Knowing which courses to take next starts with understanding what you still need to graduate. Your major’s course list is part of the answer, but it is not the whole answer. You also need to check your total credits, GPA, credits completed at City Vision, and any general education requirements that apply to your degree.
The most useful approach is to bring together three resources: your degree page, your Populi Degree Audit, and the course schedule. Each answers a different question. Your degree page explains the program’s course requirements. Your degree audit shows your individual progress. The course schedule helps you determine when to take the courses you still need.
By comparing these resources, you can create a degree plan that accounts for both the requirements you have left and the terms when courses are offered.
What You’ll Learn
- Use your degree page, Populi Degree Audit, and course schedule together to plan remaining coursework.
- Check GPA, cumulative credits, resident credits, and required course categories before assessing graduation progress.
- Your degree, specialization, and catalog year determine which requirements you should review.
- Unused courses graded A through D count toward total credits but not general education or major requirements.
Table of Contents
- 1. Start With Your Degree Page
- 2. Compare the Requirements With the Course Schedule
- 3. Open Your Degree Audit in Populi
- 4. Review the General Degree Requirements
- 5. Check General Education Requirements
- 6. Identify the Core and Concentration Courses You Still Need
- 7. Turn Your Remaining Requirements Into a Term-by-Term Plan
- 8. Understand What “Unused Courses” Means
- Get Help With Your Degree Plan
1. Start With Your Degree Page
First, go to the City Vision University website. Open the Undergraduate or Graduate menu, depending on your program, and select your degree.
For example, if you are studying addiction counseling, open the addiction counseling degree page. Scroll down to the section describing what you will learn, then select the Courses tab.
This is where you can review the courses associated with your program. Depending on your degree, the list may include:
- Core courses: Courses required for the major.
- Concentration courses: Courses associated with the concentration you have chosen.
- Major electives: Additional course options used to fulfill the degree’s major elective requirements, where applicable.
Pay attention to the separate course groupings. A list of courses for one concentration is not necessarily the list for another concentration, even when both belong to the same degree. Your plan should reflect the concentration you have selected.
At this stage, you are establishing the program’s requirements rather than determining your personal remaining requirements. The website gives you the course list to work from. Your degree audit will help you identify which parts you have already fulfilled.
2. Compare the Requirements With the Course Schedule
Once you have reviewed your degree page, open the Admissions menu and select Course Schedule. This page shows which courses are offered in upcoming terms.
Compare the courses required for your degree with the courses listed for each term. For example, you can review Spring 1, then Spring 2, then Summer to see where the courses you need appear.
The distinction is important: a degree requirement tells you what you need, while the course schedule tells you when it is offered. You need both pieces of information to make a useful plan.
Begin noting the terms associated with possible course choices. You do not need to finalize your schedule yet. First, you will want to check your individual progress in Populi so you are planning around requirements that remain unfinished.
Always use the upcoming terms on the live course schedule. Older examples can help explain how the schedule works, but the dates and offerings you use for registration should come from the schedule available when you are planning.
3. Open Your Degree Audit in Populi
A course list alone cannot tell you whether you have met every graduation requirement. That is why the Populi Degree Audit is the best place to review your overall progress toward graduation.
To find it:
- Go to the City Vision website.
- Select the Populi Login link in the upper-right corner.
- Log in to your account.
- Open My Profile.
- Select the Student tab.
- Open the Degree Audit tab.
The Student tab normally opens to your academic record by default, so you will need to select Degree Audit to see the requirements-based view.
Your student account may look somewhat different from a staff account or an example screen. Focus on the section names and the information they provide rather than expecting every part of the layout to look identical.
The audit brings together general degree requirements, general education requirements where applicable, and specialization requirements. Reviewing each area is more useful than checking only the total number of credits you have earned.
If you need general help navigating the platform, the Populi Help Center is an additional resource. For questions about how City Vision’s requirements apply to your degree, contact our support team.
Check the degree, specialization, and catalog year
Before interpreting the audit, look at the selections near the top:
- Degree: The degree whose requirements you are reviewing.
- Specialization: Your major and concentration.
- Catalog year: The set of requirements used for the audit, including the applicable general education requirements.
The degree normally defaults to the program you are currently taking. If you have multiple degrees, you can switch between them.
The catalog year deserves particular attention because requirements can differ from one year to another. For example, the general education requirements shown for the 2023 to 2024 catalog differ from those used in earlier years.
A newer catalog year is not simply a more up-to-date view of the same requirements. It can show a different set of requirements. If you are uncertain which catalog year to use for your plan, ask support for help rather than assuming you should select the newest option.
4. Review the General Degree Requirements
Near the top of the audit, look for General Degree Requirements. This section helps you check the broader graduation requirements that sit alongside your required courses.
Overall GPA
Check the overall GPA requirement shown in your audit. The example requirement is a minimum GPA of 2.0.
