Amberniqua Iglehart

Composition 1023.10

Donna Souder

16 March 2007

Advising, For Whom?

            At most college campuses, students are required to attend a meeting with an academic adviser before registering for classes to be taken the following semester.  This is experience is supposed to help the student make a logical schedule which would depend on the amount of activity the student has outside of school as well as the workload that would be required from the specific classes the student chose to enroll in.  Twelve hours are the most hours that a student should be able to handle during his or her first year.  A full time student holds a minimum of twelve hours; however, this only means the student is only taking four classes.  This schedule would require the student to attend two classes per day leaving a three day weekend at the end of the regular school week.  With so much free time available for the “full-time” student, an extra class or two would not cause any harm for the student that does his or her homework and actually studies.   Students know their weak points, as well as what best fits their schedule, which is why someone should not decide their schedule for them.  Academic advising should not be required for all students, only freshman and graduate students; because too many students being advised limits the amount of attention a teacher gives to their advisees.

            A student who is being advised is said to have a positive affect on his or her success in college.  “Research studies have found that with sound academic advising, a college student more likely will earn a grade point average consistent with his/her abilities” (Wilder, 189).  Performing to the best of ones abilities is a trait that is very useful in the college atmosphere.  Many freshman college students, if not all, are not used to the environment and with the help of an adviser stress may be relieved.  Feeling more comfortable and prepared will decrease the amount of dropouts as well as better the grades of the students in attendance to the college or university.  Students, rather they like to admit it or not, are competing with one another for a career in the field that they desire.  The student who acquires the most information while in school will be the one who gets a position in his/her field of interest before the others whom he/she graduated with.  Wilder also states, “Research finding demonstrate that students receiving insightful and personal academic advising feel not only more positive about their academic advisers but also about their colleges and universities as well” (pg. 189).  It is proven that having a positive attitude towards something makes a person capable of going above and beyond what usually will be achieved.  Academic advising is beneficial not only because it will make a person more comfortable in the college atmosphere but it will also increase the information that a student actually learns. 

             Although academic advising has been shown to be important, the amount of attention that has been given to students who have been advised in the past has shown to be very poor.  Jerry Wilder reports in the Peabody Journal of Education,

“Academic advising has been viewed traditionally and almost universally as being poor quality.  Indeed, on the majority of college campuses, quality academic advising programs have been virtually nonexistent.  In instances where academic advising programs are available, they were either untapped by the great bulk of students in early stages of education, the critical period”, (189). 

The little amount of time put into students attending colleges and universities around the country have caused little or no benefits of academic advising.  Advising should not be implemented in the requirements of a college or university’s class registration if it is not benefiting the students.  The time of the students and the adviser is being wasted.  In the Music Educator Journal, it states,

“Advising takes considerable time, energy, and attention to detail.  Each student comes to his or her adviser with a different set of concerns and a different route of graduation.   The successful adviser learns to treat every student as an individual and does the homework needed to ensure that the advice given is accurate and reliable” (Mortenson, 26). 

Advisers have been overwhelmed with the amount of students required to be advised which limits the advisers efforts to actually assist an individual student.  The student is usually being advised according to statistics which is not useful because statistics are an average.  A person’s education should be taken seriously because it is important to their future.

Making advising limited to first year students and graduate students would allow the advisers to have fewer students being advised and give the advisers an opportunity to actually do their job.  Freshmen should be advised simply because they are new to the hectic life of college.  Also, in most cases, it is a freshman’s first year away from home.  These two factors alone contribute to the fact that a student new to college will need help in making his/her schedule of classes.  A graduate student only needs advising because he/she needs to ensure that they have achieved all the requirements of graduation for the degree in he/she is trying to attain.  Gaining a degree is a difficult task; the assistance of an adviser would be useful and would make it easier for the university as well as the student who is ready to graduate.

Academic advising is proven to be an important asset in determining rather or not a person is triumphant in college.  Many factors determine how well a student does in school and advisement helps make the experience even better.  Nonetheless, academic advising is a situation that can either benefit the student or not.  To ensure that students leave an advising meeting gaining something an adviser must take into consideration the lifestyle of the student, his/her educational background, score to standardized test, etc.  In order for an adviser to do their job properly, the university or college must realize that an adviser cannot be successful if he or she is given too many students.  Advising should be mandatory for students who are new to college and those who are preparing to get out of college.  However, the opportunity should be open to everyone.  A student knows rather he/she needs help during the registration time and should feel more than welcome to get this assistance.

Work Cited

Mortenson, Gary C.  Music Educators Journal.  Vol. 74, No. 9. (May, 1988), pp. 26-30.

Wilder, Jerry R.  Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 58, No. 4, Issues and Trends in American Education. (Jul., 1981), pp. 188-192.