<p>I posted in the college search forum but didn't get many responses. I'm interested in finding shools that are known for good advising. I'm especially interested in schools with a system similar to Sarah Lawrence's don system where students keep the same advisor the entire time they are there.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t need the hand holding you seem to envision in college. Young adults in college need to be deciding most things for themselves. No advisor can tell you which major is best for you. You should be able to read the online college catalog for courses and major requirenents yourself at any college. Instead, focus on what fields interest you. Make a list of your other priorities for a college. </p>
<p>Good college advising can vary from department to department. Any college can be dissed or praised for its advising depending on the student you talk to. Some campuses require students to take charge of themselves and seek out advice. Others don’t require that much independence from students and force them into narrow paths.</p>
<p>Scrap the thought of looking for “good advising”. Start over looking at other factors and you will find the advising will be sufficient when the other things line up.</p>
<p>I suggest you explore LACs vs privates or public research universities for their advising. However, I don’t think sticking with the same advisor is always the ideal option. They aren’t like guidance counselors in hs.</p>
<p>My one child went to a large public school and had the same adviser for 4 years. The other went to a smaller private school and the adviser left that job after 2 years. Nether adviser did anything spectacular, in fact both kids pored over catalogs, talked to other students and professors, and somehow found their way.</p>
<p>In the end, most advisers don’t do that much for you. They don’t tell you what to do, in fact they are very careful NOT to. They may help you switch classes. But they will not usually give you advice on majors, professors, internships etc. And do you really want them to? It’s a bridge to the real world.</p>
<p>If however, you are asking this question based on special needs, that is a completely different kettle of fish.</p>
<p>Limabeans, my son’s high school has an advising system where the students keep the same advisor all 4 years. The advisor is a faculty member, a teacher, and is not related to the guidance counselor. He’s done well having a steady person who has grown to know him. When I saw Sarah Lawrence had a similar system, which is based on Oxford-Cambridge, I became curious if any other colleges had something similar. </p>
<p>Wis75, I’m sure you know that all kids do not have the same level of independence. And while I am not looking for handholding, I’d prefer to find a school where forming faculty relationships is more built into the process than is typical. My son does better in environments where it seems like people care and are interested in each other.</p>
<p>I’ve not heard of a college where a student cannot have the same advisor for all 4 years? Both of my kids did switch advisors their sophomore year once they had gotten to know the faculty in their majors better and their was one they "clicked with, but they didn’t “have to” change advisors. Developing a relationship with a faculty member is as much a component of the student as the component of the advisor. We’ve encountered some colleges that have “mandatory” advisor/student meetings during the freshman year. That makes the transition for a socially “young” college student alittle easier I think. While I totally think that students and profs develop relationships at every college and university, the smaller ones in small towns with well integrated town/gown relationships seem to be the most nourishing and open to student/faculty integration.</p>
<p>At my school, there is a class dean for every class (or half of one). Provided that one graduates in four years, and the class dean doesn’t leave for other reasons, students will stay with the same class dean for all four years. The class dean is different from an advisor. While your son can’t attend my college (it’s a women’s college) I imagine other liberal arts schools have similar structures.</p>
<p>What is it that you’re looking for from an advisor relationship? Are you envisioning a mentor sort of thing? If that’s the case, I’d suggest looking at smaller LAC type institutions where you can build a relationship with your major professor (sort of like what can happen in some undergrad fields like music and in most graduate fields).</p>
<p>Where I teach all freshmen are assigned a freshman advisor whose job it is to advise them in both their major requirements and gened requirements for both freshman year registration times (orientation and November). In February of Freshman year students are then assigned an advisor in their major who will stick with them for the next three years. </p>
<p>As a program coordinator in my area I know the freshman who will be assigned to me as advisees (because they are majors in my program). So, I (along with the freshman advisor) work with the freshmen in my area. </p>
<p>Having the same advisor for four years does not necessarily mean that a student will receive better advising. Because you mention that your son responds well to on-on-one mentorship, regardless of advising you may find that he does well at a school with undergraduate research opportunities where he is mentored by a faculty member. :)</p>
<p>I just keep thinking back to my time at Temple in the early 90s. My advisor was simply a person who signed off on my course selections and made sure I had the necessay prereqs. I saw whoever was available. There was no assigned advisor. Even if one was assigned, you only saw them during registration and to check if you’re on course for graduation. Is that set up unusual today? </p>
<p>Like stradmom suggested, I am envisioning a more mentoring relationship for my son.
