Really awful course counseling for incoming freshmen. How common is this? Can you avoid it?

[shawthorne44]

It smells that College Algebra, a remedial course was being pushed on everyone.  

[Melissa B]

Interesting. My dd is attending UCF (leaves in three weeks) and her orientation advisor was excellent. They set up a degree plan and everyone was very knowledgeable. She called me while in the meeting to go over the plan because I sent her to orientation with a full plan in place (after really, really terrible experiences with her two older sisters at UF and UNF freshman orientations). Maybe it just depends on the major? 

 

[cintinative]

29 minutes ago, Melissa B said:

Interesting. My dd is attending UCF (leaves in three weeks) and her orientation advisor was excellent. They set up a degree plan and everyone was very knowledgeable. She called me while in the meeting to go over the plan because I sent her to orientation with a full plan in place (after really, really terrible experiences with her two older sisters at UF and UNF freshman orientations). Maybe it just depends on the major? 

 

That is so interesting! It must be because of the major!

[matrips]

On 7/28/2022 at 12:08 PM, Melissa B said:

Interesting. My dd is attending UCF (leaves in three weeks) and her orientation advisor was excellent. They set up a degree plan and everyone was very knowledgeable. She called me while in the meeting to go over the plan because I sent her to orientation with a full plan in place (after really, really terrible experiences with her two older sisters at UF and UNF freshman orientations). Maybe it just depends on the major? 

 

What major?  UCF is in my kids’ top two.

and is she honors as well?

 Thanks!

[cintinative]

59 minutes ago, matrips said:

What major?  UCF is in my kids’ top two.

and is she honors as well?

 Thanks!

my nephew is majoring in digital media. I thought he was honors as well. 

[pinball]

On 6/29/2022 at 9:19 AM, lmrich said:

Can he access degree works? Or something similar? My kids were able to figure out  what classes they needed on their own, plan  their  schedules, and  talk to their  advisors before registering. 

Programs like degreeworks are amazing! Students can run “what if” scenarios like changing majors, minors, concentrations, etc. 

it’s a good snapshot of where a student is in their program

That would be good to know when looking at colleges: if they have a program like degreeworks

[Melissa B]

2 hours ago, matrips said:

What major?  UCF is in my kids’ top two.

and is she honors as well?

 Thanks!

I think the title of her major is Health Sciences: Pre-Clinical, so UCF's version of Pre-Med. Her plan is to continue on to medical school.

She has a three year graduation plan. Her advisors were good and her orientation overall sounds like it was much better than either of her sisters'.

She declined the invitation to apply to the honors college. 

[Malam]

On 6/28/2022 at 5:18 PM, cintinative said:

My nephew recently had a really, really bad experience trying to schedule his first year at a college in FL.  The first phase was some sort of general meeting of a bunch of students with more general course counselors (which they said was not helpful), followed by what was supposed to be a meeting with the counselor for their major, but ended up being the actual scheduling on the computer of many students at once with the major's counselor in the room, floating between people. The first year math is supposed to be precalculus but the counselor kept telling them (the whole room) to sign up for college algebra, and when they asked about skipping precalculus (he placed above it) and taking calculus, he said that no one takes calculus their freshman year because it is too hard.  The counselor also had no idea about how they could schedule for courses for which he had already taken a prerequisite. Or any idea of how the AP or DE credits were going to be accounted for.  

In general it sounds like a horrible hot mess. So my question is, how common is this experience? Can we avoid this at all by calling ahead and scheduling special appointments to ask questions, or is that dependent on the university?  

Thanks hive.

Hopefully the college allows students to add/drop on their own? If I were him I would politely sit through the appointment, and then immediately add calculus and drop algebra (hopefully in that order to avoid being locked out of both) the moment I can.

 

On 7/1/2022 at 3:13 AM, regentrude said:

Yes, but depending on the school, incoming freshmen may be prevented from changing their classes unless they clear it with an advisor.
If your student finds they are unable to add/drop, the enrollment system may have placed an automatic hold that can only be lifted by the academic advisor. 

Isn't this typically removed during the advisor meeting? At a large school like UCF, keeping holds even after advisor meetings would be an administrative nightmare as you near the add/drop deadlines.

