One of the things that is very different about college than high is that you’ll have an academic advisor. And while you probably had some help in planning your academic future in high school, the college academic advisor is much more significant. To take full advantage of this valuable resource, you need to have some idea of what academic advisors do and how they can help you.

College academic advisors are, in essence, mentors to college students. Faculty members take on a group of students as their advisees and meet with them regularly to discuss various things. Their primary function is to provide advice to their students. That advice is primarily academic, but advisors are also there to talk about any issue that comes up, whether it’s roommate difficulty, homesickness, or anything else that you may be experiencing. They have a lot of experience planning out academic schedules, and this is a skill that can be very valuable to you. By sitting down with your advisor and making a plan for your undergraduate degree, you’ll know that you’re going about it in the best way. (Remember that your plan will most certainly change as you change majors, concentrations, minors and interests—but beginning with a plan will help a lot.) You’ll be assigned an advisor when you first get to school, and you will most likely be reassigned once you declare your major. Your second advisor will have a much better idea of what you need to do to fulfill the requirements of your degree.

So how can you take advantage of this resource that you’ve been provided with? First, meet with your advisor often. It can be easy to lose touch with your advisor until the end of the semester, when you’ll have a planned meeting, but stay in touch throughout the year. Email your advisor every once in a while, just to check in and make sure that you’re still on the right path. If you’re thinking about changing majors or taking some classes to explore your options, talk about it first. You may think it’s a simple thing—and it probably is—but you can bet that there are some ways to go about it that are better. And that’s what your advisor is around for.

Many students talk to their advisor once or twice a semester, and that’s about it. There isn’t much conversation on either side. And sometimes that works out. But if you have such a great resource, why not take advantage of it?

As always, if you have any questions, comments or funny stories you'd like me to share about college or the blog, email me at stu@stuvu.com