Advise this

The only thing that academic advisors provide me with is a headache.

At the beginning of the school year, I went to see my faculty advisor to receive help with picking classes. Since she has one job, which is supposedly to help students, I thought that this was a smart choice, but I was wrong. During my meeting, which took place in a rather chaotic and disorganized office, it was suggested that I take Economics 238. Keep in mind that my academic advisor knew full well that I had never taken an economics class before. I even mentioned that simple fact to her again, but she didn’t seem concerned, and since this is her one and only job, I decided to take her advice and register in the class.

Fast forward two months later, and my first midterm is approaching in this economics class that was said to be a “good and easy choice.” I know nothing. Nothing makes sense in this class, mainly because I hadn’t taken any of the other lower level economics courses. Perhaps I should blame the course catalogue, because it claimed that the prerequisites for the class were Economics 100 or 15 credit hours. Seeing as how I am in my third year, I have much more than 15 credit hours and thus I am eligible for the class. As I was feeling increasingly overwhelmed, I turned to my economics professor for advice, but received a verbal beat down.

After having a terrible discussion with the professor, which resulted in him bashing me, yelling at me, and then topping it off by implying that I will not be hired to write about hockey based on my grades, but rather because I am tall and blonde, I had a small breakdown. I have since dropped his class, if you were curious.

This whole little predicament could have been avoided if the good old academic advisor would have taken the time to tell me that I could simply take Economics 100 and didn’t need to take one at a higher level, but that did not happen. Because I decided to drop the class, I am forced to take five classes and two labs next semester so that I will finish the credits by April that I need to apply for the School of Journalism in January. So instead of having two relatively easy semesters and feeling like I was sitting pretty, I will have one easy semester and one beast semester during which I will not have a life. Did I mention that I work three jobs?

After this incident, I tried to book an appointment with said academic advisor but was told that I was not allowed to because I had switched out of the faculty, even though it remains my minor. I explained that I wanted to discuss the class that the advisor had told me to take, but they refused to even allow me to voice my concerns to that advisor.

This entire situation has really messed things up for me. First of all, the academic advisor failed to tell me that I only needed to take Economics 100. I realize that I could have checked into this myself, but then what the hell is the point of having an advisor on campus if I am not going to trust their services? I am also aware that they have to look after not just me, but hundreds of students. However, this is no excuse. If this was really a concern that there are too many students for them to handle, then either hire more people or make the current advisors clean up their goddamn offices so that they can keep track of the multiple students.

I am also well aware that because they see hundred of students, a problem may only arise every so often, but being part of the minority sucks.

These so called “academic advisors” claim to be providing a “service” to students, but what they might be providing is a giant inconvenience to your academic career.

Autumn McDowell
Sports Editor