<p>This is my first post and I have a question about advisers. I am a parent of a first year student. He stated that his academic adviser that he was assigned to will not be registering him for classes. The adviser said he had too many students assigned to him and that my son would be registering for classes with a different registration adviser. Is this a typical practice? I remember when we visited UofC a representative said that one of the great things about the university was that you had the same adviser for all four years and that they really got to know you and help you develop a plan for your education. I just wondered how many past students actually registered for their first set of classes with their actual adviser or if all students register with a different registration adviser. Should I not be worried about it?</p>
<p>Yes, this is typical. 10-15 first years of my adviser are in the same situation this year. I had to register with someone other than my adviser last year and it wasn't a problem. Unfortunately the first session you have is probably the shortest meeting you'll ever have with your adviser, and there really isn't too much time available to do anything but just try and get a schedule in stone.</p>
<p>If anything goes wrong or to your student's discomfort, tell him/her to schedule a meeting with his adviser ASAP to try to iron out the problem. Sending an e-mail also probably couldn't hurt, but yea it should go as well as it would have if he was with his "real" adviser. </p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
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<li><p>I would take it to mean that your son will be switching advisors altogether, not that he will have a special "registration advisor" just this once. If the advisor has too many students, that's not going to change after this week. EDIT: But I would be wrong, I guess.</p></li>
<li><p>Opinions differ about the University of Chicago academic advisory system. Look at newmassdad's posts, and he will tell you that his daughter's relationship with her advisor was great, and the advisor contributed considerably to her (very impressive) success. My older child had a different advisor each of her first three years -- they don't stay in those jobs forever -- and has never gotten anything out of the relationships except unnecessary checkups on meeting core requirements and some moderately bad, but far from catastrophic, advice on other courses. My second child got pressured to move to a higher-level math course, which he resisted, thank heavens. He likes the separate health professions advisor.</p></li>
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<p>Some of the advisors are more sophisticated than others; some click better with Student A than with Student B. That's just what happens in the world. My daughter's revolving door is unusual (and she now has the same advisor for a second straight year, not that it matters anymore), but I think it's fairly common to have your original advisor leave during your four years.</p>
<p>I think Chicago oversells its advisory system. A lot. It's not the worst one I've seen, but it's a long way from the best, too. It succeeds in making certain that students satisfy their core and major requirements, which is really all it's designed to do.</p>
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<li> As with O-kland, I'm not certain there's a whole lot of "there", there, in O-Week advising. There are about five variables: Which Hum sequence? Which Sosc sequence? What math did you place into (or out of)? Do you want to take a fourth course? Are you pre-med? Did you place into honors? Did you place out of the language requirement? If not, what's your plan to take a language? Do you want to start now? Do you understand the Core requirements (can you read)?</li>
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<p>It's good that they have these sessions, but I have to believe that most of the students find them unnecessary.</p>
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<li> Adjust your expectations, and stop worrying.</li>
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<p>Thank you for replying. I really appreciate the responses. JHS I can adjust my expectations but it is hard for me not to worry. I feel like my son may not be as academically prepared as most students as we come from a small rural town that has a high school which does not offer many high level academic opportunities. I was hoping that his adviser could help him choose classes that would most fit his background but it sounds like the advising session for o-week is brief and just a function to complete registration. I am sure everything will work out like it is suppose to. At least that is what I will tell myself.</p>
<p>sparent, it's possible that your son will get just what he needs, and there's no reason why he can't just tell his advisor, even if there is a string of them, where he needs help.</p>
<p>My daughter is pretty different from your son--she came from a high school that really prepared her, she's used to talking with professors in programs that interest her, and her transition to the U of C was pretty easy. Her meetings with her advisor could better be measured in seconds than minutes.</p>
<p>But she's observed other students having much longer meetings. They need a little more help, and if your son counts himself as one of those students who need a little help--then that's what the advisors are there for, and he should take advantage of it.</p>
<p>I have some hope that my daughter's advisor will help her think about "next steps." He seems pretty interested in fellowships and other opportunities for recent graduates. But I'm not counting on it--rather, I suspect my daughter to go the route of soliciting specific advice from people in the fields that interest her. </p>
<p>I guess the take-home message is that I agree with JHS that Chicago oversells its advisory system. But that it's not the end of the world. I agree completely with the advice to "stop worrying."</p>
<p>My D had the same experience first year during O week - her "regular" adviser was overwhelmed so a substitute did the initial registration. But she continued to work with her "regular" adviser later in the year.</p>
<p>As JHS has said, the value of these professional advisers varies. Turnover happens, but the annual turnover rate is actually not that high. More importantly, what a student gets out of the adviser relationship depends a lot on the student (and the adviser). Keep in mind, too, that these advisers have a limited role, mostly making sure the core and grad requirements are met, and helping out kids with problems. They are not advisers for majors. That is by and large handled by the academic units. And our kids are now in college, so they must make a lot of choices for themselves. The advisers are good gateways to other resources at Chicago, like the study abroad folks and health professions advisers.</p>
