a computer apparatus is provided for managing a student &# 39 ; s educational curriculum . the apparatus may include a source information module , a mining module , and a planning module . the source information module may create a plurality of institution records , each corresponding uniquely to an educational institution and comprising a catalog and a schedule . the mining module may create a plurality of sets , each set comprising all offered courses contained within the plurality of institutional records that are substantially equivalent to each other in satisfying a degree requirement selected from the degree requirements . the planning module may receive from a user a degree identifier and a constraint reflecting criteria establishing personal priorities of a user . the planning module may further present to the user a list of the required courses corresponding to the selected degree and identifying alternate courses , each alternate course thereof satisfying the constraint and being equivalent to a required course .