ASUnited (Arizona State University WeBlog)

A little over a week ago one of our authors wrote a wonderful article about college freshmen and gave some quality advice to the same in regards to dealing with and getting the most out of their first year of “school out of high school.” In this article, one of her pieces of advice was, “Don’t take your advisor’s word for it!” I’ve thought of this a great deal, not just since she wrote the article, but ever since I’ve become a student at ASU and had to go through countless academic advising sessions with these so called “advisors.” In my mind, the only advisement I’ve generated from these meetings is my own advisment not to be advised by them.

I watched a classic musical the other day some of you may have heard of called “The Music Man.” A quote from Mayor Shinn comes to mind when pondering on the capabilities of our academic advisors here at Arizona State and that is, “I said it from the beginning…Get that man’s credentials!.” Sometimes I think the university has more than dropped the ball on obtaining proper credentials for these individuals that, in a very real sense, hold the future of many students in the palm of their hands. Ill advisement, especially to freshmen, who more or less don’t know any better, can make or break a student’s chances of making it through college in the desired amount of time if even making it through at all.

One of the disheartening college experiences I’ve had which I will share with you today can be attributed to poor advising. I don’t mean to say that I wasn’t somewhat to blame for this as I most certainly could have done more research and made a more sound decision, but I, like many, trusted the advising committee to know more than I did about medical school requirements and the relationship between those and graduate/major/general ed. requirements. For my major (MBB) I was advised to take a “hybrid” organic chemistry course which would satisfy the requirements for the MBB major. This was a course that would briefly cover all of the material covered in more depth by the two semester general organic chemistry classes. I said I was planning on medical school post graduation and that I’d heard med. school requires two semesters of organic chemistry. The advisor said yes that was true but that it probably wouldn’t be an issue as long as I take this hybrid course and then the second semester of o. chem the following semester. I went for a second opinion and the same advice was given. So, with some hesitation. I enrolled for the hybrid course, got an A in the class, and went to register for the second semester of o. chem the following semester only to find I could not be admitted into the class without having first completed the first full half of organic chemistry I. I returned to the same advisors I had spoken with, who not surprisingly had no idea who I was, and they told me there was no way I’d get into medical school without both semesters and that the hybrid course I took would be of no use for medical school admissions. I would have to take two more years of organic chemistry starting from the beginning.

Now, I know these advisors have hundreds of students they are entrusted with to advise on a daily basis and I understand that sometimes work can be draining and cause you to occasionally throw out a lack luster performance on a bad day. However, because of the apparent “bad day” that two advisors had, on the same day I might add, it cost me a whole semester of science that I could have used to satisfy other requirements. Were it not for me taking numerous other science courses every year and only taking classes that help satisfy my major and med. school requirements, I would more than likely have to take an extra semester of college to graduate and delay my taking the MCAT, applying for med school, among other things that always come up in life. The point is, I think that sometimes these advisers forget how important and life changing their job really is to most of these students. For that reason, I reiterate Mayor Shinn’s voice in saying, “Get their credentials!”

So what are the desired skills of an academic advisor? What qualities should one possess if they are to be entrusted with the lives and well being of hundreds of students on a daily basis. Seems like a lofty position and lofty positions should require high qualifications. From the Center for Advising and Student Achievement (CASA) of Colorado State University, academic advisors are:

-responsible to the students and individuals they serve.
-to encourage self-reliance by helping students make informed and responsible decisions, set realistic goals, and develop thinking, learning, and life management skills to meet present and future needs.
-to modify barriers to student progress; identify burdensome, ineffective, and inefficient policies and procedures; and work to effect change.
-to recognize the changing nature of the college and university environment and student body.
and
-to advocate for students’ educational achievement at the highest attainable standard and support student goals, as well as the educational mission of the institution.

I have seen small improvements over the years to the academic advising departments, but not to the extent that I truly believe the advisers are meeting all of the above credentials. I am aware that the science department has recently established a separate advising crew specifically for pre-medical students which they hope will elliminate some of the confusion that students get when trying to see the same advisor to satisfy the requirements for both their major and medical schools. Though I believe advisors in the department of science should already be able to make sound decisions on what classes a  student should or shouldn’t take to fulfill both major and med-school needs, I guess it is a  step in the right directions since they have time and time again proven that they cannot meet that demand.

At any rate, I hope to hear some thoughts from all of you about situations, bad or good, you might have encountered when dealing with advisers at ASU. Also, what can we do to improve the advising situations so that our advisors will possess the proper credentials and meet the requirements to fulfill their ever important resonsibility to us as students as well as the well being of the future of society?

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