In the CCIS programme, you can rather freely design the content of your degree. The structure of the degree leaves room for selecting courses you are most interested in, in addition of the compulsory courses of your major studies. Hence, it is important that you do study planning carefully in the beginning of your studies. You can always update your plan later if needed.
When you start planning your MSc studies, consider the following questions:
- What do I want from my studies?
- What skills do I want to develop?
- What are my career goals?
Study planning consists of two things:
- selecting the structure and content for your degree based on the curriculum and your personal interests and goals
- scheduling the courses (timeline)
The outcome of study planning is your personal study plan, HOPS (in Finnish: Henkilökohtainen OPintoSuunnitelma). The personal study plan (HOPS) is an agreement: university grants you the right to study according to the approved, official HOPS and you are obliged to follow it. For Aalto scholarship students the study progress follow-up is based on the scheduled HOPS. HOPS is done in SISU.
You can enroll only for the courses included in your primary HOPS. Therefore, it is important that you make your preliminary HOPS at least for courses starting in I period already during the Orientation Week, or Aalto BSc students: right in the beginning your MSc studies.
The basic structure of your degree is fixed according to the Degree Regulations and the curriculum. Within these boundaries, you have a possibility to make choices that support your own interests, goals, and life situation in different phases of your studies.
In the personal study plan (HOPS), you can choose e.g. the following parts of your degree:
- optional courses of your major
- elective studies (including the compulsory language courses of the degree, if applicable)
- possible minor.
If you are planning exchange studies, studies in another Finnish university or transferring courses completed in another university, you include these to your HOPS as well. You can first add these studies to your HOPS as study draft and then the content of these studies must be approved by the responsible professor.
While selecting the courses for your degree, you should also schedule your studies, i.e. plan in which study period and during which study year you are taking the course.
- Information on the recommended study year of the compulsory courses is available in the curriculum.
- In addition, you need to place the major optional studies as well as elective studies/minor and compulsory language studies in your schedule.
- By default, the second spring semester should be reserved for master's thesis. Note that preparations for the master's thesis start already in the second autumn semester.
- In courses.aalto.fi you can search courses per teaching period (e.g. if you have an open slot in a certain period).
Note that even though making HOPS is mandatory and it is used in many administrative processes, th HOPS is foremost meant to be a tool for you. Drafting your personal study plan helps you to plan your studies and keep track of your study progress. When you have considered your goals, chosen the courses accordingly and drafted a realistic and target-oriented schedule for completing your studies, you have a map for making your plans a reality.