Advising stories

"Misadventures of the misadvised"

Like all freshmen, I was an impressionable one.

I mean I’m still impressionable and still a freshman, but certainly a wiser one.

I left my orientation advising meeting this past summer thinking that I was surely going in the right direction, that college and my life were beginning, and it all started with the schedule in my hand.

Little did I know that I had been misadvised, and I was heading straight into a first semester stacked with maximum credits including finite math and a 300-level documentaries course that will not contribute to my degree in any way.

I emerged relatively unscathed.

My first college lesson is as follows: For the first time ever, don’t trust authority. Seek advice from older students instead, and maybe you won’t join the league of the misadventures of the misadvised.

— Janica Kaneshiro
 jkaneshi@indiana.edu


"Advising on the fritz"

My freshman year, my adviser didn’t ask me what I wanted to be or what majors I was thinking of pursuing. He just let me, idiot, naive freshman extraordinaire, arbitrarily pick out classes.

Too stupid to know any better, I chose some appropriately idiotic courses, given what I ended up studying.

Math requirements inadequately explained also kept me from pursuing my journalism certificate.

The problem is twofold. First, academic requirements here are often so unnecessarily complex that they’re impossible to navigate without someone spoonfeeding you.

Second, advisers, especially University Division advisors, can’t seem to make said requirements clear enough to students, or suggest that they follow them.

Sure, it’s our job to track our own academic progress. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past two years, and I recommend it.

But advisers should be there to ensure we’re on the right track and give us sound academic advice. That is, after all, their job.

— Kelly Fritz
kelfritz@indiana.edu


"Thanks, Marsha"

A good meeting with your adviser has all the qualities of a call home to mom.

Calm, patient and wise, an individual with seemingly infinite knowledge guides you through the morass of life, turning apprehension into resolve and doubt into confidence with the skill of an emotional alchemist.

Marsha Franklin is just that type of adviser.

When I left the major during my sophomore year, she helped me identify where my political science credits still applied.

When I returned to the major a semester later, she smiled knowingly and guided me through the process of catching back up.

When I had questions about graduate school that she couldn’t answer, she got me a meeting with someone who could.

She has conducted me safely through three years of study in the political science department, and I have every confidence in her ability to do so for the remaining one. She is a gift, and I would not be where I am without her.

— Drake Reed
 drlreed@indiana.edu


"Advising done right"

It’s astonished me how I’ve come to rely on my adviser.

At first I thought I would never visit her office — that I’d be able to understand the nuances of picking out classes and navigating the English and Spanish departments all by myself.

Boy was I wrong.

I wound up visiting Karen Ellis my very first day on campus, and she walked me through all my classes, materials and professors.

She pointed me toward Sioux Hill, who helped me declare my Spanish major.

What’s more, when she reviewed my high school transcripts, she found test credits that I didn’t even know counted toward credits I didn’t even know I needed.

And now, thanks to her, I have sophomore status my freshman year, and I have the potential of graduating early with little to no debt.

So my word of advice for the day: Use your advisers. They really do help.

— Emma Wenninger
 ewenning@indiana.edu