What to expect from academic advising?
How can academic advisers help you?
Through its eight undergraduate colleges, NU offers more than 140 majors - and even more minors. Given this variety, how do you decide on a major or minor? What is the time-line for making your decision? What factors should you consider?
Notice that we're discussing a decision that you are making. You will be taking the initiative, -- you will need to form the questions and gather the information you need to make your decision. In doing so, you will find that your academic adviser is a valuable resource.
What you can expect from your academic adviser.
- Information about requirements for degrees, majors and minors, as well as, college policies and procedures.
- Description of course options and useful campus resources.
- Discussion of alternative strategies for achieving your academic objectives.
- Explanation of procedure for transferring courses from another university or college to satisfy degree which may transfer
- Knowledge of the processes that may be useful should you have academic difficulty; e.g., grade appeals, dismissal appeals, course drop or withdrawal policies, academic bankruptcy.
From this list, you can begin to see that academic advisers are a resource. They can provide you information that will allow you to determine your options, -- but they cannot make decisions for you.
A word of advice --- Do not wait too long to talk with your adviser. If you have a problem, it generally will not go away. Talk with your adviser early. Explore your options with your adviser before the problem gets worse.
Utilizing faculty, professional and peer academic advisers.
Many colleges or departments have an academic advising office staffed with professional and peer academic advisers -- other colleges rely on their faculty to provide all academic advising. If you are in a college which has an academic advising office, you should expect that your faculty adviser will talk with you about choices within your major, as well as, career options and internship opportunities and that the professional and peer academic advisers in the academic advising office will meet your other advising needs.
Why academic advisers are located in colleges and General Studies.
Academic advising at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is offered through its eight undergraduate colleges, UNO units (College of Public Affairs and Community Service, College of Nursing) and the Division of General Studies. The faculty of each of the eight undergraduate colleges establish the requirements for degrees, majors and minors offered by their particular college, and these requirements will not be the same for each of the eight undergraduate colleges. As these requirements will guide your course selection, your first decision should be: "What college offers the majors or minors which you are thinking about?" The academic advisers within that college will be best able to guide your course selection and enable you to make steady progress toward meeting degree requirements. If you are trying to decide between several majors which are offered by different colleges, you will be advised by the Division of General Studies which will help you chose courses that should meet the requirements of several different degrees or majors offered through the nine undergraduate colleges. You would continue to be advised by the Division of General Studies until you select a college - and then you will change to an academic adviser within that college.
