Prior to their first year, students are assigned an academic advisor who guides them through their first two years until they declare their major. The system of assigning academic advisors to students was updated this year to allow for better matches based on shared interests and advisor preferences. The Chronicle’s Ryan Zhang spoke with students about their experiences with the advising system under its previous and current formats.
“Generally it’s been pretty good. Occasionally, they’re busy people, so they don’t really have time to ask you what you truly want. There are some flaws, but I guess I’m pretty happy with it.”
—junior Jimmy Zhang
“I feel like some freshmen come in with an idea of what they want to do—pre-med, pre-business—but that doesn’t always work out…. [In the new system] if you suddenly decide to change your mind, your advisor isn’t as helpful.”
—sophomore Diana Lam
“It’d be better to have an advisor that has some sort of clue in the field of study that you’re interested in.”
—senior Jacqueline Jast
“My advisor was really helpful in broadening my perspective on which courses I could take over the next few years at Duke. Even though my advisor right now doesn’t focus on the same specialty that I want to major in, he pointed me in the right direction and gave me some new ideas on courses that I could take if I was interested in his specialty.”
—first-year Sai Nimmagadda
“I think that the pre-advisor program is helpful, because when I came here I didn’t know what classes to take to go towards the major I wanted to go to…. He still helped me determine who I should talk to about the major I wanted to take. He also helped me choose classes and gave me a lot of advice about what past students said about certain classes.”
—junior Kirstie James
“Academically we had no overlap but I still really liked [my advisor]. Academics-wise she wasn’t super helpful…but she was really helpful in talking about DukeEngage and summer programs, and she directed me towards who would help me.”
—sophomore Julia Bellantoni
“I met with her at the required times to get approved for enrollment…she was helpful, but I think helpful in just the general sense that she gave all of her advisees attention because she had a small number. In terms of more specific questions, I’d go to the department.”
—junior Joseph Wu
“He actually saved my schedule. I had signed up for an econ class that I really didn’t need to take, so I’m really glad I have my academic advisor.”
—first-year Cameron Valadez
“I really like my advisor. He’s been good so far. I’ve never had to ask him any tough questions, I’ve always kind of known what classes I was going to take and what I wanted to do with my life.”
—sophomore Tom Vosburgh
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