If you landed on terpplanner.com from a Reddit thread or an AI overview, you probably want one answer: is this better than Orbit? TerpPlanner is a student-built site with a spreadsheet planner, transcript upload, and Gen Ed charts. It is marketed toward CMSC, but the same limits apply to CS majors: no prerequisite warnings, no semester scheduler, guest audit checks that require an account, and course data that stops at name and credits. Orbit covers four-year planning and registration prep for every UMD major, including CMSC.
TerpPlanner's limits
- Course lookup does not include prerequisite chains or section times
- No warning when CMSC 412 is placed before CMSC 351
- No weekly schedule builder or conflict-free section picker
- Guest sessions can expire; detailed audit checks require signing in
Use Orbit if
- You want catalog search with prerequisites and Gen Ed tags as you plan
- You need audits for CMSC, minors, double majors, or non-CS programs
- You want prerequisite checks as you move courses between terms
- You want your four-year plan connected to semester scheduling
Another UMD planner showed up
TerpPlanner is a student-built site with transcript upload, Gen Ed progress, a spreadsheet four-year plan, audit charts, PDF export, and a static course catalog. UMD has a long line of student academic tools from hackathons and independent repos. TerpPlanner is one of the few that made it to a public URL with account setup and a planner flow.
If you have used Orbit, TerpPlanner will look familiar on the landing page. Both mention transcript import, Gen Ed tracking, a term-by-term grid, and degree progress views. Orbit has shipped that workflow on umd.orbitu.app for several years, with live catalog search, prerequisite checks, and a schedule builder behind it. TerpPlanner covers a similar checklist on paper. The gaps show up once you start planning courses and preparing for registration.
What TerpPlanner advertises vs. what you get
The site highlights CMSC specialization tracking, transcript PDF upload, and progress charts. Those pieces exist. TerpPlanner also ships a downloadable course catalog with course names, credits, and Gen Ed tags, plus autocomplete when you add classes in the planner. What is missing is the layer Orbit students rely on: prerequisite chains, warnings when you place CMSC 412 before CMSC 351, course details tied to live sections, and any path from a planned term to a weekly registration grid.
On account setup, transfer credits and completed courses can still be entered as raw codes if you skip transcript upload or need to fix imported data. There is no prerequisite graph and no link from a planned CMSC 330 to the sections you will register for in Testudo. The spreadsheet can look complete without being safe to plan against.
Why CMSC students still need Orbit
TerpPlanner calls itself “CS focused, for everyone.” The specialization picker appears when you select Computer Science. That is the deepest requirement logic on the site, and it still skips what most CMSC students need day to day. Placing CMSC 412 before CMSC 351, or CMSC 351 before CMSC 250, will not trigger a reliable warning. Testudo lists CMSC 412 as requiring CMSC 330 and CMSC 351, and CMSC 351 as requiring CMSC 216 and CMSC 250. Gen Ed and non-CMSC courses in your plan use the same catalog fields as everyone else. A BMGT minor or STAT elective is not modeled with the same depth as the concentration dropdown.
Registration prep is where the gap hurts CMSC majors most. You can list CMSC 330 and CMSC 422 on the grid, then open Testudo with no section picker, no conflict check, and no auto-generate. Orbit links the four-year plan to the schedule builder so the term you mapped is the term you build before your registration window.
TerpPlanner’s own planner page warns that guest sessions can expire or be cleared by your browser. Its audit page tells guests they can build and download a plan, but detailed audit checks require an account. Orbit lets you open the four-year plan without signing in, run prerequisite-aware checks as you plan, and keep a local guest snapshot until you save.
Everyone else
Non-CMSC majors see the same problems without specialization tracking. Business, engineering, and public health students get a major dropdown, but requirement depth and overlap rules do not match what Orbit loads from published UMD program data. A progress chart that looks complete is not the same as an audit you can register against.
What Orbit adds
Orbit ties planning to the rest of a UMD semester for CMSC and every other major. Prerequisite warnings flag ordering mistakes. Suggest-plan helps fill gaps. Double majors and minors run parallel audits with overlap detection. Share links stay current without re-exporting a PDF. The Hub tracks progress across terms without re-uploading a transcript after every change.
UMD changes requirement sheets every year. Orbit keeps published program data current and runs catalog health checks. Side projects rarely maintain that across every major every semester. TerpPlanner does not close that gap for CMSC either.
How they compare
| Feature | Orbit | TerpPlanner |
|---|---|---|
| UMD semester schedulerDrag-and-drop grid with conflict detection | ||
| Four-year degree planner8-semester visual roadmap with live audit | ||
| Degree auditPlain English requirements, not advisor jargon | ||
| Gen Ed trackingAll 12 UMD Gen Ed categories auto-tracked | ||
| Prerequisite-aware planning | ||
| Transcript import | ||
| Share plan with advisorRead-only link or PDF export | ||
| Catalog course search with metadataTitles, credits, prereqs, and Gen Ed tags from live catalog | ||
| All UMD majors with maintained requirementsPublished requirement bundles per program |
✓ full support · ◑ partial · ✗ not available
If you already started on TerpPlanner
You do not need to start over from scratch. Rebuilding the same courses in Orbit through catalog search is usually faster than fixing a plan with ordering mistakes the other tool never flagged:
- Open Orbit's four-year plan (no sign-in) and pick your major from the real program list.
- Import your transcript or add courses through search, not raw codes.
- Drag next semester's classes in and watch the audit update for DSHU, prereqs, and major gaps.
- When registration opens, jump to the schedule builder and auto-generate conflict-free sections.
- Send your advisor a share link instead of a PDF that ages out.
On the builders
TerpPlanner is a student project in a space Orbit has been building for years. The overlap on the landing page can make the choice confusing. The distinction is capability: TerpPlanner is a spreadsheet with a static catalog and no registration workflow. Orbit is built for catalog-backed planning across every major, including CMSC, from freshman year through Testudo.
Bottom line
TerpPlanner is not a reliable planner for CMSC students or anyone else at UMD. Orbit covers catalog search with prerequisites, degree audits, and scheduling in one flow. For comparisons with Jupiterp, uAchieve, and Testudo, see the Orbit compare page.