As administrators undertake the task of improving the advising system, students interviewed by The Dartmouth offered a variety of criticisms of the current system such as students being paired with advisors who were unfamiliar with their academic interests and suggested ways of implementing the advising overhaul. While some said they had positive experiences with advising, others expressed dissatisfaction, citing incomplete advice and poor student-advisor matching.
The new system which will be integrated in Fall term 2011 will consolidate all academic advising resources in one area on the first floor of Baker-Berry library, according to Rohail Premjee '14, a member of the Committee on First-Year Advising.
Premjee said the advantages of the current system are significant, but often overlooked by students who gripe about deficiencies in the system.
"We've found that, although a lot of people complain, there are a lot of positives that come out of the advising system that we didn't see before," Premjee said, citing studies conducted by the Committee on First-Year Advising.
Students interviewed by The Dartmouth differed in their opinions of the feasibility of the changes.
Stephen Prager '14 said he approved of the idea to consolidate advising resources into one location, but predicted that this change would not completely solve the system's problems.
"I don't think it's the only answer," Prager said. "It will at least let everyone know where all the resources are. But I think a lot of the other problems that are still in existence like pairing people with the right advisor are still not going to be affected by whether they move [the advising center] to [Baker-Berry Library] or not.
Ryan Birjoo '11 said that since the advising needs of different students vary drastically, the upcoming consolidation of advising resources will benefit incoming freshmen more than older students.
"Advising for a major is very different from advising for a high school student who has just come to college and wants to know how to pick courses," he said.
If the new advising structure has a too-general focus, it might just create additional problems for students, Eric Ross '11 said.
"I think [the system] would suffer from the same problem that people have questions about the specific classes and the specific departments they're interested in, and so if you have someone who's just a generalized academic advisor, then they won't know all of the specifics of everything going on at the College," he said.
Chloe Teeter '13, however, expressed enthusiasm toward the proposed consolidation of advising resources.
"I think that's a really good idea," she said. "Especially coming into the school it's a lot larger than anything anyone's used to having a centralized place where people know about everything [is important]."
Teeter is a staff photographer for The Dartmouth.
Students also varied in their experiences with freshman year advising. Some cited a range of difficulties while others had more positive interactions.
Ian Accomando '12 said the advice he received from his advisor freshman year helped him chose classes appropriate to his interests. His most negative academic experience resulted from his ignoring his advisor's counsel, when he enrolled in a class against his advisor's suggestion, according to Accomando.
"That was my opening experience," he said. "I should've listened to my advisor, I decided not to, and he knew more than I did."
Many students said they had trouble getting advice about their specific fields of study because they were paired with advisors who were not familiar with those areas. Teeter, who intended to follow the pre-health track at the beginning of her freshman year, said that while her advisor was willing to help her select courses, he did not know enough about her pre-health classes to be useful.
"I got assigned an advisor in an unrelated department, and he was a really nice guy," Teeter said. "What frustrated me most was that he was really well-intentioned, but he wasn't in a place where he could do anything for me, because he wasn't in the right department."
Ross said he shared Teeter's experience of being paired with an advisor who was not familiar with the department of his intended major.
Prager said that the new system should aim to ensure that students are assigned advisors based on their intended majors.
"I think they try to do that on the Banner [website], because that's what it looked like, but I don't think it succeeded," Prager said. "I actually got the right department, but I do know plenty of people who didn't."
Being able to choose an advisor rather than being randomly assigned a faculty member would benefit students, Ross said.
Birjoo said that in the current academic advising system students must be active in seeking advice.
"I think advising is definitely something where you have to take the initiative," Birjoo said. "I think Dartmouth does a pretty good job of letting you know what resources are available, but it really puts the onus on the student to find out who to speak to and to take the initiative of actually following through."
