Yesterday I attended a senior forum hosted by Dr. Jonathan Gayles, and one of the questions we were asked was about the effectiveness of our advisors. My answer: Close to none. This may seem harsh, but unless you’re a junior or senior, your chances of receiving useful information is limited.
At the beginning and the end of every semester, there is a campus broadcast––an email––we all receive encouraging us to visit our academic advisor. As a first-year student, I could definitely see the
necessity, but the higher up you go in your major, advisement seems to be a useless chore.
When I first transferred to Georgia State, one of the first places I was directed to was advisement. I went in thinking my advisor was going to lay everything out and tell me exactly what I needed to know. Long story short, I was less than impressed with the outcome of my session. I, like most students, was told to focus on the “core curriculum,” ENGL 1101 and 1102, POLS 1101, and a Math/Science elective, but my major classes shouldn’t be my concern just yet.
As an English major, it would’ve been nice to know that I’d have to take intermediate levels of foreign language ahead of time. For those of you who knew exactly what you wanted to major in and took the recommended 12 credit hours per semester, that method was just fine, but for the rest of us, we needed a more helpful plan.
Sophomore year rolled around and I was assigned a new advisor right in the middle of the school year because my first advisor quit, but not before they made sure I was ill prepared for the rest of the year. After that, I made it a point to look things up for myself. After realizing that all my advisors were doing was looking at my Academic Evaluation, I stopped wasting my time asking questions I could answer on my own.
After having conversations with different groups of students, I noticed we all seem to come to the same consensus that advisement is a joke. We don’t discover anything we can’t learn from our peers, really.
So why exactly do we run into this issue? First, it was said that advisors are assigned to too many students. We now have more advisors in the SunTrust building (floors 13 and 14) to remedy that problem. So what’s the excuse?
I understand that advisor-student ratio is off, but is that not why we’re assigned to different advisors based on our major and classification? A friend registering for fall classes just now found out how to access her Academic Evaluation. The biggest shocker comes in knowing that financial aid advisement, One Stop Shop, is just as terrible, but that’s another subject entirely.
Maybe our advisors are overworked, and maybe there’s no sure way to predict all the questions with which they’ll be presented. This very well may be the causes for confusion, but are advisors working towards improvement or are they content with that outcome? I propose that advisors go through an explicit semester training. As the catalog changes every year, so should the advising style. We need fewer excuses and more results. Also, we need proper guidance. From the start of our collegiate careers to the day of graduation, we need to be assured we’re on track.
We also play a role in this and have a responsibility. Students, make sure you’re getting the most of your college experience. If you can stand in line for the newest Jordans, sitting and strategizing for class surely isn’t that difficult. Challenge your advisors and make sure you stay on top of them; don’t wait until the last minute.
So the next time you receive that campus broadcast about advisement, take full advantage of the opportunity. At the end of your next advising session, fill out the performance survey, and BE HONEST! After all, the fate of your success ultimately depends on it.
Advisors, start advising.
