Student Success · Updated August 31, 2026
How to Get More Value From Academic Advising
Prepare for advising meetings, understand degree requirements, document decisions, and use advisers as partners rather than substitutes for planning.
Prepare before the meeting
Academic advisers can help students interpret requirements, plan schedules, solve academic problems, and connect with institutional resources. Advising works best when students arrive prepared.
Bring specific questions
Before a meeting, review your degree audit, course catalog, current schedule, and unanswered questions. Identify decisions that need to be made rather than asking only, “What should I take?”
Understand your own requirements
Bring specific questions about prerequisites, course sequencing, graduation requirements, transfer credit, academic policies, and how a change of major might affect progress.
Discuss risks and alternatives
Students should understand their own requirements too. Advisers provide expertise, but students remain responsible for meeting institutional rules. Keeping a personal checklist makes it easier to notice discrepancies.
Document important decisions
Discuss risks and alternatives. If a required course is full, ask what backup plan protects your graduation timeline. If academic performance is slipping, ask about tutoring, reduced loads, withdrawal deadlines, or other support before a problem becomes harder to solve.
Use other campus experts
Document important decisions, especially exceptions or unusual degree plans. Save relevant emails and official approvals.
Academic advising is also one part of a larger support network. Career advisers, librarians, accessibility staff, financial-aid officers, faculty mentors, and tutoring centers may be better suited to particular questions.