Welcome to Advisement Training! If you're new to advising, or maybe you have some experience under your belt, the information here can help you help your students!
Here is a timeline that will help keep you posted on what is coming up month by month.
August
- Welcome email to new students
- Clarification on finding books
- Clarification on different modalities on schedule (ON, OY, HY etc)
- Send reminders on the add/drop deadline. Once classes start, students need to make any schedule changes themselves. Indicate how they can meet with their advisor, tutoring.
- Returning students on Academic Probation. Meet with students to develop success plans.
- New Transfers lists are sent to departments and Coordinators reassign them to Faculty Advisors.
September
- Reminder on last day to drop a course before we enter course withdrawal period
- Academic probation meeting #1
October
- Prepare for Spring registration
- Midterm grades due and are posted
- Contact students with midterm grade of C- or below
- Academic probation meeting #2
- Reminder about regular withdrawal period
November
- PIN Meetings
- New Student menu opens for New Transfers coming in the Spring. They will begin filling out the info sheet and advisor assignments will begin
December
- Communication on how to find grades
- Raise on/off plan flag for AP students
- New Transfers for the Spring semester, registration begins for those with an Orientation date
January
- Academic Probation
- Self evaluations will be due
- Send reminders to AP students to follow steps and set up a meeting to create Success Plan
- Registration continues for New Transfer students for the Spring
February
- Academic Probation Meeting #1
- New Transfers lists are sent to departments and Coordinators reassign them to Faculty Advisors.
- Send reminders on the add/drop deadline. Once classes start, students need to make any schedule changes themselves. Indicate how they can meet with their advisor, tutoring.
March
- Summer courses posted and summer registration opens
- Midterm grades due and are posted
- Contact students with mid-term grades below C-
- Academic Probation Meeting #2
- Prepare students for Fall registration
April
- Advance registration for current students begins (early April)
- Registration times determined by earned hours, not attempted hours
May
- Faculty handoff emails
- Raise on/off plan for AP students
- New transfer students are eligible for self-registration
June
- Registration begins for new freshman students that have an orientation date
July
- Work with new incoming students to build schedules
- Orientation programs throughout the month
You will find some helpful links and tips to help you help your students in this section. And remember, ask the Advisement Coordinator for your major for help along the way or you can email [email protected]. We are all happy to help!
GETTING STARTED....
- Here are the steps to find your advisee caseload:
- Sign in to myOswego
- Faculty Services
- Advisor Menu
- Choose “term selection” for the term you are currently working with
- Download your Advisees
- Select
- You will get a csv spreadsheet that you can manipulate for your purposes
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Also under the Advisor Menu in myOswego, you can look at the Advising Student Profile. Here you can find a wealth of information that will help you and your student. Taking some time to look at all of the links under the student's profile picture is a great way to familiarize yourself with all of the links and options. You will also see who the major advisor, the AP advisor and so on here. By clicking on the name, you will see the oswego.edu email address.
HELPING YOUR STUDENTS HELP THEMSELVES...
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If you're working with Undeclared majors or helping an advisees look at other majors and/or minors, DegreeWorks has the "What If" function , as mentioned above. You can also look at Major Recommendations.
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As an advisor, you will be able to review requests for minors. You will find those requests on your myOswego, Faculty Services, Advisor Menu, Review Major/Minor Change Requests. The Registrar's Office will send out a notice once a week if you have outstanding items to review.
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For students who want to request a major or minor, they will look under the Student Records tab in their myOswego and choose Request Declaration/Change of Major/Minor. Be sure they submit the first screen (tiny "Submit" button!) and then submit again on the second screen if all requested information is correct. Student then follow up with an email to the Advisement Coordinator Department Contact List for the new major or minor to say they have submitted the request and ask if they need to meet to have the request approved.
- TIP: Not all majors or minors require a meeting - some do. The email also serves as a head's up to the Advisement Coordinator that there is a request to review.
