I have a number of pet peeves. One of them is about how students approach academic advising. Just as students have to be active in the classroom in college—more so than in high school—the same applies to academic advising.
Ask any academic advisor. Their worst nightmare as an advisor is a student who shows at their office for advising, mouth hanging open (drool is optional), with half open eyes, and clearly no clue in the world. The first words out of that student’s mouth are “what should I take next term?” When we hear that, academic advisors want to shoot themselves. Mind you, the question is valid: students want the guidance of their advisors to make smart choices that lead them toward graduation. The problem is those students haven’t done their homework before coming to advising. Students should be as active in advising as they are in the classroom in college, and recognize that a successful advising appointment is the culmination of prior work on their part.
Every college or university has a catalog which is the student’s contract with the institution. This document lists the general education courses required for graduation, as well as the requirements for majors, minors, etc. General education is a catch-all term that applies to courses students take that aren’t in their major but are required for gradation. These are spread across many different departments. Many colleges, for example, require students to complete courses in English composition, and many more still require courses in the natural sciences, mathematics, social sciences, and humanities. These courses provide many of the foundational skills in analysis, critical thinking and communication that are so important in today’s job market. The catalog tells students what those required areas are as well as the preferred course sequence for students in a particular major or minor.
Reading a catalog isn’t difficult. It simply takes the student looking through it and finding graduation requirements. They’re usually very well spelled out. What bugs students a lot is they simply don’t want to take these courses: they came to college to be a biologist or a Psych major, and the last thing they want to take are courses in English or the arts. Conversely, an English major may run as far as possible from chemistry, requirement or no. And while I could spin my wheels telling students that their attitude doesn’t make sense, I won’t. They are required for graduation and if they want to earn their degree they will hold their noses, take the courses and pass them. ’Nuff said.
The catalog may also tell students how frequently classes are offered, for example, if they are offered every term, every other term or every other year. This helps students plan when to take critical courses in the right sequence at the right time.
Good advisors teach students how to read the catalog during their first meeting and walk them through how they can develop their class schedule based on what is in the catalog and schedule of classes. For subsequent meetings, the advisor expects the student has already gone through the catalog again and made tentative choices.
The schedule of classes is how students find out what’s offered in the coming academic term. Students are highly encouraged to make out two completely different class schedules. Registration times for classes are often based on the number of credits students have earned. Seniors go before juniors, and juniors before sophomores, etc. The reason is straight-forward: seniors who need specific courses have only one year to take them, whereas sophomores have many more chances at the same courses. I don’t know of any college that does differently except those which hold more spaces in introductory courses for first-year students since that’s all they can take. Making out different schedules, essentially a Plan B and a Plan C, makes good sense.
Student are also encouraged to spread their courses out over the week, rather than taking five courses back to back Monday, Wednesday and Friday, because that can just wipe them out. Spreading them out over the week is a better use of their time and energy. This is often harder for commuter students who are trying to cut down on the number of times they go to campus. The best thing is to use their judgement and make choices that fit their commuting schedule and make good academic sense.
It isn’t difficult for students to read the catalog, and make sound course selections to bring to their advisor appointment. And make sure to tell them not to drool.
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