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What is good academic advising?

By Marcy Kraus, dean of freshmen and director of the College Center for Academic Support

Each year we survey our freshmen and sophomore students to collect their feedback about their advising experiences. More than 120 staff and faculty serve as pre-major advisors in the College and at any give time, a dozen or more advisors are completing their first year as a pre-major advisor. We are fortunate to learn each summer after reviewing the survey results, that the majority of advisors receive grades of “A” or “B” from their advisees. The feedback we receive confirms that much of the advising that students in the College receive is high quality as indicated by comments such as: “he could direct me to the right people if he couldn’t help,” “most of all I loved her genuine interest,” “ he allows you to make your own decisions,” “he will tell you the truth with no fluff,” and “she genuinely cared about how much you liked the school and classes you were taking as well as the activities you were doing.”

Much has been written in the higher education world about academic advising. Most of us in the field recognize that exceptional advisors are: skilled at helping students connect their courses and cocurricular activities with their individual goals, interests and career aspirations; interested in helping students learn how to navigate the complexities of the modern university; that they are comfortable referring students to other resources when needed; that they provide accurate information about degree requirements; that they take a genuine interest in their advisees, and finally that they help support their advisees’ growth by encouraging them to take responsibility for their education.

Inevitably some students will be disappointed by their advising experiences. What options to do these students have? Discussing concerns with the dean of freshmen or the dean of sophomores may reveal that the advising “match” isn’t working and that a reassignment should be made.  In other cases, students’ expectations of what their advisor should be doing don’t match with their advisor’s actual job description. And in still other cases, some students will discover that connecting with a team of advisors who come from different offices and departments will provide the best support for their individual needs. Regardless, good advising is not optional, it is instrumental in helping students build relationships within the campus community and is critical to student success.