- TIP: some majors and minors will not be approved once registration begins each semester and until advance registration is over
- TIP: Some majors and minors will not be approved if the student does not have a 2.0 average
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The Math Placement Website has a LOT of important information. This site if very handy when working with math-based majors or with students looking at changing their major/minor to one that requires a placement score.
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It is important to have these three links in your toolbox when looking at incoming course credit: Transfer Course Guide, Advance Placement Table, International Baccalaureate (IB) Table . The Transfer Course Guide is also helpful when working on Off-Campus Approval for your advisees.
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EDU 104 Students who register for this course will develop learning strategies to enhance their academic success, such as students on AP. It is a one-credit quarter course and is repeatable for a total of 2 credits. Typically, instructor permission is required. The student should contact the instructor directly via email.
RULES and REG'S....
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Repeating courses rules (not if C- or above, if a major requires a repeat - not all do, if take the repeat at another school)
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Sample emails to students. Copy and paste; modify as needed - no need to reinvent the wheel
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Students who want to withdraw from The College should begin with contacting the Dean Of Students Office. [email protected]
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Student Accounts and Financial Aid - why they are important in advisement (students don't always know their info and may not give full/accurate info!)
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E to F Policy This is most helpful if you have an advisee who changes their major and has E grades in the original major
TIPS....
- Attend all Advisement Trainings. Can't attend?? No worries as they will be recorded for your convenience and can be found on the Advisement Center web pages
- Student Accounts and Financial Aid are important in advisement. Students don't always know their financial information and course changes may have an impact on funding/awards/scholarships. Referring students to these offices is never a bad idea....
- International Students have some special circumstances when it comes to majors, credit load, and more. Please reach out to International Education and Programs for assistance.
- Ask others to listen to complicated scenarios for different perspectives, knowledge, and clarification.
- Everyone has their own system or way of setting up for advisement. Some of us go "paper light" and others go paperless. Do what ever works best for you!
You will find some helpful links and tips to help you help your students in this section. And remember, ask the Advisement Coordinator for your major for help along the way or you can email [email protected]. We are all happy to help!
GETTING STARTED....
- Here are the steps to find your advisee caseload:
- Sign in to myOswego
- Faculty Services
- Advisor Menu
- Choose “term selection” for the term you are currently working with
- Download your Advisees
- Select
- You will get a csv spreadsheet that you can manipulate for your purposes
-
Also under the Advisor Menu in myOswego, you can look at the Advising Student Profile. Here you can find a wealth of information that will help you and your student. Taking some time to look at all of the links under the student's profile picture is a great way to familiarize yourself with all of the links and options. You will also see who the major advisor, the AP advisor and so on here. By clicking on the name, you will see the oswego.edu email address.
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As an advisor, you will be able to review requests for minors. You will find those requests on your myOswego, Faculty Services, Advisor Menu, Review Major/Minor Change Requests. The Registrar's Office will send out a notice once a week if you have outstanding items to review.
MYOSWEGO....
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Here are the links and a short explanation of what you will find on a Student Profile. Again, take some time to click through to familiarize yourself with these tools....
- Curriculum and Courses: Major, minor, catalog term and a list of registered courses for the term that shows just above the profile picture
- Prior Education and Testing: You will find prior education as well as ALEKS scores, if you’re working with a math based major who has a current ALEKS score
- Student Academic Transcript: A great way to look back at an unofficial transcript. Especially useful to look at academic history by semester and when working on a GPA calculation
- Registration Overrides: If you’re giving special permission for a student to add your course, you can get there from here
- Week at a Glance: If you click here, you will see the current course schedule for your student. If you’re interested in looking at a student’s week at during any semester, you can click in the upper-right hand box and add any date in the MM/DD/YYYY format and submit
- You can get to Starfish here. Starfish details are in the separate Starfish section
- Registration and Planning: This link is used when registering new, incoming students in the summer and winter. ***You are not allowed register current students - No matter how easy it may be or how much a student begs…
- View Grades: Students can view their midterm and final grades here. The term for all courses listed is on the right-hand side
- Degree Works: s a great resource for your students and for you! You will find all pertinent information regarding the degree audit and more. A great feature is the has the "What If" function. Looking at major changes and/or minors utilizing "What If" will show you what a degree audit would look like without requesting a change to either the major or minor.
