<p>Since the son is now officially enrolled all of his advisors are finally assigned and listed. My question is, should he have four? They are faculty, departmental, academic, and major. What are their differing roles? Sure, the major advisor is self explanatory, but there seems to me to be some overlap with the others. Any clarification is appreciated.</p>
<p>The academic advisor handles all the basic things, such as: GE requirements, graduation requirements, basic procedures of the college your son is in, support services, etc.</p>
<p>Major and departmental advisor is the same thing, it’s just either an actual advisor or a professor within your son’s department who will advise your son on major requirements, research opportunities, etc. It’s important to have this type of advisor because they are specialists in your son’s area(s) of study.</p>
<p>If your son is a double major, he will have two major/departmental advisors.</p>
<p>Faculty advisor is usually the same thing as major/departmental, it almost always denotes that the advisor is an actual professor or teacher in the department. This may vary depending on which college your son is in though, I’m in the College of Arts and Sciences and my Chinese advisor could be called a faculty advisor since he’s an actual professor while my International Studies advisor on the other hand is a program specialist/advisor. </p>
<p>I would check your son’s buckeyelink account and see which advisors are listed. I guess he could have four advisors theoretically. Most people have two advisors, an academic advisor and an advisor within their major department. </p>
<p>Honestly, it doesn’t matter and you shouldn’t worry about it. I rarely see the advisors OSU has assigned me, when scheduling for appointments you can schedule with a different advisor if your appointed advisor’s hours don’t work well your schedule, plus there’s walk-in advising where you just go to the college office and see the first advisor who has time for you. With departmental advisors, I usually go see my favorite professor (who is also an advisor) and ask him to fix stuff for me instead of my appointed advisor.</p>
<p>I agree with Fiz. I have 7 advisors (4 for different scholarships, 1 departmental, 1 academic and 1 faculty/sponsor); I only had two of them make an appointment with me during the year and we only talked about how school was going etc. Your son doesn’t have to see them all, and most likely he won’t unless they make an appointment or he does. </p>
<p>I also prefer to talk to my favorite professor instead</p>