As academic advisors try to accommodate a deluge of students scrambling to make appointments before registration for the fall semester, some students are complaining that the system has been less than helpful in past semesters.
“My advisor seemed too busy to meet with me – like it was a burden,” said Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences senior Sara Cleveland. “I would send him an email and he would tell me to go to someone else.”
Several said the meetings, which are required for students to pick up a code number for online registration, have little influence on their schedules and are often a waste of time.
“The appointments are only useful if you have a specific question,” College of Communication junior Kristen Ingraham said. “If you know what you’re doing, it’s kind of a hassle.”
While students felt advisors are useful for specific purposes, such as when transferring schools, securing internships or declaring majors, they said being forced to meet with faculty to obtain a registration code is unnecessary.
“I can register and figure out what classes to take by myself,” Ingraham said.
Most schools emphasize the importance of the meetings, which students schedule for the month leading up to the next semester’s registration days.
“The meetings make sure that students are well aware of their resources,” said College of General Studies Assistant Dean Stacy Godnick. CGS advisors, who are “full-time professional advisors who have master’s or doctorate’s in psychology, counseling or higher education,” help the students “make informed decisions about their academic future,” she added.
Godnick added that CGS is one of many schools that prohibit class registration unless students have a “qualitative conversation” about their schedules.
But other schools, such as COM and the School of Management, allow students to register for classes without meeting with a professional advisor. Unlike CGS, the schools ask professors to act as advisors.
“We provide our students with a registration code freely,” SMG Assistant Director Amelia Catone said. She said SMG course requirements are straightforward enough that students can decide their schedules for themselves.
Until students register for their junior year courses, COM only requires that students attend a general registration meeting to get their codes and offers several other advising services, according to COM senior Miles Harbey. The Student Advising Center answers questions about courses, and students are assigned faculty advisors after they declare a major – after their sophomore year at the latest.
“The professors at the student advising center are very helpful and intelligent,” Harbey said.
Harbey said he prefers the Student Advising Center to his faculty advisor, who he said only helped him while he was going through an intra-university transfer.
“The advisors help you get through all the problems and red tape that BU creates,” he said.
Other schools also offer alternative means of advising that students say they utilize more often than their assigned academic advisor. CGS and SMG, like COM, provide faculty advisors who address questions regarding their own academic field and guide students toward possible future careers.
“My advisor was very helpful,” SMG freshman Irene Morgenshtern said. “It was suggested that we make an appointment with a faculty advisor. When I went to her, I wanted to transfer to COM, and she told me I wouldn’t have to take any SMG courses this semester.”
Another flexible point of the university’s advising program is that students may switch advisors if they are unsatisfied. SMG allows students to “see whoever they want,” Catone said.
“I know I can go to him if I have any concerns about my school,” CAS junior Heig Panossian said. “My professor wrote me a recommendation.”
While many students said they make appointments even when it is not registration time, proponents of the advising program, like Godnick, say they wish students would take advantage of the program more often.
