ACADEMIC ADVISOR: A MAJOR RESPONSE
When you graduate with your degree, the president of the institution or perhaps the keynote speaker will ask you to stand and turn around to give thanks to your parents, your family and perhaps others who are attending. They may have you think about others who are NOT attending – i.e., faculty. However, there is one resource that may not be mentioned but nonetheless was critical on your path to graduation — academic advisor.
For most students, an academic advisor is there to help you in course selection each semester. But, truly an academic advisor can do much more than courses. For example, consider the following:
- Course Selection
- Add / Drop Process
- Degree Requirements
- General Education Requirements
- Major / Minor / Certificate Requirements
- Academic Standing
- Dean’s List
- Academic Warning / Probation / Suspension
- Study Abroad
- Academic Scholarships
- Student Activities
- Student Leadership
- Undergraduate Research
- Career Development
- Job Searching
- Resume Critique
- Career Fair
- Graduate Program Selection
- Letters of Recommendation
- Campus Referrals
Thus, you can see, you may wish to reach out to your academic advisor more than for just course selection. As one who served as an academic advisor for over 20 years at four architecture programs, I can share many stories from the list above.
In particular, I can remember one student who returned from the holiday break with a broken leg due to a snowboarding accident. The student wanted to know how we was going to be able to navigate the campus given your broken leg. We discussed the few options and we ultimately decided that he would withdraw from the semester and return when his leg had healed. Now, no one plans to have a snowboarding accident, but an academic advisor knows how to best use university policy to accomplish the goal to graduate.
Your academic advisor is the best resource to assist you in course selection and to help you navigate to graduation. They will have your best interest from admission to graduation. By all means, seek out your academic advisor throughout you college years and not just for course selection.