Suggestions for Advising Meetings

There are several critical points in every semester when we recommend that most first-year advisees should meet with their advisors: the beginning, middle and end of each semester, and during the official advising period when course schedules must be approved for the following semester. Frequency of contact will vary depending on the needs of individual advisees; but we do recommend that advisors send a note at mid-semester if they haven't heard from their advisees since the first meetings.

The first meeting occurs during Orientation and should include the scheduling of a follow-up meeting to finalize course choices and touch base within the first two weeks of classes. Establish the method and frequency of your contact with your advisees. What do you expect from them and how can they best reach you? Clarifying expectations about communication can prevent problems down the road. Posting a sign-up sheet specifically for first-year advisees is always helpful.
First Meeting
Get to Know your Advisees
This is a good time to discuss the transition from high school to college.

1. What was their high school experience?
2. What have they been looking forward to in college?
3. What are their hopes and concerns?

You may wish to entertain their questions about what to expect in their courses at Mount Holyoke, and how best to develop a more independent and active approach to learning than most have experienced in high school. This is also a good time to discuss the goals we have for our students, what skills and proficiencies we hope they will develop in the course of their four years here, and how they can best begin to meet these goals.

Clarify Terms of Advising and Establish Methods for Staying in Touch
Advising is a shared responsibility. Encourage advisees to stay in touch with you, and not to assume that you will know their concerns if they don’t take the initiative to contact you. Let advisees know when you can be reached most easily, your office hours, and the best times to call during the semester.

Discuss Myths and Assumptions
First-year students tend to begin with the belief that they should know their majors immediately, or that they should know what career they will pursue, or that their majors will necessarily determine their careers. This is a good time to discuss those assumptions, and to encourage them to explore courses that interest them.

Recommend a Balanced Program
First-year schedules generally consist of a total of 16 credits (4 courses for 4 academic credits each) along with a physical education course (generally 1 0r 2 units). Some students add concert choir for 1 academic credit, or a dance course for 2 academic credits. Such courses do involve a time commitment; students should think carefully about creating a program that is both manageable and
stimulating. See the guidelines on course selection.
Key suggestions for first-year students
Take a first-year seminar either in the fall or spring semester

• Take a course in a subject you like and have studied successfully in the past
• Take a course each semester in a subject that is new to you
• Take at least two courses that will satisfy distribution requirements
• Take a physical education course (PE) in the first year (a total of 6 PE units required)
• Select courses offered only at Mount Holyoke in your first semester (permission of Dean of First-Year Studies required for Five-College course in first semester).
• Balance your courses across the week
• Balance your academic program with a community service or co-curricular activity
• Be open to revising your choices

Discuss Individual Course Selection
Using the Catalogue, Schedule of Classes, and updates available at the registrar site, students can work through schedule conflicts and the more mechanical aspects of course selection. Additionally, they will have opportunities at the Academic Fair where faculty representatives will be available to answer questions. The first individual meeting with advisors should aim to help the student think more broadly and explore the curriculum more fully.

We suggest that advisors make use of the Advising Information Form to open the door for conversations and questions. The initial conversation can engage the student in the process of looking realistically at what her educational experience has been so far, where the consequent strengths and weaknesses are, and how to make the transition to college on the basis of this background. Students often identify very candidly on these forms personal issues and worries that have had bearing on their academic performance and what they anticipate now.

Urge students to self-assess as they select courses. If they have volunteered information about their own uncertainties on the forms, it can be helpful to acknowledge what they have written and open the avenue for some conversation about how to approach their course selection. Use the form as a vehicle to encourage conversation. Often advisees may want to talk about the adjustment they are already feeling from high school to college.

Watch for the stronger student who may be selecting courses that will not sufficiently challenge her. Suggest alternatives to her selection, and remind her of future opportunities for independent study work or higher level courses.

By the middle of the sophomore year, your advisees should be ready to declare a major. They will be assigned an Advisor within the major once they have submitted the declaration form. If you will be going on leave before that time, encourage your advisees to line up an interim advisor for the fall of their sophomore year. We will send them a letter with advice on how to do so.

Speaking, Arguing, and Writing (SAW) at Mount Holyoke
The student who has thoughtful and compelling reasons for her views, and who can communicate them clearly and forcefully, will be able to master her intellectual environment in college no matter what disciplines she chooses to explore. After college, her articulate expression of powerful ideas will make it possible for her to put them into action, to make a difference in the world. For these reasons, Mount Holyoke has established a program in Speaking, Arguing, and Writing.

