College Advising

I have a lot of critiques about Shorter College which, on a long enough timeline, I will air all over this blog.  But don't get me wrong:  I loved college.  When I go back, I'm going to love it some more.  It was by far the best four years out of the twenty I've lived, and it doesn't hold a candle to high school.  Yet, for all of my praise and all of my critique, something that has proven to be a hassle for so many of my friends was never an issue for me.  And that's the subject of today's post:  College Advising.

Full confession:  I was a double major and for every semester after my initial semester at Shorter, I owned my advising.  I registered for classes before meeting with my advisor and I only met with them so they could sign off on my forms.  I had done a graduation check-out a class plan before either of them had thought about it.

I had two advisors, so whenever one of them gave me an answer that wasn't going to work for me, I ignored it and went to the other advisor and tried to receive a more favorable response.  Also, I often requested blank reforms because both my advisor and I were in a hurry, and I would fill it in with different information than I had admitted (for instance, I used a blank add form to jump from 18 to 26 hours one semester).  And everything was good.  And everything was fine.

Every semester, I had to go by the Provost's office and smile while he smiled his chilly shark smile at me and asked me how many hours I was taking...I mean, I was managing a paltry 3.9 GPA, so I understand why we each needed to take time out of our busy lives to go through this rigamarole every semester.  But whatever.

I understood academic advising so intuitively, that I advised several of my friends and build class plans for them in under twenty minutes based off of a transcript a degree requirement sheet.  I understand that professor advisors are busy, but it really isn't that hard...it takes a little time up front, but its nothing once you sit down and work on it.  And my advisors tended to be good at this, they just didn't have to be for me.

Contrast this with my friend Elizabeth's story at ABAC:  She arrived her first day to register for classes to be told (after she had paid) that her degree program had been cancelled.  Or take Ty at GCSU who had all of his summer classes cancelled and most of his department's faculty leave in the same month.  Or Mandy at SCAD who have not only pushed her a quarter behind on graduation due to not realizing that a pre-requisite should come before her other classes, but now, she's pushed furhter behind because her summer quarter classes have been cancelled.

For those of you about to enter college or are already enrolled, do the following ASAP:

• Plan your own class schedule:  no one knows your goals like you do.
• You can do more than your advisor says is full-time:  no one ever fell apart at 12-15 hours.  Pump it up and get out early.  Don't pay for more than you have to.
• Contact your department to get the degree requirement sheet:  Course catalogues often have out-dated lists.  Check the website and compare it to the class requirement sheet for your entrance year.  If they don't match, get an answer from the Registrar's Office before being forced into classes you may not need.
• Keep the plan updated as you move on.

You know, there are a lot of things I didn't appreciate about Shorter College, but at least my education was never sabotaged by an ineptness in simply trying to get me in classes.  At least they're good at that.