Purpose & overview:  A four-year plan helps you plan your academic and professional activities until graduation: courses, internships, off-campus semesters, application dates, etc.  These are commonly called "four-year plans," but if you will graduate in (for example) three semesters, then you only need to include those three semesters.  You may have done a plan like this for GEN/Core 100, which would be good basis for this assignment.

(1) Background work:

• Review the Psychology Advising Handbook and Dordt's Catalog, to learn about psychology course requirements, Core requirements, elective options, etc.

• Review three sample plans here (note that previous semesters' requirements were slightly different).

(2) Writing the Plan

• Contextual information: Indicate your name, the date, and your current major (along with any emphases, minors, or pre-professional programs).  Then include a list of the course requirements for your major and another for your minor(s); boldface the courses you've already completed (including this semester).
   

• Course listings: Create a table with 3 columns (fall, spring, summer) and list when you plan to take courses for your major (and for any emphases, minors or pre-professional programs), Core program courses, and options for electives.  Make sure you check to see when courses will be offered (spring, fall odd, etc.) and for course pre-requisites.
   

• Experiential & co-curricular listings: After listing your courses for each semester, indicate good semesters for pursuing internships (field experiences), an off-campus semester (e.g., Chicago Semester, SPICE), or co-curricular activities (e.g., theatre, choir, volleyball).
   

• Other information: include other important professional planning information such as summer jobs, taking graduate school tests, researching and applying to graduate schools, etc.

(3) Narrative reflection

• On a separate page, write about specific activities for improving particular skills, knowledge, experiences, or relationships before graduation.  In other words, identify specific skills, knowledge, experiences, or relationships that you would like to develop before graduation and indicate specific activities you could pursue for doing so (e.g., summer or work-study jobs, becoming an RA, a communication course, etc.)

• Also reflect on what you learned from this assignment.  For example, what in your plans will be the hardest to accomplish? Do you have more (less?) time than you thought?  Could you pick up a minor in another field? What parts of your plans are flexible? To what extent are you interested in pursuing an off-campus semester?

(3) Attach an APA-style title page to your paper

Evaluation: Your plan, worth 25 points, will be evaluated using this rubric.

page revised February 2009