Meeting your advisees. Meet twice with your advisees before spring schedules are due. During the first of your these two mid-January meetings,
- Focus more intently on reviewing your advisees’ fall terms and winter breaks
- Assist them in drawing up a tentative schedule of courses for the spring semester
- Ask them to articulate why they have included the courses they have on their shopping wish lists
- Review their distributional requirements
- Ask gently about major plans or, at least, about fields and areas of interest
- Inquire about co-curricular or extracurricular activities
- Mention that at the end of this term, they will need to select a sophomore adviser (in April) and the importance of getting to know at least one faculty member who can serve in that capacity next year
During the second of these mid-January meetings,
- Ask if they added or dropped any courses from their spring course wish lists since your previous meeting. Why? What changed?
- Check to make sure they feel comfortable with their schedules as presented to you
- Inquire about co-curricular or extracurricular activities: too many, or just the right amount?
- Bring up any other thoughts or suggestions you might have
- Sign their schedules
Template for email message, suggested by a current freshman adviser (personalize, edit and adjust as needed):
Dear ***, I hope you enjoyed the holiday break and are now ready to be take on your second semester at Yale. I would like to meet with you in the next few days to review your course selection for the spring semester, which is due by 5 pm on Wednesday, January 21. I will be in my office between 3 and 4:30 on Friday, January *** and can arrange to meet on Monday afternoon at your pleasure. Please let me know when you’d like to meet. I look forward to catching up with you and reviewing your selections.
Freshman year goals
- Identify and become familiar with resources available at Yale
- Explore the curriculum and potential majors
- Complete freshman distributional requirements
- Explore summer (and post-graduate) plans
- Select a sophomore adviser
Language courses. Did your freshman take an L1 (first-semester elementary) language course? If so, s/he needs to complete L2 (the second semester of the same language) in order to get credit for both semesters.
Small courses or seminars. Did your freshman take a seminar or small course in the fall? If not, encourage him or her to take one in the spring.
Writing courses. Did your freshman take a WR course in the fall? If not, encourage him or her to take one in the spring, especially ENGL 114b, 115b or 121b (See Spring 2015 Information and Materials for English Department information, including introductory writing and literature courses).
Distributional requirements. Did your freshman begin working on his or her distribution requirements in the fall? Go over the number of WR/QR/FL course s/he took to make sure that, by the second semester of enrollment, s/he will have completed
- one course credit in
- two out of the three required skills categories
- WR (writing skills)
- QR (quantitative skills)
- foreign language
- two out of the three required skills categories
Click here to see the distributional requirements chart.
Course credits: too few? Did your freshman drop a course last semester? Discuss ways of making up the credit, if necessary (with a summer course; by taking an additional” course in the spring semester or in the sophomore year, etc.). Keep in mind that a student must have earned at least eight course credits at the end of the second term.
Course credits: too many? Does your advisee plan to take 6 or more credits in the spring? If so, s/he must obtain permission from his or her residential college dean.
Credit/D/Fail. Remind your advisee of the credit/D/fail option, especially in the context of a new subject area that s/he would like to explore or in order to accommodate an “extra” course that s/he would like to add to his or her course schedule. A student may apply up to four credits earned on the credit/D/fail basis toward the bachelor’s degree, and as many as two course credits may be elected on that basis in any given term.
Internships. Your freshman or sophomore advisees may ask you about internships. Most will find deadlines occurring in January-February, so the beginning of the spring semester is also a good time for you to inquire about their your plans for the summer.
Selecting a sophomore adviser. In the spring semester, freshmen are asked to find a faculty member in Yale College to be their academic adviser for their sophomore year. Students must find an advisor before submitting their fall semester schedule as sophomores. Did your freshman get to know (and like) any of his or her fall semester professors? Remind your freshman that s/he will have to pick a sophomore adviser by the end of the term. You may serve as a sophomore adviser in a pinch (if you are a member of the faculty), but it is best for your advisee to choose a faculty member from a subject area in which s/he might major. Encourage your freshman to get to know a faculty member by talking to a professor after class, attending office hours, inviting him or her to lunch, etc.
Additional information on selecting a sophomore adviser is available here.
What to do if you are unable to sign your advisees’ schedule on time. The possibility of snowfall or inclement weather is always with us in January. If you are unable to sign your advisees’ schedules because of inclement weather, illness (yours or theirs) or another legitimate reason, this is what you and your advisees should do:
1. Your advisees turn in an original copy of their schedules on time, on the appointed day, to their residential college dean’s office (or to the dean’s administrative assistant). Such schedules are considered to have been turned in on time and no late fines are levied.
2. Your advisees then obtain a photocopy of their schedules from the dean (or the A.A.).
3. Your advisees then have one week to obtain your signature on the photocopy of their schedules.
4. Any schedule turned in after one week is considered late, with two consequences for the student
- A fine of $50 is levied;
- The Credit/D/Fail option is rescinded for that student, for that semester.
If you find yourself unable to sign your advisees’ schedules, it would be a courtesy on your part to apprise the dean of your residential college of that situation, including the names of your advisees in your phone call or email.
See also the Yale College Program of Study, “Deadline for submitting schedules” (“It is the student’s responsibility to obtain all necessary signatures, except that of the residential college dean, before the schedule is due. In the rare instance that the student’s adviser is unavailable before the deadline, the student should nonetheless submit the schedule on time, and take a copy to be signed by the adviser and submitted to the dean as soon as possible. If the student does not submit a copy of the schedule signed by the adviser within one week of the deadline, the student will be subject to the fines and restrictions described under paragraphs 3 and 4 below”).