A monkey could do a better job than my academic adviser and save me the daunting trip up to his office on the third floor of the Social and Behavioral Science building.
Last semester I was trying to finalize my schedule and wanted to take advantage of his three years of job experience.
I asked, “What do most sociology students do after graduation?” “What professors do you recommend?” “I need to take a QI, any suggestions?”
Questions I posed were met with blank stares and “I don’t know.” I left his office pissed! I can’t possibly be the only one who feels this way.
It turns out the U employs less than mediocre advisers all over campus. Many students feel advisers hardly know anything about their department and care even less about the students.
It’s frustrating when you know more about the department than they.
The dictionary defines adviser as: “One that advises, such as a person or firm that offers official or professional advice to clients or an educator who advises students in academic and personal matters.”
Where can I find people who do that?!
My adviser has cost me thousands of dollars in tuition. And, I’m taking 22 credits because my “adviser” failed to mention my minor doesn’t cover allied hours for graduation.
I made that discovery at 1:30 a.m. over Christmas break while looking at my DARS report. I almost threw up all over myself.
When I called my adviser the next morning, frantic about what I had seen, he said “Oh, yeah, you need those two classes so you can graduate in May.”
If he’d been in front of me I would have spit on him.
For other U students it’s similar. Advisers refuse to counsel students unless they have their DARS, though it takes about 30 seconds for the adviser to pull it up.
In one such instance, a friend stopped going to his adviser because she talked to him like he was stupid. His classmate quit going because she didn’t know anything about the double major for which she had also been advising.
I’m fed up and I think something needs to be done. Let’s fight for our right to have real advisers. Stop biting your lip and let the department head know their adviser SUCKS! Write a letter to the editor if you agree and let’s just see if I’m a minority.