Advising Timeline

• Participate in faculty advisor training in April.
• Develop a familiarity with key websites and sources of information for and about students including the College site, including resources for course selection and the pre-major advising page.
• Develop a familiarity with Advisor InTouch (AIT) to view student records and enter notes.
• View the Freshman Videos and the Registration Tutorial prior to talking with your advisees.

Mid June

• Registration mailing is sent by the College Office to the freshman class.
• Students view Freshman Videos, complete the Advising Questionnaire and view the Registration Tutorial.

Mid to late June

• Review advising materials and information on incoming advisees.
• Begin to have discussions with your advisees. Be accessible in person, by telephone, or via email. Students will be given SAS email addresses in the spring—this is the first contact for students, and we strongly encourage making arrangements for phone or in-person conversations. Each of your advisees must have at least one meaningful discussion with you before their registration hold can be removed.

June - August

• June 24 - July 19 Freshman Advance Registration
• Continue to meet or speak with your advisees. Remove registration holds during this summer Advance Registration period so students may submit their course selections via Penn InTouch.
• August 23 - 27: New Student Orientation
• Peer advisors guide students through NSO activities.

• Meet with advisees before the end of the Course Selection Period (end of the second full week of classes) to make sure that they have full and appropriate schedules (course registration can be viewed via Advisor InTouch) and answer any questions.
• Meet with advisees as necessary throughout the semester to discuss academic direction as well as difficulties. If students encounter problems, make appropriate referrals directly to support services or to the College’s CaseNet team.
• Remind advisees of drop and withdraw deadlines.
• Meet with advisees individually during Advanced Regisration (October 21 - November 3) to discuss their performance in fall courses and their course selection for the spring. Remove registration hold so students may submit their course selections via Penn InTouch.

• Check fall grades of advises via Advisor InTouch and contact any advisees who performed poorly, and have them meet with you individually. Meet monthly with any students on probation. For questions about academic probation, contact Dr. Molly McGlone.
• Meet with advisees in individual sessions during Advance Registration (March 18-31, 2013) to discuss course selection for the fall, progress toward degree requirements and major selection. Remove registration hold so students may submit their course selections via Penn In Touch.

• In guiding your advisees towards course selection for the fall, please keep the following in mind. Some students will feel an impulse to "get requirements out of the way," packing their sophomore fall with courses chosen from various requirements lists. If these courses are also chosen with an eye towards a potential major, that can be fine, but it is worth reminding the advisee that requirements can always be fulfilled later. The third semester is a crucial time for trying out any course or field that a student has considered, but not yet studied. It is the last full semester before the major declaration in the spring, and exploration should be a priority.

By second semester freshman year and well into sophomore year, many students find that the classes that they expected to enjoy or in which they thought they would succeed, turn out to be disappointments. Helping these students find new paths can be one of the most interesting aspects of advising. At times, a student discovers that a course taken for other reasons may open up new possibilities for a major. Other students keep their initial focus, but want to find a way to satisfy it through a different major. Here are some suggestions to guide them. All of the major program websites can be accessed from the index of departments and programs. For students who loved biology in high school, but find that the lab sciences at Penn don’t suit them, try:

• Human Biology, a concentration within the Anthropology major.
• Health and Societies, which looks at issues of health and health care from multiple perspectives.
• Philosophy and Science, one of several majors offered by the Philosophy Department, includes courses in the sciences along with a range of philosophy classes. Students who begin studies in international relations with coursework in economics, political science and history may find that they are better suited for a History major with a concentration in diplomatic history or a Political Science major.

Students interested in psychology sometimes find that the emphasis on experimental psychology that characterizes the Penn Psychology major does not suit them. Other possible majors that address the nature of human beings from a different perspective and that may be a better fit include:

• Sociology, which includes a different type of research that may be adapted to a student’s particular interests.
• Anthropology, and particularly cultural anthropology.
• Visual Studies, which blends the science of perception with the study and practice of the visual arts.

Students for whom computing is a fascination but who do not wish to pursue an engineering degree may be interested in a Computer Science major or minor through the Engineering School, or the College majors in Cognitive Science or Logic, Information and Computation, which include courses in computing, psychology, philosophy and linguistics.

Advisors may find the following resources helpful in guiding students toward the exploration of a major:

• Major Advising Program          • Major Dinners and More

• Course and Majors Fair           • Entry Courses to Majors

By March of their sophomore year, students must schedule an appointment to meet with their pre-major advisor, discuss the major and other requirements, and complete an Academic Planning Worksheet on Penn InTouch. At this point, the pre-major advisor approves the worksheet by changing its status to “Official.” Students must then meet with the appropriate undergraduate chair to discuss the major section of the worksheet and have the major declared. Pre-major advisors should use this meeting to check the worksheet to be sure that the restrictions regarding double-counting of major courses in the Sector Requirement are being observed.

Students who have not declared a major by March of their sophomore year will be barred from registering for the next semester until they have declared. In some instances, students in their fourth semester may not yet be able to declare their major of choice. In these cases, it is appropriate to remove the registration hold. These students should declare their majors by September of their junior year.

As students enter their second year in the College, the issue of the major becomes more urgent. Some will remain dedicated to the major they decided on when they first came to Penn. But many will be unsure, having changed direction as a result of courses taken or perhaps just being intimidated by the over fifty majors offered in the College. The advisor/advisee relationship becomes even more important at this critical stage. 

• Meet with returning students during the Course Selection Period, or at least be accessible to those students who have rethought their plans over the summer. Advisees may be referred to the College Office if a change of advisor seems appropriate or as a supplement to the pre-major advisor.
• Meet monthly with students who were placed on probation at the end of their first year.
• Meet with all students individually prior to Advance Registration to discuss progress toward selection of major and how they plan to structure the rest of their undergraduate program. Be sure that the students’ Academic Planning Worksheet on Advisor InTouch is accurate and up-to-date. Remove registration hold so students may submit their course selections via Penn InTouch.
• Assist students in identifying research possibilities and refer them to the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.
• For students interested in study abroad, refer to Penn Abroad.

• In this semester, students should declare a major.
• Review the students’ proposed overall program before they proceed to the major department. At this time, update the Academic Planning Worksheet and change its status to “Official” so the student can finish the major declaration process with his or her major department. This major declaration process needs to be done before the end of spring Advance Registration. The student’s major department will remove the registration hold so students may submit their course selections via Penn InTouch.

Note: To make a worksheet official, click on the “Select Action” pop-up menu in the Worksheet section of the main Advisor InTouch page. From this pop-up menu, select “Status Change.”