Advising

See An Advisor For

All successful and savvy college students learn to consult with their academic advisor(s) on a regular basis. The things discussed with a college-level academic advisor tend to be much broader than the range of issues you took to your high school guidance counselor. Your academic advisors act as your academic mentors and academic coaches throughout your career.

As an LS&A student, you will most likely develop a relationship with at least two academic advisors: a "general advisor" and a "concentration advisor". Most students consult with their general academic advisor on a regular basis and, as they select concentrations and/or minors, add the concentration advisor to their "term" of advising resources. A third type of advisor resource that students may add to their advising team is the pre-professional advisor. The Advising Center provides staff that work with students, particularly in their sophomore, junior, and senior years, as they focus on applying for law, business or various health professional schools.

We assigned your "general advisor" during orientation and you should look to her/him as a primary resource for academic information and advice while you're at the university. General advisors help you select courses that help you meet degree requirements and that, more importantly, help you discover and pursue your academic interests. You can discuss concentration alternatives with your general advisor, and she/he can give you insights regarding career and professional goals. Your general advisor can also give you tips on how to manage the academic demands of the UM and will point you toward the resources and programs you need to thrive on campus. General advisors' offices are located in 1255 Angell Hall, but many advisors also hold walk-in advising hours in the residence halls.

"Concentration advisors" generally are university faculty or staff members in the LS&A academic departments. As you narrow your concentration choices, you'll want to meet with concentration advisors for the departments that top your list to discuss how your interests and your academic experiences mesh with department course offerings, concentration requirements and special activities and opportunities available to their concentrators. Once you decide on a concentration, the concentration advisors will help you develop your concentration program, tailor it to your particular interests/goals and evaluate your progress.

If you select a minor in a particular department, it is the concentration advisors who will help you make the best choices and appropriately fill requirements.

Specialty advisors, such as pre-professional advisors or advisors connected to other units within the university, are resources to help you learn what you need to do to make yourself an eligible applicant for a professional school, a special credential (such as a teaching certificate) or for a cross campus transfer into a non-LS&A unit or program (such as a cross campus transfer to the School of Engineering). Such advisors cannot guarantee your successful admission to such programs, but they can help you understand what you need to present in terms of courses, grades and experiences in order to make yourself a competitive applicant.

A central key to a productive academic advising relationship is to understand the roles played by the advisor and you the student. There are some general guidelines of what a good academic advisor can and cannot do for you.

  A General Academic Advisor will:

  • Help you create an academic plan that will allow you to discover and pursue your particular academic interests.
  • Inform you about degree requirements and college policies and procedures and what choices are available to you as you fulfill those requirements.
  • Describe course options and useful campus resources.
  • Help you learn better study and time management skills.
  • Help you decide upon a concentration and/or minor best fitted to your skills, interests, and future goals.
  • Help you plan strategies to achieve your goals.
  • Help you handle any academic difficulty you may encounter.
  • Be a skills contact in making the university work for y you.
  • Help you identity a full range of options and weight the pros and cons of each academic decision. This assists you in learning how to make good choices for yourself.

  A General Academic Advisor will not:

  • Make your decisions for you — tell you what you should concentrate in or what classes you should take. Advisors can describe logical options for your circumstances and your aspirations and give you the information you need to make logical, informed decisions. But, finally, the decision rests with you.
  • Tell you what is a "good class." What makes a class "good" depends entirely upon your skills, interests, and goals. What’s "good" for one student is not necessarily "good" for another. The same is true if you are looking for an "easy" class. Again, this is something no one can tell you since what comes easily to one student does not to another.
  • Help you very much with specific problems or situations if you wait too long to discuss them. Problems do no easily go away when you ignore them; they only get worse. Usually, there are more options available to correct or improve a situation the earlier you address it. The longer you wait, the fewer your options and the less likely that there is a comfortable choice left to you.

As you get ready to meet with an academic advisor, you should take some time in advance to note your questions, read up on any information concerning your issues that you find on the web site and in the LSA Bulletin and think about your current long and short-term goals. If you have your questions listed and have done some thinking in advance, then your time with the advisor will be better spent.