iPOS Overview

What’s the iPOS?

As a graduate student at Arizona State University, you are required to have an approved iPOS on file. What is an iPOS? Great question. Let’s break it down in a few different sections.

Why?

The iPOS is essentially a contract between you and the university outlining what courses you will take to meet degree requirements. These courses will include the core (required) courses as well as any focus area and/or elective courses. The iPOS should be as closely aligned with your actual intended semester of enrollment as possible.

This should not take hours to complete. There will be some prep work you need to do (ex: review your program requirements and identify focus area and/or elective courses of interest to you). If the iPOS is taking too long to complete and you’re having any issues, go ahead and schedule an appointment with your graduate advisor. We are here to help!

Where?

The iPOS is an online submission process and can be accessed through your MyASU > My Program > iPOS.

Anticipated Term of Graduation

Select the term that you will complete graduation requirements. This should be as close to accurate as possible, but will not impact your ability to graduate earlier or later, if needed.

Culminating Experience

Select the culminating experience of choice. Most programs have more than one option. For those programs with portfolio option, that is the standard option and further approval is required to choose another option (ex: applied project). If you have a question about what the options are or how to go about selecting, please schedule an appointment with your graduate advisor (Polytechnic School Advisors).

Class Selection

The iPOS should be as closely aligned with your actual intended semester of enrollment as possible. The core classes typically have a standard semester (ex: EGR520 is offered in the fall semester). The focus area options are outlined in the program requirements PDF (linked on your program webpage) or graduate program handbook (Engineering, HSE, GIT) for your program. Note that if your selection on focus area or elective adjust in a future semester, you are able to submit a course change request. This will require the approval of your faculty advisor by way of the course change request.

If you are pursuing an applied project or thesis, be sure to talk with your faculty advisor about your focus area or elective course selection to ensure you have the right coursework completed before enrollment in your culminating experience.

For MS degrees, your iPOS should have 30 credit hours.

For MSTech degrees, your iPOS should have 33 credit hours.

For doctoral degrees, your iPOS should have 84 credit hours.

Selecting Your Committee

For those completing a portfolio or written comprehensive exam, you can list your program chair as the ‘committee chair’ on your iPOS. No additional faculty need to be listed.

For those completing applied project, you will need to note the faculty member that you’ve received approval from to work with on the project as your committee chair.

For those completing thesis, you will need to need to note the faculty member that you’ve received approval from to work with on the thesis as your committee chair. You’ll also need to ask your committee chair for suggestions on two additional committee members to be listed on your iPOS. A total of three faculty are required.

Your graduate academic advisor does not serve as the committee chair for your culminating experience. This role must be filled by a faculty member.

Final Review and Submission

The faculty advisor selection is the last adjustment needed on the iPOS. The last screen will show you the summary of your data input. If all looks right, go ahead and check the box and submit.

Approval Process

Once you submit your iPOS, the graduate advising office completes an initial review to ensure courses meet basic degree requirements. We then send it off to the faculty advisor(s) noted and ask for the approval from the listed faculty. In addition, the program chair approves the iPOS submissions.

Additional notes

If your selection on focus area or elective adjust in a future semester, you are able to submit a course change request. This will require the approval of your faculty advisor by way of the course change request. Be sure to have this approved prior to the start of the term to ensure you are not taking any classes that don’t apply to your program requirements.

There are many Graduate College and program policies you need to be aware of. One of these that we want to point out is that 400-level courses are not a standard option in graduate programs. With special approval, most programs (NOT all) can allow up to six credits of 400-level coursework to be included on the iPOS.

If you have a question about the iPOS process, please don’t hesitate to schedule an appointment with your graduate advisor (Polytechnic School Advisors).