<p>Where the advisers earn their keep, IMHO, is when problems arise, whether they are medical, academic or whatever. </p>
<p>Keep in mind too that the advisers are for our kids, not us. They will be reluctant to speak with parents unless an unusual problem arises that needs parental intervention. To my knowledge, most things of that nature are alcohol related.</p>
<p>S is also finding that the placement coordinators who one can see about changing course levels up or down, have been very responsive. So he says... Not that I've heard this first-hand, mind you...that would mean a phone call or email! ;)</p>
<p>If you want, you will have a chance to meet your child's advisor during Parents' Weekend. I did it with kid #1. It wasn't a one-on-one, personalized thing, but ithe session wasn't so heavily attended that real dialogue wasn't possible.</p>
<p>Realistically, unless a student is a math prodigy or something, most first-year students probably fit into no more than 8-10 course patterns. If your son feels like he isn't getting a sensitive-enough discussion to figure out where he belongs, talking with O-aides, RAs, and their friends is probably a good substitute.</p>
<p>Also, re academic preparation: The admissions department really doesn't make a lot of mistakes. A kid with poor preparation, but good brain power, gets up to speed very fast, although he may have to work hard in the process. And it's not uncommon for the "well-prepared" to find that they aren't as well-prepared as they thought. </p>
<p>Cases in point: My wife arrived at college (not Chicago, but similar) from a crummy small-town high school where she had never written a paper longer than 3 pages, or had to read more than 20 pages a night of anything. She felt horribly unprepared and daunted by all of the polished boarding-school types. She was anxious all the time, worked her butt off, and graduated summa cum laude. My daughter, on the other hand, had never gotten less than an A on an English paper since grade school, including in college courses. By the time she finished high school, she was treated as a de facto faculty member by the English Department. It was VERY hard for her to adjust to a world where everyone could tell when her stylish writing was covering up for a lack of coherent ideas. For a long time, she resisted learning what she had to learn, because she thought she already knew it.</p>
<p>sparent:</p>
<p>I think JHS wrote it more elegantly than I could, but do NOT worry about your child's high school preparation. I've written this story before, but I'll write it again:</p>
<p>I came from a very top high school. (In fact, on these boards I tend to shift around details about my high school, where it is, how many students go there, etc. because it's very identifiable). In high school, I was CONVINCED I was among the smartest of the smart, because most of my peers viewed high school as an inevitable speed bump on the road of life while I really really really enjoyed all the challenging classes I was able to take.</p>
<p>Anyway, fast forward to about this time two years ago. I sat down to my computer to write an e-mail to my parents and nearly ruined my keyboard with my tears. What was I crying about? The students here were SMART! So SMART! Sure, I outpaced them on the placement exams, took more APs, had had one private tutoring session for the SAT (I told my mom no more after one session, but even that one session is a lot more than most of my friends did). I knew they were smarter than me because even if they came from Middle of Nowhere High, they could string ideas together and make connections that I couldn't make.</p>
<p>Your son should use peers for course advice, and he probably has. He will likely find a few students in his house from his high school situation, but if he doesn't, PM me and I'll give you more details about students I know from entirely unremarkable high schools that offered mostly vocational prep.</p>
<p>I hope I didn't offend anyone when I described my daughter as well-prepared--what I probably should have said was that she came from a high school with a style that really matches the U of C style, and consequently she had an easy adjustment. Sorry, it's just she's my most readily available example.</p>
<p>So more examples (that agree with JHS and unalove)--she has one friend who'd never had to write a paper in high school and is doing GREAT and another straight-A elite-high school friend who has struggled terribly. I am sure that they will all make it in the end.</p>
<p>A comment on the advisors' availability to parents--I suspect it varies. My D's advisor gave us his card at Family Weekend and said he welcomed contact. Personally, I wouldn't think of taking him up on it (or even on the option for grades to be sent to us, which he also offered if our daughter signed a form). But that's me and my family. Other parents seemed to feel differently, and that's fine too.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all the reassurances. I hope I don't come off as some meddling mom who is way too involved in their child's life. I talked to my son today and things are going well. He has been asking questions and says he is getting good advice. It is me, not him who is the worrier. I just want him to get off to a good start and that was my concern with the adviser situation. I really don't want or need to meet his adviser. I appreciate the academic preparation responses also. He is the first one from our high school to attend the University of Chicago and most don't even know about the school. When I tell people where he is going, they say that they have a relative/friend who also attends the University of Illinois at Chicago. I have two other boys who have and are attending college, so I am not new to kids going away and attending school. This school is just academically intimidating to me. Thanks again for the advice.</p>
<p>sparent--</p>
<p>You're not alone.</p>
<p>My parents went to Chicago-level schools (my mom went to two of them), and they sent my brother off to another Chicago-level school before me. So they, if anything, should have a solid grasp on what it's like to be at an elite school.</p>
<p>And... guess what? They still worry! They worry a lot! They worry that I'm working too hard, that I don't have enough friends, that I don't get enough sleep, and so on and so forth. I could give them as much empirical evidence as they want-- I've been frank with my parents about my alcohol consumption, I've had lots of college friends stay over my house on vacations, I send them long and excited e-mails that detail my classes and my extracurriculars.... and they will STILL worry!</p>
<p>I think it's just that you're doing your job as a parent.</p>