If you’ve ever been enrolled in college you’re well aware of the role of an advisor. An advisor is a professor who is assigned to you to assist you in enrolling in the specific classes you need to fulfill the requirements of your major, minor or concentration. An advisor is supposed to make everything easier for you and to take some of the stress off of your shoulders. When at school, your advisor can make or break you.
It’s the unfortunate reality that most students have had a less than great experience with their advisor. Anyone who has been registered in college has heard horror stories that have stemmed from a less than adequate advisor.
I’ve heard my fair share of advisor horror stories that have sent shivers and waves of nerves through me. There was one case in particular where a student had to stay (and pay for) an additional year at school, simply because their advisor was careless and “checked the wrong box.” By checking the wrong box I’m indicating that the advisor was careless enough to literally check the wrong box on a student’s class file, ultimately denoting that a student had fulfilled a requirement that they actually had not fulfilled yet. Due to this “minor screw up” this student had to stay in school for an entire additional year; not just one semester, but two. In the wonderful world of higher education, classes heavily tend to only be offered in specific semesters because of pre requisites and the sequential nature of higher-level classes. So in the end, this student had to cough up an additional $65,000 to pay for this supplementary year at school because their final (1 credit) class was only offered spring semester.
In most cases an educational institution will try to brush this “oopsie” off and offer the condolence that a student can “make use” of their extra year at school by, I don’t know, adding a major, minor or concentration...blah blah blah.
And after this cover-up doesn’t make a student feel any better a school typically does a 180 and begins to blame the student. An institution (and maybe even your parents if it pissed them off enough) will blame the student for being irresponsible, for not taking control of their education, ultimately, making a student feel like they’re not “invested enough” in their future. Yes, I understand you should do a little research yourself when it comes to your program’s requirements but at the end of the day, the reason an advisor is assigned to every student is to ease the burden of fulfilling class requirements.
At the end of the day getting screwed by your advisors is one of the worst things that can happen to you while at school. So, in order to be successful in school you do need to (to some degree) take matters into your own hands. If you can tell that your advisor is less than awesome, you need to make some moves. These “moves” do not include trying to learn your program’s requirements through in through; I’m more saying if you have a crappy advisor, get a new one. Do yourself a favor and walk to the head of your department’s office and demand (do not ask) but demand a new advisor. An advisor that fulfills their duties and will ultimately save you from any extra time and money spent at your institution.
