Larissa Boring, a sophomore in public relations, was undeclared when she enrolled at Moody College of Communication in search of a field of study that appealed to her. She declared public relations as her major after developing an interest in it during orientation, but she struggled to locate the classes she needed for it.
According to Boring, I was unsure of the communication courses I could enroll in that would still be relevant to my major and not be a waste of time. Sorting through classes that might be useful vs a waste of time was somewhat difficult.
Students like Boring can benefit from Shalev Widen’s website, DegreeView, which he created while a junior in economics. The website, which was launched on July 24, breaks down a sample student’s calendar by semester and displays the required coursework and hours for each undergraduate degree in a flowchart format.
“This website appeals to almost all UT undergraduates, so I thought it could be good,” Widen said. I reasoned that because there are 141 degree programs, you might as well go look at your degree plan if you’re a UT student and have a different perspective.
According to Widen, he designed the website to be easy to use for groups of incoming students who want to see the requirements and contents of their preferred degree program. But he added that he also intended to create a website that would provide current students with helpful information.
Boring stated that she felt lost after arriving as undeclared and that a website such as DegreeView would have been helpful to her in choosing her classes and making plans for her major.
According to Boring, it would be helpful to have a flow chart that provides a comprehensive, understandable roadmap that you can review from beginning to end. Hearing about all the classes you have to take as you start your first few semesters can be extremely daunting, especially since you don’t know when you have to take them or what courses you need to take beforehand.
DegreeView publishes visual data about the university, including pie charts that display the number of degree programs offered by each institution and bar charts that illustrate the number of hours required for degrees, in addition to easily navigable information about degree plans and prerequisites.
Widen stated that he wants to increase the website’s influence so that more kids can gain from it.
Widen stated, “I want to apply this to as many schools as I think, which is four or five total.” I’d be pleased to provide UT with the files so they can store them on their own website.