When students submit their request for a new major, their next step is to email the Advisement Coordinator for the intended major.
Advisement Coordinator Responsibilities
All Advisement Coordinators need Banner Access Here is the Advisor assignment instructions in Banner
Faculty Handoff happens a few times each year:
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For First Year students. They will be handed off in May, at the end of the Spring semester.
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For Transfer students. They will be handed off during the first week of each semester, Fall and Spring.
TIP: Remember to send us updates/changes for the Department Contact List
Here is some great information to use when working with your advisees.
Not all advisors have Academic Probation (AP) advisees but knowing the rules and system will still be helpful. You can find some great information here AP Information (you will get a "redirect notice - it's all good!)
There is a handy AP Flow Chart is very helpful - a good visual!
Check out this great Academic Standing Scenarios - PPT! The Associate Deans put it together with some typical scenarios that you may come across. Answers were added to help you along!
Some of our AP students disqualify (fail out) and may come back through the appeals process - some sooner and some later. This link will help with some terminology and procedures DQ FAQ's
STARFISH FLAGS:
AP Advisors will receive their AP advisee's Starfish flags. Once a flag is received, you will reach out to your AP advisee to ask about the flag, ask them to have a conversation with their instructor about the flag to see what can be done to rectify the situation, and ask them to communicate with you and/or meet with you about the flag and all details.
Once the student meets with you/gets back to you, you can "close the loop" or "clear" Low Concern or High Concern flags on Starfish. Adding in a note is best. You can even copy and paste the student's email into the comment box for documentation purposes. You can even add/copy your comments to be sent to the instructor that raised the flag. NOTE: Clearing a flag does not mean that everything is resolved. It means that the flag has been addressed.
Excessive Absence flags are NOT to be cleared by AP Advisors. These flags are to be cleared by the instructor who raised the flag. Should the instructor email the AP Advisor that the flag can be cleared, then it is fine for the advisor to clear that particular flag.
Starfish is an "Early Alert System" used as a collaborative effort between instructors and advisors to identify students who are at risk of failing and allow faculty and staff to communicate and track interventions with students.
You can find some great information and links here: Starfish - Advisement Center (you will be asked to click on the link again....). We offer training and help - just ask!
This list of services/departments may be very helpful to you:
- The Academic Calendar can be added to your Google Calendar to help keep you on track and informed of important academic dates.
- Accessibility Resources provides support services, adaptive technologies, and other assistance required to help all students succeed.
- The Advisement Center has walk-in hours for all students. An added bonus is the addition of student Advisement Guides who are trained to assist you with many things.
- The Advisement Center has live and Zoom workshops each semester. You can also find archived videos as well as handouts and other resources. Workshop Schedule You can also find a helpful Registration Workshop Video.
- Career Services is the place for all of your resume-related needs and much, much more! Navigators can help you with your resume during walk-in hours!
- The Counseling Services Center is located in Walker Health Center and is free for all students. Another service the Counseling Center provides is Let's Talk - a free and informal one-on-one consultation with a counselor and no appointment necessary!
- Our Dean of Students Office can be of assistance in many ways to include Health Promotion, The Student Emergency Fund, Out of Class Notices, and so much more...
- EXCEL - Get the information on internships and co-ops from the experts.
- Financial Aid has a knowledgeable staff will help guide you regarding scholarships, grants, student employment and loans.
- Penfield Library has many resources and helpful staff for students, faculty, and staff.
- Student Accounts will help you with questions about scholarships, aid, and your bill.
- The Tutoring Center and Writing Center are free services and appointments can be made online.
Remember to ask questions if you're not sure of something. Email us at [email protected] and we will be happy to help or we will point you in the right direction!