<p>We visited Williams and it seems to be my daughter's favorite so far. The admissions talk was a little sketchy about how the advisor works. Would the students say that the faculty advisor is helpful each semester with the student to devise their schedule properly or is the student expected to pick their classes with only help if they go looking for it? Thanks, she thought Williams was great though and is exactly what she is looking for.</p>
<p>During freshman and sophomore years, you're required to meet with your advisor once every semester to discuss plans for the next semester (sometimes in their office, sometimes they'll take you out to lunch, the coffee shop, etc.), so there is at least some active involvement. They try to assign you someone from your potential major, but that doesn't always happen - sometimes a math major will get an english prof, or even a football coach - so I guess helpfulness can vary. Every advisor will make sure you're on track to completing your various requirements, both generally and for your major. Usually they'll be able to give you advice on course selection within their department too, but if you're considering a different major you might want to seek out another prof in that department to talk to (which is usually no big deal, since they're all pretty accessible).</p>
<p>I've personally found that other resources (the course catalog, friends, FacTrak professor reviews) have been more useful to me in picking classes than my advisor, since any reasonably intelligent person can make sure their requirements are getting fulfilled and an advisor can never tell you something like "don't take a class with him, he's a terrible teacher" (not that there are many terrible teachers at Williams, but there's still a wide spectrum). I wouldn't hold that against Williams, though; it's just an inherent flaw of faculty advisors. I think Williams does about as much as they can to make advisors helpful and accessible.</p>
<p>If something goes wrong, if there is something you can't figure out (like how the distribution or prerequisite requirements work in a particular situation), or if you need someone to speak for you or support you, the system is set up so that there should be someone there to help you. That might be one of your two junior advisors (trained junior volunteer mentors who will live near you in your frosh dorm), an advisor, someone in the dean's office, a professor, or a coach. There are lots of resources and different things work for different people.</p>