<p>Binx, I'm another mom who knew more about the course catalog and various rules/requirements than my daughter before orientation. I tried and tried to get her to understand that knowing the catalog backwards and forwards was to her advantage and should be her responsibility; for the most part, my advice/urgings/pleadings fell on deaf ears. She did figure it out by her second quarter, however; first, her music department advisor told her to "live" with the catalog over winter break (amazing how smart he was...Mom was just a nag!), and second, she had a schedule problem resulting in an overage charge her second quarter. In order to get the overage charge waived, she had to file an appeal and make a personal presentation to the curriculum committee...and obviously, parents are not a part of that process (she told me that one parent showed up to advocate for his senior daughter at her appeal and was politely told he could not come into the committee room during his daughter's presentation). She realized in a hurry that no one was going to stand up for her except herself...although she's still willing to run things by me for a second [or third] opinion. And since her advisor is in her department, she has cultivated a relationship with him, so she can run ideas past him on an ongoing basis. This is a far cry from her first (orientation) meeting when she hesitated to say much, because she "didn't want to be a pest." </p>
<p>I suspect that as long as your daughter is clear with her advisor that a double major is on her horizon, her advisor will work WITH her rather than just looking for the course[s] that fill openings in her schedule. If her advisor is randomly assigned, however, she should really ask to be reassigned to an advisor from the music department, since music requirements can be so numerous and foreign to non-music department professors. And I second Packmom's suggestion to give your daughter "permission" to call you on your cell if she has a dilemma; all she'd have to tell the advisor is "I discussed this with my parents, so let me call them quickly to refresh my memory on what we decided was best for me."</p>