Each entering student should elect at least one writing-intensive course during her first year. Because the College expects that students at all levels of proficiency, and in all disciplines, will continue to hone their writing and speaking abilities, there are writing- and speaking-intensive courses at all levels of the curriculum, and in nearly every department, from introductory courses to advanced seminars. Thus, while some students might seek to improve their skills of expression in English 101, others may choose to practice their writing and speaking in any number of courses from across the curriculum.

Often the advisee who is most eager to avoid a writing- or speaking-intensive course is the one who should be most encouraged to elect one. It is always helpful to emphasize that writing papers and speaking both informally and formally will be much more stressful if the student does not take a course that focuses closely on strengthening those skills.

Remind Students of Available Resources Beyond Faculty Advisor
(phone numbers listed in the directory and Advisor Handbook)

1. Faculty and Department Chair Office Hours
2. Dean of First-Year Studies
3. Registrar’s Office: for questions on credit transfer
4. Weissman Center for Leadership (SAW program coordinator, Susan Pliner)
5. Office of Residential Life (Rene Davis, Directors of Residential Life)
6. Peer Advisors: SAs – student advisors available on every floor of residence halls for general advising; Department Liaisons – academically strong upperclass students selected for peer academic advising.
7. Career Development Center
8. Disabilities Services: for students with documented disabilities who wish to seek accommodations
9. Office for Learning Skills: counseling for students with learning disabilities or for students with undocumented disabilities who may need testing for a possible learning disability.
10. Additonal resources are listed in this Advising Handbook

Arrange Follow-up
It is helpful to map out the logical times for advisees to meet with you. We recommend approximately 2-4 meetings in the first semester, following your first meeting; this will vary according to the needs of individual first-year students. The meetings should roughly fall as follows:

Follow-up meeting within the first two weeks of classes (to discuss courses, schedule changes and, if still necessary, to sign program); Mid-semester meeting (particularly important if a student has received mid-semester reports). This meeting is not necessary in all cases. For some students, the meeting during the official advising period in November and April may be sufficient; Course selection for fall semester: During the official Advising Periods (April 6-10 in spring semester) to assess the current semester, discuss course selection, and sign schedules for the following semester.

Optional: End-of-semester meeting to discuss approach to exams and assess semester.

Follow-Up Meeting
After your advisees have attended the Academic Fair and their first classes, and within the first two weeks, they should meet with you again. This post-Orientation meeting is important.

By this stage, a sense of reality has set in. Students often have questions and concerns that they had not considered during the flurry of Orientation activities. You may wish to arrange a group meeting in a residential hall, or it may be preferable to meet with your advisees individually in your office.

We recommend posting a sign-up sheet so that these meetings can be more easily arranged. Advisees will need Advisors’ signatures on their “add/drop” cards if they have made changes to their programs. As they approach the deadlines for finalizing their course schedules, advisees benefit from conversations with Advisors about their overall academic programs.

Mid-Semester Advising and Mid-Semester Reports
First-year students often respond to mid-semester reports in counterproductive ways. Some students will withdraw, retreat in shame, avoid the faculty member, or simply call home and cry. It is important that they learn to view criticism as feedback rather than as something punitive. Encourage them to schedule appointments with the faculty member(s) involved in order to setup a plan for improvement.

Advising Period (November) – Planning For The Following Semester
(Last day to withdraw from a course with a "W" grade recorded: Thursday, November 14)

It is helpful to remind advisees of your official office hours or, once again, to post a sign-up sheet during this week. Students will receive course material from the Registrar before they meet with you. This is a time to guide your advisees toward accurate assessment of their progress in the semester. Most often, students experience a change of heart by this stage. Their first semester has already exposed them to new fields of study, and they may have discovered weaknesses or a lack of interest in areas that they had dreamed of pursuing when they were in high school. Sharing your own experiences in this regard can help the student understand how to make good use of such transitions.

It is especially important during this meeting to recommend that students seek advice from other faculty members or department chairs. Their network for academic guidance should now stretch beyond the faculty Advisor. Students who wish to study abroad should begin planning and make contact with the Deans of International Affairs, since applications for many programs will need to be filed early in the sophomore year for study away during the junior year.

End-of-Semester Advising
At the end of the semester, some advisees may appear to have lost all perspective about their academic and personal lives. They should be reminded of the resources available in coping with stress.

Self-Scheduled Exams
First-year students are taking self-scheduled exams for the first time. They can benefit from attending the panel moderated by the Dean of First-Year Studies that includes upperclass students who stress the value and meaning of the honor code as well as strategies for exam-scheduling and study approaches. This panel will be publicized later in the semester and is recommended for new transfers, Frances Perkins students, as well as first-year students.