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Related Links
Overview of the Pilot Curriculum
Guidelines for Writing Your Academic Plan
Procedure for Submitting Your Academic Plan
Academic Plan Submission Website
Sample Academic Plans
In your sophomore
year you will, with the help of your academic advisor, prepare in writing
a comprehensive plan for your education. Your academic plan will give
you the opportunity to think and plan carefully so that your education
amounts to more than just mastering some basic skills, completing a major,
and taking a number of disparate free electives.
Your Major and Your Academic Plan
Your major, which you will declare by the middle of the second semester
of your sophomore year, will occupy more than a third of your course work.
It will have its own organizing principles and will involve a plan that
you will work out in consultation with an advisor assigned to you by your
major department. Before you get to that stage, as you consider your goals
with your general academic advisor, your thoughts about your major are
likely to be quite general: a major in X perhaps with a concentration
in Y and perhaps some vague notion of what your research interests are.
Your
Major and Your Electives
As you are deciding on a major, you are urged to also think carefully
about what you can do with your electives, which will constitute as much
as half of your total course work, and how they relate to your major.
- Are there interests or ideas sparked in the general requirement courses you took that you would like to pursue in a more concentrated way but that will not be part of your major? You might do this by identifying a cluster of courses on a certain theme and figuring out how to fit them into your program.
- Does your major intersect with other fields that you might pursue through your free electives? For instance, someone with a major in a literary field with a concentration in the 19th Century might want to study the philosophy, art history, or political history from that period. Or someone majoring in biology might gain valuable insights by taking one or more courses beyond the introductory level in physics or in geology. A political science major could acquire a deeper understanding of political behavior by studying cultural anthropology or economics or social psychology or all three. You can begin exploring these ideas with your general academic advisor and then follow up with your major advisor or with faculty teaching in the intersecting field.
- Do you wonder how your learning in a liberal arts college in a research university relates to the urban environment in which Penn is situated? Penn's Program for Public Service sponsors numerous academically based community service courses (ABCS courses) in which you can learn about how cities, institutions, and communities function; conduct research on real-life problems; and provide a valued service to the community. Such an interest can be accommodated in a variety of majors, from sociology to urban studies to history, classical studies, or biology. Or it could be pursued as an elective.
Your
Intellectual Journey
The goal is to complete a degree composed of a major and electives that
represent for you some measure of breadth, depth, and coherence. There
is no single recipe for achieving this end. An advisor cannot prescribe
it for you. Someone looking at your final transcript may not even be able
to discern the plan that it embodies. You alone will be able to do that
by explaining both to yourself and to your advisors, parents, and friends
the intellectual journey that you took as you developed various skills,
progressed through your major, and chose a certain set of electives.
Your
Advisor and Your Academic Plan
The point of the academic plan is for you anticipate this journey as best
you can from the vantage point of your sophomore year. We want you to
take this exercise seriously. Therefore, you are required to commit it
to writing and to discuss it with your advisor. The advisor will serve
as a sounding board. He or she may want to question the soundness or feasibility
of certain aspects of your plan, may have suggestions for you to consider,
may simply say, "That makes sense to me." You are not required to obtain
the approval of your advisor, although your plan will work better for
you if you are able to articulate it in a way that makes sense to other
reasonable and knowledgeable readers. What is required, however, is that
your advisor certify that you have a written plan to which you have given
careful consideration and that you have discussed it with him or her.
How
Your Academic Plan Will Grow With You
Your plan can and will change as your ideas develop and as you respond
to intellectual and practical challenges to your carrying it out. As your
program unfolds, you are encouraged to continue the conversation about
your plan with advisors and with peers. It is a good idea to amend the
written document as you make adjustments and change course, but there
is no requirement of a formal review after the one with your general academic
advisor in your sophomore year.
It is perhaps better to think of the academic plan not as a requirement but as a process, to help you to think about, question, and achieve your goals for your education in conversation with advisors first outside and eventually inside your major.
