<p>What role do college advisors play? Is every undergrad. assigned to a college advisor? Do you get the same person for all 4 years?</p>
<p>if you change majors or go undecided to a major you usually change advisors...advisors are good and your friend</p>
<p>It depends on where you go to college. At LACs and some privates they pride themselves on being close to their students, and this includes advising. So every student is assigned to a faculty member, and some schools go so far as to prevent enrolling for classes without it being approved by the advisor.</p>
<p>At larger schools, often large state schools, you're kinda on your own. Each dept. will have an advisor, and there are counselors available for more general issues, but nobody is scheduled to meet with you regularly (in fact, ever). See, for example, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2001/05/06/MN176023.DTL%5B/url%5D">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2001/05/06/MN176023.DTL</a></p>
<p>each school does this a little differently, sometimes you're assigned to a person in the dept, sometimes there are actually several just "advisors" that you have to meet with at certain intervals (and before registering for the next semester) which is how it is at my school</p>
<p>It really depends on the school. Most state schools don't have very close advisors. It's really kind of frustrating; some advisors are just there because it's their job and they could care less about the student. Hopefully you'll get one who actually enjoys helping students.</p>
<p>i go to my department advisor to get clearance to get into classes if i can persuade him</p>
<p>During our freshman year, we get assigned a freshman counselor and an academic advisor (also an ethnic counselor if you're a minority). My freshman counselor gives me commonsense advice about everything from social issues to courseload. My academic advisor did little besides sign my schedule (well, this is only my first year). I've seen my ethnic counselor once, when he was passing by me on Old Campus, and that is the extent of our relationship.</p>
<p>"Most state schools don't have very close advisors." I disagree, I go to a state school (South Dakota State) and everyone has a advisor and they are very helpful and are dedicated to helping the students.</p>
<p>missegg, if everyone at South Dakota State has an advisor, please explain for us unenlighted readers how that is somehow inconsistent with the statement "most state schools don't have very close advisors". Does South Dakota State form the majority of state schools in this country?</p>
<p>BTW, not that this is related to your cogent post or anything, but I noticed that in order to gain admission to South Dakota State you need to meet at least one of 3 criteria: (1) rank in the top 60% of your HS class (2) get an 870 on the SAT which is up in the stratosphere of the 23rd percentile (3) have a 2.6 or better GPA</p>
<p>I wasn't saying it was inconsistent, I was saying how it was here. And yes, admission standards aren't very high, but it's a state school based mostly in agriculture. It's hard to maintain that precious 4.0 gpa in highschool when you have more important field work to do. Most of the student body comes from smaller towns in the midwest and are therefore very friendly. Quite frankly I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, but I know I'm in the minority on this board.</p>
<p>I went to a large state college years ago and had an assigned faculty advisor. To this day, I have never met that person.</p>
<p>College adivsors are for the weak who don't know what classes they need. Kidding of course, I wish I would have talked to an advisor a couple of years earlier, I would already have graduated. At state universities, usually you just show up with an appointment and talk to an advisor at random. They change so much (pay must suck) that you probably won't have the same one for four years.</p>