Edited August 1, 2022 by Malam

[regentrude]

5 minutes ago, Malam said:

Isn't this typically removed during the advisor meeting? At a large school like UCF, keeping holds even after advisor meetings would be an administrative nightmare as you near the add/drop deadlines.

At our college, for first semester freshmen, the advising hold is replaced after the initial enrollment. 

I think they can drop a course after the semester has started (but IME it's often not a good idea to do so without running it by the advisor)

[Bambam]

It has been our experience that you do your own homework on looking at the course requirements + flowchart (if it exists) and work from there. Use the counselor as an advice-giver only. Both my kids found that the advisors/counselors were not helpful at all in figuring out the best courses to take/timing of courses.  They have a lot of kids, a lot of majors, and not enough time to review everything. Throw in kids coming in with lots of DC, and it's hard to figure out the best path forward. 

So, in our experience, do your homework and figure it out for yourself and get their input, and do what you have determined to be best. 

[Miguelsmom]

We did a curriculum map. Then list out by the semester. By the time he talked to his advisors he had his class schedule all planned out. His advisor was really helpful in substitute classes when not available. He did have to take to take summer classes one semester.  He was able to get his degree in the proper amount of time. I don't trust advisors as I've seen so many bad advisors.

At the CC level we picked one advisors that we like and even if they don't work with that major they help. At university level my son switched majors to get a good advisor. Now his master's degree doesn't have individual advising. 

[ElizabethB]

Boise State has been excellent for this. They have an online degree tracker of some kind, I forget its name, I assumed it would be standard at other colleges, it seems fairly simple software to make. My daughter started with Psychology, got good advising for that. The first class for any major is an intro to the major, you see all the classes you need to take, they talk about possible minors. The class is an overview of what you'll learn in the major They make you call 3 different people who have jobs in that area and then spend more time on another call with the one you are most interested in to get more details. She figured out that while she liked learning about Psychology, she didn't like any actual job possibilities in the field. Then, she switched to art, originally wanted to get a dual major of illustration and graphic design (a lot of overlap, only a few extra courses, no additional semesters needed--you can see this all in the degree tracker, you can go to a "possibilities" mode and change or add majors and minors.) She didn't like graphic design that much and is now just doing illustration. Good advising for this, too. It also starts with the same thing, she had to call 3 people in the field. 

My son has known for a bit over a year that he wants to get a Mechanical Engineering Degree, likely at BSU. I called the advisor for Mechanical Engineering and she happily answered a few questions about different classes he should take to be best prepared for the major at BSU.

So, not only good advising and degree tracking, but that initial course has helped her and some of her friends figure out early on if a major is a good fit for them or not. The initial advice also includes salary information, one of her friends changed majors after finding out that not only didn't he like what he was planning to do that much, it didn't pay that well. He's now getting a degree in a field that interests him more and pays much better.

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by ElizabethB

[Malam]

On 8/16/2022 at 2:55 PM, Miguelsmom said:

At university level my son switched majors to get a good advisor

Declared major, as a formality, or changed their course of study as well? How did he meet the good advisor in the first place if they were in a different major?

[Miguelsmom]

9 minutes ago, Malam said:

Declared major, as a formality, or changed their course of study as well? How did he meet the good advisor in the first place if they were in a different major?

He was originally in information science. He switched to a completion program ( a special program that takes your credits earned and turns that into a bachelor's of science in applied science. There are certain requirements to enter the program and get that degree) but the whole focus was getting the student to graduate in as little time as possible.

 

A similar program is an interdisciplinary studies degree. Or if they're older a general's study degree.

He talked to the advisor several times before changing. He was looking for the fastest way to complete his degree. The advisor was even allowed to substitute classes if there was no opertunity to take them in a timely manner. Which happened with one class. He still took all information studies classes but had a much looser degree plan he had to follow. He was able to finish with a 3.5, removed some math from his required courses and still get to the same master's degree.

Instead of a bachelor's of science in information studies. He has a bachelor of science in applied science concentration in information studies: information architecture.

There's 9 different concentration for the bsas and 14 concentrations for the BGS degree and hundreds of combinations for IDS degrees.