Graduate School

The Graduate DARS Audit Guide

INTRODUCTORY SECTION - The first five sections of the DARS audit are the introductory sections which give the reader a lot of information on how the audit was run, how to interpret the audit, and where to go for help.

Student Information Section
At the very top of the audit is the Student Information Section, which tells you a number of things:

  1. When the audit was run
  2. The student's PSU ID number
  3. The student's name
  4. The program code used to run the audit
  5. The catalog year used to run the audit
  6. The long version of the student's degree and major (program code)

Status Bar
Under the Student Information Section is the Status Bar. This tells you very quickly if the student has completed all requirements for the degree or not. There are three messages you can see in this status bar:

  1. "You’re making progress: at least 1 requirement remains unmet” – This status tells you the student has not met all requirements. The unmet requirements may be course requirements or other requirements such as applying for graduation.
  2. "ALL REQUIREMENTS IDENTIFIED BELOW HAVE BEEN MET” – This status tells you the student has met all requirements identified on the DARS audit. There may be other requirements NOT identified here that still need to be met (for example, departmental comprehensive exams, receiving and processing the GO-17 form by GS, etc.), so this does not necessarily mean the student has graduated.
  3. "ALL REQUIREMENTS COMPLETED – IN-PROGRESS COURSES USED” – This status tells you the student is meeting all requirements on the DARS audit, but somewhere on the audit are “IP” or “RE” courses (in-progress or registered courses). This message typically appears after the student registers for their last courses in their last term. Once the IP/RE courses are graded, as long as the student is still meeting all requirements, the status message will switch to the message in number 2.

Audit Information
This section gives the reader a very brief overview of the DARS audit and how to find help understanding the DARS audit. 

NON-COURSEWORK REQUIREMENT SECTION - The non-coursework requirements for graduation are first on the audit. Not every section that follows is a ‘requirement’ that must be met; some are merely informational sections regarding courses, but may explain why DARS is or is not doing something you would expect. Some sections only appear on the DARS audit when needed. 

Application for Graduation
This section appears on every audit. One requirement for graduation is that the student actually apply for graduation. Once the student submits the application for graduation, this section will indicate the term for which the student applied.

GO-17 - Recommendation for the Degree
This section appears on doctoral audits and is just a text block indicating that this form (the GO-17) is required to be submitted by the department after the student has finished all requirements for the degree and all coursework is graded.

Term of Admission
This section also appears on every audit. The function of this section is to notify the reader what the student’s term of admission is (according to the student information system, BANNER), and if needed, a subsection will appear entitled “PRE-ADMISSION CREDITS” if the student has taken any graduate level courses before their term of admission. Pre-admission credits for master’s degree students do not automatically count on the audit; they must be approved by the department and a DARS exception request be submitted. (More information on pre-admission credits can be found in the Bulletin.) 

Second Language Requirement
This section will appear on MA audits only, as the second language requirement is an MA specific requirement. This section tells the reader a second language verification is needed, and once the requirement is met either the course by which it was met will appear or the date met and language will appear on the audit.

Thesis/Dissertation Committee
If the student is in a program that requires a thesis/dissertation, this section will appear on the audit. It will say that a GO-16 form must be submitted and approved by GS before a thesis defense (or dissertation proposal) can take place. Once that form is approved, the names of the thesis/dissertation committee members will appear in this section. (If a thesis is optional, this section will appear once a student registers for a 503 Thesis credit.)

Limits on 501, 502, and 505 Courses
The university limits of these courses for master’s degrees only are identified in this section and all the courses the student has taken in this category will appear below. The DARS audit will only allow the limit for each program to count toward coursework requirements. However, all courses will appear in this section, even if they total more than the limit. If the student has not taken any of these courses, this section will not appear on the DARS audit.

Limits on 504, 508, and 509 Courses
The university limits of these courses for master’s degrees only are identified in this section and all the courses the student has taken in this category will appear below. The DARS audit will only allow the limit for each program to count toward coursework requirements. However, all courses will appear in this section, even if they total more than the limit. If the student has not taken any of these courses, this section will not appear on the DARS audit.

Joint Campus Courses
If the student has taken any Joint Campus (JC) courses, they will appear in this section. These courses are considered transfer and in order to count toward any course requirements, a GO-21 form will need to be submitted to GS. DARS will not automatically count these courses toward course requirements. If the student has not taken any of these courses, this section will not appear on the DARS audit.

M Grades
Any course with a grade of M (Missing) will fall into this category. These courses will not count toward the course requirements until graded. This section will only appear if M grades are on the student’s record. Important: Students cannot graduate with an M grade on their record in a course that can potentially be letter graded.

X Grades
Any course with a grade of X (No basis for grade) will fall into this category. These courses will not count toward the course requirements. (Once given a grade of X, the grade cannot be changed.) This section will only appear if X grades are on the student’s record.