Momofthreeboys, I like the idea of at least having the mandatory meetings during freshman year. Do you remember what schools you found that at?</p>
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<p>It is a worthy goal to seek out such schools, and smaller schools or smaller programs/majors within larger shcools are going to give you this. But the initial request looking for an existing structure of advisor for all four years seems awfully narrow and unnecessary. </p>
<p>What I think others are suggesting is that at the university level (as opposed to highschool), one can and should develop relationships with faculty, and can do so with a bit of their own initiative. I do not believe you need to be ‘assigned one’ and in fact I would argue that will likely be far far inferior to developing your own relationships that are based on mutual interests, expertise, and liking (like normal adult relationships or real mentorships). Or getting advice from multiple faculty rather than just one. If you write suggesting your student needs it legislated by structure, rather than having an environment where he can create those relationships, it does sound like hand holding. You might think he needs that now but he’ll be a lot more mature in university.</p>
<p>I’m mainly in agreement with starbright–small schools tend to be a better environment for this, and there should be some intellectual or personal foundation for the mentor relationship rather than have it be assigned, Freshman year. I understand completely that you want this kind of arrangement for your son. In my grad school courses on Adolescent/College Age development, I learned that finding a mentor is one of the most important factors in academic success. However, I think it more naturally evolves through a course or activity, rather than by being randomly assigned. </p>
<p>I would encourage your son to attend office hours with each of his profs, wherever he goes to school. He may find that his strongest relationships are with teachers outside his major!</p>
<p>The reason many colleges don’t have the same adviser for all four years is that your freshman adviser will be fairly randomly assigned while your adviser once you have a major will be someone from the major. I don’t think that’s so terrible. I don’t remember having any relationship at all with my advisers though my freshman adviser lived in the dorm (grad student) and was very nice.</p>
<p>Starbright, the initial request was just to get a list of schools, the same as if I was wondering what schools have water polo teams. I agree that if was the sole qualification, it would be very narrowing. Especially since it seems that there aren’t many 
I was just curious since it seems every school claims to encourage close student/faculty relationships. I would like to know of schools that have a mechanism in place that really encourages such a thing. I’m liking the idea that KatMT suggested regarding undergrad research opportunities as a way to foster relationships. That’s not something I would’ve thought of.
And I do get that the best relationships happen organically but I happen to have one of those kids who, currently, does not go out of his way to seek them out. I’m not even sure at this point he would understand why he should. He seems to definitely be a “late bloomer” and a school that has systems in place that encourage the development of these relationships would definitely rate higher than one without, all things else being comparable.</p>
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<p>I have a kid like this and I agree that the kind of college that takes advising seriously and actively promotes these relationships would probably be best for this kind of student. When I tour colleges, I always try to ask the tour guides about their advisers and whether they are helpful. My experience with advisers at PSU (in the 80s) was the same as yours at Temple – pretty useless.</p>
<p>You might want to start with the colleges that change lives list.</p>
<p>As the mom of a A Very Bright son specifically looking at schools that have good advising and learning support, I have had a similar quest. Yes, MOST college kids are developly able to, and appropriately can, do without a certain level of advising and support, but some can’t.</p>
<p>One thing to always remember (and thus may be too obvious to repeat) is that every kid is different. One student may need nurturing regular advising, another student may need kick in the pants regular advising. We ruled OUT Sarah Lawrence for a variety of reasons, despite their Don system – it actually requires tons of self initiative – and realized our son needed a more traditional academic schedule and set of requirements.</p>
<p>Some schools (and as an example, even if tech is not your thing, RIT), have an extra for a fee program of learning support wherein the student meets 1-3x a week, by student choice, with a counselor to go over assignments, plan how to get them done, check in, etc. At RIT the number of meetings per week can be reconfigured every quarter. So depending on the needs of the student – can vary. One student can start out at 3x/week, and wean off over several quarters. Another student can use it only when having a heavy courseload or having issues challenging for him or her.</p>
<p>Again, vast majority of students don’t need this… but some do… and knowing if you do can make all the world of difference between success and flaming out! Not everyone can learn calculus at the same age, why should everyone be able to learn certain study skills at the exact same age?</p>
<p>I think the best advising is at schools with open curricula–Brown, Amherst, Hamilton etc. I think those schools actually put some institutional resources behind advising, because it needs to be very integrated into the course planning process.</p>
<p>I tend to agree with WIS75. The only times saw my advisor was to get the term schedule form signed. But I devoured the university course catalog and the department’s graduation requirements so as not to make a mistake that would cause a sr year problem. This allowed me to get my term schedule into the Registrar on the first morning of the enrollment period and was never shut out of a class. And because I was so familiar with the course catalog I took tech and non-tech electives that were fabulously interesting. Probably the only engineering major to take Serbo-Croatian Lit, Social Cybernetics and Medieval/Renaissance Music, et al.</p>
<p>Juniata College (in Huntingdon, PA) gives you two advisors. Program of Emphasis (POE) is their term for a major.</p>
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<p>This is so very true. I think spending more time on CC, and also asking current students will help a lot. But also size really does seem to matter (LACs being much more likely to provide the kind of relationship you are looking for).</p>
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<p>Absolutely agree with this as well. In fact, I will insist my kids seeking out such relationships because it is invaluable in so many ways. </p>
<p>The hitch is …every school now touts research opportunities. What it looks like in reality is a different thing. My experience as a prof, at both big and small schools, is an undergrad can definitely get involved in research if they make a bit of effort to simply ask. If my own introvert highschool kids can find such things on their own at a 40,000 student university (with a bit of parenting reminding to send some emails, but not through parent connections!), I think any undergrad can (and should).</p>