Your College Advisor

Without a doubt, this is one of the most important, influential people in your college career. He/she will help you figure out your classes, help you figure out some direction for your overall education or other general academic matters.

I've gone through a few of these over the years and have seen what good and bad ones can do for your academics- and have a few thoughts on working with them.

Advisor #1 was a very well respected professor in her field (she liked very much to talk about the various people she had trained with and trained herself). This was cool, except for the fact that she had her favorites in the department and I was not one of them. This meant my advising meetings were about half the time of some of the other students- I would ask quite a few questions (after reading this blog I'm sure you can imagine how many questions I will ask in an actual conversation) because I was very interested in doing much of the same kind of work that she had done. But I hardly got the time of day with her. To be honest, while I was thrilled to have her as an advisor I was very happy when I switched to...

Advisor #2 who is still to this day my favorite advisor. After one conversation with me he suggested a completely different track within the field that I was studying, and immediately figured out where my actual interests were. While he was not as well known in the field, he taught some of the most interesting classes I've ever taken and always had advice on whatever I wanted to ask him about- from extracurricular activities to other classes he didn't teach. He kept in touch with me as well as many other students after we left the college for some years and was still even then a great person to approach for questions.

Advisor #3 was at a different college and we simply did not see eye to eye. Ever. He wanted me to follow the track that he taught (never mind that it was a complete 180 from my interests and prior education that advisor #2 laid the foundation for). It's frustrating as a student to have the person who is supposed to be helping you never really listen to where you're trying to go with your education and career. However, there was another professor who taught the classes that I really liked who was much more helpful in assisting me at this time.

Advisor #4 was at yet another university, this one of over 50,000 students. I met him only once in the course of two or so years. He signed the papers needed for graduation, asked how my last class was going and flipped out when I said "Fine...". He kept asking "Just, fine?" Well... yes! I was fairly indifferent to it at that point and I didn't see the use of getting all excited over the last week of classes. I told him I was passing it with a good grade and there was nothing to worry about. I really couldn't get out of the office fast enough.

Advisor #5 in grad school was pretty good. He really had some good suggestions for my classes and helped me get an independent study so I could live 200 miles from the campus and finish the last class. Again, it made a big difference that he listened to what I wanted to do and based on my employment history (in higher education) and prior education (in fine arts) he was able to really help me get my thoughts in order for after my graduation.

Advisor #6 is my current advisor, for my final thesis/capstone project that will finish my graduate degree. Granted I am living about 200 miles from campus so in person meetings are more than a little hard, but the beauty of email is I can instantly send her everything that I'm working on, and typically she gets it back quickly. That is, when she's not busy. It's been a little frustrating trying to finish the degree and having to wait and wait and wait for her schedule to allow her the time to take a look at my work when I'm trying to wrap everything up quite quickly at this point. Granted yes, I know she's busy at the school, but it's frustrating being in the position of having to wait for your adviser's approval and spin your wheels in place until that happens.

So I've run the spectrum from very involved to barely knowing my advisor. I recommend highly trying to get to know him/her and open yourself up to that person enough that you can get good advice from him/her. You won't always get along. That's frustrating, but it happens. When it does I would recommend either trying to switch to someone else once you've gotten to know a few professors or just do what I did and have an informal advisor. Either way, having someone at the school who knows you as more than just a name on a paper or a seat in class will be beneficial when you run into the inevitable roadblocks that will come up.