I heard that the advisors for Arts & Science vary quite a bit in quality, does anyone know which are considered good/bad and how much it matters? I’m just trying to determine how much I should rely on the advice of my counselor and whatnot.
The pre-major advisors will typically be recent PhD grads from Vandy… They are in the market for a new job so most don’t stay at their position for very long. I think I had three advisors before I declared my major sophomore year. For this reason it’s hard to really get a feel for who is good or bad. My experience is that they know a lot about their department(almost always a humanities subject as jobs are harder to come by in those fields) and the basics of AXLE. Personally I didn’t rely on my advisors that much. I’d take their advice into consideration, but don’t feel obligated to follow it.
Treat this person’s commitment to you as a business transaction from someone who has been in the company where you have an internship or first job. They are trained to stop problems and to respond to problems, and to help you settle in with the rules and regs of work. If you need clarifications, they will do the follow up to find the information for you. If you are seeking permissions, they will sometimes speak to the decision-makers for you. Like many things in life, figuring out how much to expect of others is the trick for you are a freshman. I recall that my son’s advisor made a couple of phone calls on his behalf when neither he nor his advisor didn’t an answer. Your advisor can be useful to you in certain situations regarding asking for a faculty member to consider taking you into a class and stating reasons. It is unlikely that your freshman advisor will have special knowledge of academic directions relavent to you. Then you can go to the upperclassman and women who have been trained to be made available to a small number of freshmen–I forget what they are called at Vandy…VUceptors? These upperclassmen and women can find someone who took a class or a teacher and can get you re student feedback for you to consider. Ask to talk with older students in arenas of your choice. They have direct knowledge of things that have been negotiated with faculty, and will often tell you about their point of view re the classroom.