Academic Requirements Completion System (ARCS)

The Academic Requirements Completion System (ARCS) is designed to streamline the process of tracking and fulfilling graduate degree program academic requirements. The ARCS dashboard, with a user-friendly design will enhance student success and increase transparency in progress-to-degree.


Benefits of ARCS for the Graduate and Professional Community

ARCS implementation will:

  • Significantly reduce manual effort. Students, faculty, and staff will benefit from the removal of manual processes, which will help eliminate most redundancies  

  • Improve the user experience. Students, faculty, and staff will have specific user access based on role. All student requests will be specific and electronic. Users will be able to track request history and student communication.

  • Improve workflow. Automated student eligibility checks reduce the need to verify eligibility manually, allowing approvers to focus on the specifics of the student request.

  • Reduce errors. The system will provide immediate response when the student submits a request and will notify the student of a submission success or failure based on certain process prerequisites. Messages will provide the student with the reason for a submission failure, providing guidance for resolution.

  • Enhance process tracking abilities. Real time workflow status allows the student, faculty, and staff to see where a request is in the process workflow.

How to Use ARCS

Students, faculty and staff will access ARCS through the Howdy Portal

Student interface

  • Students with an approved degree plan will access ARCS by logging into Howdy.
  • From the ARCS dashboard, students can click on milestones to create "requests."
  • Students can then monitor request approval status.
  • Students will have the option to submit the following in ARCS:
    • Preliminary Exam Request
    • Proposal Approval Form
    • Final Exam (Defense) Request
    • Final Exam Exemption Request
    • Copyright & Availability Form
    • Thesis/Dissertation/Record of Study Approval Form

Faculty interface

  • Faculty and staff are notified of pending requests via email with a link taking them directly to their ARCS Request Dashboard.
  • Any requests waiting on approval will be listed as “Pending My Review.”
  • Faculty and staff can
    • Review the approval status of pending requests
    • Select milestones to review non-course requirement statuses
    • View comments submitted
    • Review documentation uploaded to the system
    • Generate reports of all submitted requests to identify students with missing approvals
    • Filter and sort the dashboard by adding, removing, and/or reordering columns.

Trouble accessing ARCS?

For faculty having trouble accessing Howdy, please review the Howdy Issues Guide.

Howdy Issues Guide

For faculty still unable to access Howdy, the following trainings in TrainTraq may be required:

FERPA Training

EIS Acknowledgement Training

Questions about ARCS?

See ARCS FAQs page for answers to frequently asked questions. 

ARCS FAQs

ARCS Guides from the Knowledge Center

Academic Requirements Completion System (ARCS) Student Guide
Academic Requirements Completion System (ARCS) Grad Advisor (Precommittee) Guide
Academic Requirements Completion System (ARCS) Department Guide
Academic Requirements Completion System (ARCS) Committee Guide
Academic Requirements Completion System (ARCS) Committee Chair Guide

Explore Grad Aggieland

News

Zahra Ghiasi Wins 2024 Three Minute Thesis Competition

After stellar presentations on research ranging from the irrationality of group-thinking to immune system treatments for PTSD, chemical engineering doctoral student Zhara Ghiasi emerged victorious at Texas A&M’s 12th annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition on Tuesday night.

View All News
Blog

Great Expectations: Excellence as Expected

When I was graduating high school, my family threw me a graduation party to celebrate my accomplishments. Lots of friends and family left me with messages saying, “You’re going to do such great things!” But what happens when encouragement turns into pressure to always succeed?

View All Blogs
Defense Announcement

Spatially intensive fish inventories conducted 70 years apart reveal strong spatial footprints of reservoirs in a regulated temperate river

View All Defense
Announcements