As a college student, one of the most stressful instances during each semester is the act of signing up for classes for the next semester. The act of signing up isn’t that stressful after you have been properly shown how to do it and if you allow for plenty of time for trial and error. For me, the idea of counting on an advisor to aid and guide my experience hinders more than it helps.

Freshman year I had a very helpful and useful "freshman advisor." In my recent experience, however, I have been under the guidance of advisors who don’t care or are too busy being professors to guide me appropriately.

I have friends whose advisors blatantly don’t care. I believe in the existence of advisors who really care for the students they aid, but that hasn’t been my experience.

At UAlbany, students register for an advisor meeting with someone they are assigned to within their major department. In some cases, a student may meet with grad students instead of the listed advisor. If a student has a double major or a minor, they need to meet with both advisors to go over their degree audit, which is the list of requirements for graduating college. The audit has lists of class numbers to be completed and shows what you have completed. Honestly, it’s a scary thing to behold.

I’ve spent a lot of time looking it over and have become quite familiar with it; I know what I need to take come the next semester and looking forward.

At the advisor meeting, a student is given an AVN, which is a code to register for courses for the next semester. The usefulness of an advisor is important, especially for freshman and confused students. Being where I am in my college experience, I have come to realize that I can navigate the audit myself and sign myself up for classes.

Carving time out of a rigid school and work schedule to find time to meet with someone isn’t conducive to my day. And, in all honesty, who says your advisor is even going to show up for your meeting?

A friend of mine recently experienced this and waited hours for her advisor not to show.

In my opinion, advisors should make better use of the Internet in the distribution of AVN numbers and provide a list of classes students need to take. This is exactly what they do in an in-person meeting.

This use of technology would save paper and not cause students to lose sleep over trying to fit their advisor meeting into their week.

I also believe there should be an option for people who do better with in-person discussions to sit down and actually talk, but it shouldn’t be required.

On the cusp of my senior year, I know what classes I have left to take in order to be able to graduate.

I believe the online system would be more efficient and definitely take some of the difficulty out of the search for classes.