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Academic Advising: How Your Student—and You!—Can Get the Most Out of Your Dartmouth Experience

Q&A with Cecilia Gaposchkin, Assistant Dean of Faculty for Pre-Major Advising

Good Advice: Be Proactive

How does student advising at Dartmouth work?
The system is made up of a host of different resources and people that students can seek out at different points during their academic careers. The advice students need changes from year to year. The first year is one of exploration. Entering students are assigned an academic advisor from the faculty based on the areas of interest they indicated on their college applications. But first-year advising is tricky. It's a blind date. The first-year advising program mostly exists to explain to students how to take advantage of Dartmouth's larger, networking culture of student-faculty interaction.

So sophomore year advising is different?
It is. If the first year is one of exploration, the sophomore year is a year of decision-making. It's when students must choose their major. And they have a lot to choose from, because Dartmouth is very flexible about double majors, special majors, modified majors, minors, and so forth. Further complicating all this is Dartmouth's unique D-Plan, which allows for a wide variety of off-campus study options. So this can be a time of indecision and anxiety for students. Also consider that sophomores have no single, officially assigned advisor. This is by design, because experience shows that no single advisor will likely be able to provide the full range of advice that sophomores need. The goal is to encourage sophomores to develop advising relationships with faculty and staff that suit the student's individual needs. We want students to be able to navigate the process with confidence.

You mentioned Dartmouth's networking culture. What does that mean?
The first-year advising program is just to get the ball rolling. The larger network, the larger culture of advising, is less formalized, but more important. First-year advising is only the first step in the whole network and set of responsibilities. As students engage in their half of that responsibility, they can get great advising, but it's not going to be delivered to them in their dorm room like a pizza. Advice is there to be had, but students need to be proactive in seeking out that advice. I don't know a faculty member here who wouldn't meet with a student. We don't turn students away.

What is your role in this system?
I work half time as the assistant dean of faculty for pre-major advising, and half time teaching medieval history. One of my real interests as assistant dean is to try to systemize and improve the experience for second-year students. I advise the faculty who serve as student advisors. We're incredibly committed to the idea that advising is part of teaching. We want our faculty to do it. We get about twenty-five or thirty new faculty in a given year, and I've instituted a training session for them every spring to explain Dartmouth's philosophy of advising and what they need to know to do it properly.

Do you think they enjoy that role?
Many faculty really love the mentoring and teaching aspect. That's why they end up at a place like Dartmouth. It is really satisfying to teach and mentor a student who is interested in what you have devoted your life to.

Are there other advising resources available to students?
There are many. They include the upper-class deans, departmental administrators, Career Services, the Academic Skills Center, graduate assistants and community directors. If students are reluctant to approach faculty members, there are two excellent student-run advising programs. The Dean's Office Student Consultants (DOSC) are recruited, trained, and paid by the Upper-class Dean's Office to serve as peer advisors. They're great. Then there's the Peer Academic Link (PAL), a network of about 140 upper-class men and women who have agreed to share their perspectives on their classes, courses of study, and other academic experiences.

Can you talk about the panel discussion you will lead at First-Year Parents Weekend?
I've recruited four seniors I've worked with before. They are wonderfully articulate and very representative of our Dartmouth students. I've asked them to talk about their experience with advising--what worked or didn't work for them, what mistakes and assumptions they made, and any misunderstandings they had.

Learn more about pre-major advising.