Harper College

Academic Planning and Pathways

Establish practices that empower and support students in exploring and identifying academic options for effective planning and progress toward achieving their educational goals.

Supporting Paragraph:

At Harper College, this refers to developing and providing our students with forms of communication, information, and guidance to support them in effectively identifying and completing their educational goals. The intent of this goal is not to limit the educational options of our students, but to provide resources that contribute to students’ progress toward their goals.

Goal Targets 2016–19

  • Implement Areas of Interest (AoI) structure by August 2017.
    >>Target Achieved
  • Reduce the number of “undecided” students at time of application from 25% to 15% by fall 2018.
    >>Not Achieved
  • Reduce the number of “undecided” students at time of registration from 8% to 5% by fall 2018.
    >>Target Achieved

Overall Accomplishments:

  • Developed and implemented 10 Areas of Interest (AoI) by May 2017.
  • Formed and launched AoI Core Teams in April 2018. Teams are comprised of faculty members from the academic programs within the AoI and advisors/counselors who have been assigned as specialists in the AoI. Each team also has a dean serving as ex-officio.
  • Redesigned the application for admission to integrate the AoI framework.
  • Redesigned the College website around the AoI to ensure consistency throughout program pages.
  • Integrated AoI into the Academic Advising and Counseling structure. Case managed advising assignments were made by AoI wherever possible, as identifying AoI at the time of application began in spring 2019.
  • Collaborated with Start Smart to offer First Year Seminar sections aligned with AoI.
  • Developed the goal team and campus-wide initiatives around AoI.

Annual Outcomes Reports:

Last Updated: 12/14/23