Academic Requirement Override for Advisors

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Overview of Process

When necessary, Advisors can override academic requirements, allowing for substitutes, waivers, or course additions. This allows advisors to add exceptions/overrides for their advisees directly on the student’s record. Manually overriding requirements makes it easier to accommodate special circumstances to help ensure student success. Once the override has been applied to the student’s record, their Academic Progress report will display an override Assigned status next to the academic requirement. 

Academic Requirement Overrides come in seven forms. This guide will walk you through several types, but to begin we’ll discuss what each of them are used for. Please note that not all overrides will work for every case:

  • Add Course – used to add a course to a requirement before a student registers for it
  • Adjust Course Count – used to change the number of courses required to complete a requirement
  • Adjust Credits – used to change the number of credits required to complete a requirement
  • Assign Course to Requirement – when you wish to have a course a student has already taken, such as a transfer course or other Bowdoin course, count for the requirement
  • Exclude Registration from Requirement – used when a student has completed a requirement with a specific course and that course must be disallowed from completing the requirement
  • Substitute Course – used if you want to require that the student uses a specific course to count as a substitute for another specific course; can select a course from the catalogue to use for the substitution or a course the student has completed
  • Waive Requirement – when the student should not be required to complete the requirement (note: this will not lower the number of credits a student is required to complete for the degree)

Below we’ll go through the two most common overrides you’ll use.

Academic Requirement Override – Assign Transfer Course to Requirement

  1. Type Override Academic Requirement for Student into the Workday Global Search bar and select the task. 

    Note: Overrides can also be initiated from the specific requirement you wish to override from the student’s Academic Progress by clicking the three dots next to a requirement and selecting Academic Requirement > Create Override.

    User is on Workday Homepage. User enters Override Academic Requirement for Student into the Workday Search Bar and selects the task.
     
  2. Select the Student.
  3. Select the Academic Requirement to override. 
  4. Select Assign Course to Requirement as the Override Type.
  5. Click OK.

    User selects Paul R. Bear as the Student, CSCI Major: Mathematics as the Academic Requirement, and Assign Course to Requirement as the Override Type. User clicks OK.
     
  6. Select one or more Transfer Credit Course Registrations to Apply to the requirement.

    User fills in the Course Registrations to Apply field.
     
  7. An alert will appear reminding you that as long as the override exists, Workday limits changes to these registrations and excludes them from automatic transfer credit evaluation.
  8. If applicable, check the Ignore Grade box to ignore the grade of transfer course in the override process.

    Note: Click the plus icon and repeat these steps if there are multiple transfer courses to assign to this requirement.

    User selected Math 1600 - Differential Calculus (Transfer Credit) in the Course Registrations to Apply field. An alert appears. The plus icon to add multiple transfer courses to this requirement is highlighted.
     
  9. In the Comments section, enter any supporting information for the override.
  10. Click Submit.

    User enters supporting information for the Override in the Comments field and clicks Submit.
     

What happens next?

Upon submitting the Academic Requirement Override for the student, a task will route to the Office of the Registrar for approval.

Academic Requirement Override – Substitute for Bowdoin Course

  1. Type Override Academic Requirement for Student into the Workday Global Search bar and select the task.  

    Note: Overrides can also be initiated from a requirement’s Related Actions menu on the Academics tab of a student profile.

    User is on Workday Homepage. User enters Override Academic Requirement for Student into the Workday Search Bar and selects the task.
     
  2. Select the Student.
  3. Select the Academic Requirement to override. 
  4. Select Substitute Course as the Override Type.
  5. Click OK.

    User selects Paul R. Bear as the Student, CSCI Major: Artificial Intelligence as the Academic Requirement, and Substitute Course as the Override Type. User clicks OK.
     
  6. Select the Required Course.
  7. Select Alternate Course Set.
  8. In the Courses field, select the alternate Bowdoin College course the student completed that fulfills the requirement.

    Note: Click the plus icon and repeat these steps if there are multiple required courses for the requirement.
     
  9. In the Comments section, enter any supporting information for the override.
  10. Click Submit.

    User selects CSCI 3455 - Machine Learning as the Required Course. In the Override sections, user selects Alternate Course Set and enters CSCI 3350 - Social and Economic Networks in the Courses field. User then enters supporting information in the Comments field and clicks the OK button.
     

What happens next?

Upon submitting the Academic Requirement Override for the student, a task will route to the Office of the Registrar for approval.

Additional Assistance

If you need additional assistance, click the link under the Related Services / Offerings section on this page to enter a support request online.

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