GPA is a separate requirement from course completion and total credits. When you assess your progress, include it in your review rather than assuming that earning enough credits settles every graduation requirement.
Cumulative credits
Cumulative credits are the total credits counted toward your degree, including transfer credits. The required total depends on the degree.
The undergraduate totals described here are:
- Bachelor’s degree: 120 cumulative credits.
- Associate’s degree: 60 cumulative credits.
You can also review your degree page for the credit requirements associated with your program.
Resident credits
Resident credits are credits you take at City Vision. They are different from cumulative credits because cumulative credits can include transfer work.
If you have transferred courses from another institution, check both totals. Transfer credits can contribute to your cumulative credits, but the resident-credit requirement specifically concerns coursework completed at City Vision.
These requirements should be reviewed together. You want to know whether you have enough total credits, enough credits taken at City Vision, and the required GPA, as well as whether you have completed the necessary course categories.
5. Check General Education Requirements
If you are working toward an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, your degree audit also includes general education requirements.
These requirements are separate from the courses for your major. Completing your core and concentration courses does not, by itself, establish that your general education requirements are finished.
The bachelor’s example includes categories covering:
- Humanities, fine arts, Christian life, and social responsibility.
- Natural and physical science.
- Quantitative skill.
- Social and behavioral science.
- Communications.
- Electives.
Review each category in your own audit to determine what remains. Do not use the bachelor’s example as a checklist for every degree. An associate’s degree has fewer general education requirements, and requirements also differ by catalog year.
To compare requirements across years, go to the Current Students menu on the City Vision website and open the General Education Requirements page.
The practical question is not just whether you have taken general education courses. It is whether the work reflected in your audit fulfills the categories required for your degree and catalog year. Make a note of any categories that remain incomplete so they are included when you plan future terms.
6. Identify the Core and Concentration Courses You Still Need
Continue down the audit to the specialization course requirements. This is where you can review the requirements for your major’s core and concentration.
If a requirement has not been completed, the audit will show a status such as Not Satisfied. You can also see the number of credits required for the core and concentration sections.
Open the Not Completed list to see the courses listed for that requirement. This turns a general status into information you can use to build your plan.
For each unfinished section, note:
- The requirement that remains unsatisfied.
- The number of credits required in that section.
- The courses listed as options for fulfilling it.
Keep core and concentration requirements separate in your notes. They are distinct parts of your major, and checking each one helps you see where you still need coursework.
Compare the audit with the degree page
In some cases, the courses shown in Populi may differ from the most up-to-date course list on the City Vision website. Compare the audit’s list with your degree page before finalizing your plan.
Use the resources together: the audit shows your individual progress, while the degree page provides the updated program course list. If a difference leaves you uncertain about which course to take, contact support so you can resolve the question before registering.
7. Turn Your Remaining Requirements Into a Term-by-Term Plan
Once you know what remains, return to the Course Schedule page. You can now compare upcoming offerings against a focused list of unfinished requirements rather than the entire program curriculum.
A straightforward planning process is:
- List unfinished requirements. Include general education, core, and concentration requirements that apply to you.
- Record the relevant courses. Use the audit and compare major course options with the degree page.
- Find those courses on the schedule. Note the upcoming term in which each is offered.
- Organize your choices by term. Build a plan using the actual offerings shown.
- Return to the overall requirements. Check that your plan also accounts for cumulative credits and resident credits, and review your GPA status.
For courses offered in the coming year, you can use the Registration tab in Populi to register through the end of that coming year.
Planning across several terms helps you connect what remains with when it can be completed. Instead of choosing only from the next term’s offerings, you can see how upcoming terms fit together in your degree plan.
8. Understand What “Unused Courses” Means
At the bottom of your degree audit, you may see a section labeled Unused Courses. The label does not necessarily mean those courses have no value toward graduation.
Unused courses with letter grades from A through D count toward your total credits. However, they do not fulfill the general education or major requirements described in the audit.
This is another reason to distinguish total credits from specific requirements. A course may contribute to your overall credit total without filling an unfinished general education, core, or concentration requirement.
When reviewing this section, recognize the credits that already count toward your total, but continue planning for any required categories that remain unsatisfied. Do not treat an unused course as a substitute for an unfinished requirement simply because it carries credit.
Get Help With Your Degree Plan
You can use this process to create your own degree plan, but you do not have to resolve every question on your own. If you need help interpreting the audit, comparing course lists, or deciding how to organize your remaining courses, contact us:
- Email: support@cityvision.edu
- Chat: Use the chat at the bottom of City Vision’s web pages.
- Phone: (816) 708-0794, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time.
The goal is a plan that covers all your remaining requirements, not just a list of courses that interest you or fit the next term. Start with your degree page, review your individual progress in Populi, and match what remains to the course schedule. Together, those steps give you a clear basis for choosing your next courses and working toward graduation.