PLANS OF STUDY

The VTDLP courses are designed to allow a student a great deal of flexibility in the path they take to completion of the Associates Degree program. Generally, a student should anticipate that it will take 4-5 years to complete the Associate Degree as a part-time student. Below, you will find links to three different plans with each one being laid out over five years. Each plan starts on a different semester (fall start, spring start, summer start). These plans are only suggestions. The VTDLP consists of 35 online courses and 17 clinical mentorships for which there are virtually an unlimited number of combinations and sequences the courses can be taken. We recommend you use these plans as a guide and modify them as needed to fit your schedule. Although each plan is laid out over five years, it is possible to complete the VTDLP in a shorter time span. However, due to the way in which our courses build on each other, it is virtually impossible to complete the program in less than approximately 3.5 years. The VTDLP staff highly recommends that new students in the program start off by taking a light credit load for the first couple of semesters. There are a couple of reasons for this recommendation. First, online learning is very different from taking a class in a traditional face to face format. For this reason, most new students in the program who have very little or no prior experience taking an online course often need a period of adjustment before they become comfortable learning in an online environment. Also, some students have the false impression that online courses are easier than courses taken in a traditional classroom. Because of this misconception, some new students have taken a heavy load of credits their first semester, performed poorly in their courses, became frustrated, and dropped out of the program. The VTDLP wants everyone that starts the program to succeed. Past experience has shown that taking a lighter credit load the first couple of semesters has greatly increased students’ chances of successfully completing the program. Several of the VTDLP staff act as academic advisors for program students. It is recommended that students wishing to significantly alter their plan of study to move through the program at a faster pace or students that have any questions regarding which courses they should take in any given semester contact one of the academic advisors listed below for advice/feedback when planning their course of study. • Paige Allen, MS, RVT – pjones2@purdue.edu • Josh L. Clark, MS, RVT – clark19@purdue.edu • Dan Walsh, MS, RVT - walshd@purdue.edu These plans DO NOT include the requirement that the student complete English 101 or equivalent, or the 2-credit elective. It is anticipated that the student will complete both of these requirements sometime during the course of the plan of study at a local college, university extension, or via a distance learning course from an accredited and recognized college or university. Students are encouraged to contact Credit Transfer in the Office of Admissions to insure that courses selected for English 101 or the 2-credit elective will transfer to Purdue University credit and have application towards the Associate Degree. * may be taken concurrently with instructor permission Plan of study - Fall semester start Plan of study - Spring semester start Plan of study - Summer session start

For information on Clinical Mentorships see:
VTDL COURSES / CLINICAL MENTORSHIP

For descriptions of the available courses see:
VTDL COURSES / VTDL COURSE CATALOG