audit would indicate that you have not satisfied the requirements in certain categories include:

1. You are taking a required course the term of your graduation (the evaluation program does not consider current courses)

e.g., You applied to graduate Spring term but are also taking CH 463 Spring term. The audit does not take into account the courses in progress. In this case, you know that you are okay as long as you pass CH 463 and maintain a GPA of at least 2.0 in chemistry.  Your academic adviser will indicate on your audit that you must pass any courses in progress that are required for chemistry and your option. Once you pass CH 463 the requirement will be satisfied.

2.  You have transferred courses from another institution that can be used to fulfill certain requirements but the course numbers of the transfer courses do not match the numbers of the required courses at OSU.

e.g., You took  the entire organic chemistry series (CH 241-243) at an Oregon community college (CC).  This series transfers to OSU at CH 331, 332, 337; whereas, the chemistry core requirements for all options include CH 334, 335, 336, 361.   Hence, the automatic audit will indicate you have not fulfilled a chemistry core requirement.  Based on adequate grades in the CC sequence, your academic adviser can accept the transfer courses as satisfying the specific requirements for CH 334, 335, 336, 361. Your adviser will note on your audit that the requirement has been fulfilled.

3. Your adviser has approved the use of an OSU course as a substitute course for a specific required course.

e.g., Because of scheduling difficulties you have taken CH 467 instead of actual requirement of CH 464 for the advanced chemistry option.  You have previously talked to your academic adviser who has agreed on the substitution.  Your adviser will note on your audit that the requirement has been fulfilled.

4. Your option includes a category in the departmental option requirements which cannot be evaluated by the auditing program.  This arises when a requirement category includes an elective list that must be agreed upon by an adviser. 

e.g., The advanced chemistry or advanced biochemistry options include the category of career-supportive electives and a very large range of courses can be used.   You were supposed to submit the list of courses for this requirement to your adviser and obtain approval your junior year. Your adviser will confirm that the courses on your transcript match the courses on the approved list and note on your audit that the requirement has been fulfilled.

5.  "Not Met" can appear under a particular category or group of courses if the overall GPA in that area is less than 2.00 even if all the required courses in that area are listed. This "N" does not necessarily mean that you have not satisfied all chemistry requirements.  The actual chemistry GPA requirement is a minimum of 2.0 for all courses required for the major (all COS courses - see below)). 

6. You actually have not taken or are enrolled for a required course (or an approved substitute) .

The table below lists specific categories in different chemistry options that always require adviser approval.

Understanding the Audit

A typical hardcopy audit starts as follows. 

Under program requirements, the main points to check are that the total number of credits is at least 180 (or will be if the current term is included) and the GPA is above 2.0.

Under used areas, the first column indicates that all the requirements are Met (Y) or Not Met (N) in a specific category. All the categories starting with COS are chemistry requirements and all the other categories are University requirements. The chemistry requirements are broken up into 3 or 4 categories depending on the option. 

For the electronic audit, the above table is not present, and the Met or Not Met information is given separately with the detailed course information for each category.  

Below the summary information, each category is considered one at a time starting with the University requirements for Skills and Sciences. You can see what courses you took are used to meet specific requirements.

What you are looking for are N's for the used areas in the hardcopy table or Not Met's in the electronic copy to determine what specific requirements are listed as not satisfied. Check the section above entitled Reasons for "errors" in the audit to determine why this might be the case.  

After the last of the University requirements (Perspectives), the audit shows the requirement categories specific to chemistry starting with chemistry core requirements.   Check all these COS categories carefully to see that all requirements are met.  Note that the required courses are specified except for cases where the adviser approves a list of elective courses.  Sometimes courses are shown that are not specifically listed in the text "required" for the area. This situation occurs if you have taken a course that is a commonly used substitute course that has been added to the automated audit program. 
 

If any of these COS requirements are not met, see the section above entitled Reasons for "errors" in the audit.  If you have concerns, check with your adviser.

Below the chemistry categories is the section on upper division courses.  You want to check that you have the minimum of 60 upper division credits (or will have when the current term is completed).