I Grades
Any course with a grade of I (Incomplete) will fall into this category. These courses will not count toward the course requirements until graded. This section will only appear if I grades are on the student’s record.

Residency Requirement
This section appears on every doctoral audit and is manually completed by the Graduate School once it has been confirmed that the student has met the doctoral residency requirement. When confirmed, the terms used to meet doctoral residency will be listed in this section. The residency check is typically made at the time that comprehensive exams are processed. (Beth, feel free to lose this last sentence if you think it's not necessary.)

Comprehensive Exams
This section appears on every doctoral audit and is manually completed by the Graduate School after receipt and processing of a GO-22 form. When the exams have been verified, the date they were completed will be listed in this section. 

Cumulative Graduate GPA
A cumulative graduate GPA (all graduate courses on the PSU transcript) of 3.0 is required for graduation. This section shows the reader how many credits are earned and in-progress, the GPA hours, points, and GPA. This section appears on all DARS audits.

Degree Program GPA
This section does two things: it calculates the number of credits being used in the coursework requirements that follow, and it calculates the GPA of those courses into what is called the Degree Program GPA. This GPA (which includes any transfer credits being used to meet coursework requirements) must be at least a 3.0 to graduate. This section appears on all DARS audits.

COURSEWORK REQUIREMENT SECTION - The coursework requirement section begins after the GPA sections. The following sections detail the course requirements as identified by the catalog year by which the audit was run. Program requirements change over time so it is important to run the DARS report using the correct catalog year. (Further explanation regarding catalog year can be found on our DARS website.)

Credit Requirement
This section appears on every DARS audit and indicates the total number of credits needed to meet the requirements for the degree. An easy way to see how close you are to meeting the credit requirement is to compare that number to the Earned plus In-progress courses directly above in the Degree Program GPA section. However, even if you have enough credits, you may not be meeting all the coursework requirements that follow, so it’s very important to look over the entire audit.

Course Requirements
The appearance of the actual coursework requirement sections will vary between degree programs, but it’s important to note a couple things.

  • This section is generally divided up into ‘requirements’ and ‘sub-requirements’. 
    • The ‘requirement’ is most often just a group of ‘sub-requirements’. ‘Sub-requirements’ will always be numbered (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) and will have either a “+,” “-,” or “*” to the left of the number.
      • A “+” indicates that the sub-requirement has been met.
      • A “-“ indicates that the sub-requirement has not been met and something is missing.
      • A “*” indicates that the sub-requirement has a variable amount of credits that must apply, but it is being calculated at the requirement level, not the sub-requirement level.
         
  • At the requirement level, each requirement will show its completion status, either “NO,” “IP,” or “OK,” to indicate if the requirement (and it’s corresponding sub-requirements) are completed. 
    • "NO" means that one or more of the sub-requirements are not complete.
    • "IP" means that all the sub-requirements within this requirement are complete, but are using IP or RE (registered) courses.
    • "OK" means that all the sub-requirements within this requirement are complete and all courses are graded.
       
  • Each requirement and sub-requirement should explain to the reader what is needed. When a list of courses is required, many times a “Course List” will appear below the sub-requirement showing the courses that still need to be taken. (Sometimes the course list is part of the explanation of the requirement or sub-requirement text.)
     
  • A course that has been given special approval to count will have a note directly under the title of the course explaining what approval was given (for example, “Preadmit course approved” or “Expired course validated”). If a substitution or waiver was made, a note will appear under the text of the requirement/sub-requirement for which the substitution was made (for example, Note: SPHR 525 sub for SPHR 540).
     
  • If the student transferred in courses from another institution, they will not follow the same layout as the PSU courses but instead look like this:
    Su21 SHS 532 OSU A   3.00

POST-COURSEWORK SECTION – There are a few sections that may fall after the coursework requirements on the DARS audit. These sections appear on the DARS audit only when needed.

Proposal Approval and Advancement to Candidacy
This section appears on every doctoral audit and is manually completed by GS after receipt and processing of a GO-23 form. When all requirements for advancement to candidacy have been completed and verified, the effective date of advancement to candidacy will be listed in this section. 

Courses Not Used To Meet Degree Requirements
This section will appear at the end of the audit if the student has taken any graduate courses that are not being used to meet degree requirements. This section can contain unusable courses (X, M or I graded courses, expired courses, excess omnibus courses, courses that have exceeded the repeat limits, and dual-level courses that can be used only once), courses that need approval for use (pre-admission or JC courses), or courses that are usable but just aren’t meeting the degree requirements automatically.

Disclaimer
The DARS audit is an advising tool and although we’ve done our best to ensure complete accuracy, there may be errors (encoding or otherwise). The DARS audit is not a promise or guarantee of graduation.