Spring Checklist for College Advisers to First-Years

When to contact and meet with your advisees

Your advisees (along with all other Yale College students) registered for spring courses at the end of the fall term, but some things may have changed over winter break:

  • their thoughts about a future major, summer study abroad possibilities, or interests may have changed
  • they may have learned that they were not accepted into a limited-enrollment course they registered for in late fall and now need to adjust their course schedule during add/drop period

► For those reasons, your advisees will appreciate hearing from you in early January or at the start of the spring term to schedule a meeting during the first two weeks of the spring term.

We recommend a minimum half-hour meeting, but some meetings may be shorter or longer.

See also: Meeting Your First-Year Advisees: An In-Depth Discussion and First-Year Advising Timeline

Where to find your advisees’ contact information

Your advisees’ contact information, grades, and other advising-related information are available via Student Profile (under “DUS, and DGS Resources” on the Registrar’s Office’s website). The URL for Student Profile, for those who want to bookmark it, is https://studentsystems.yale.edu/StudentSelfService/ssb/termSelection.

Your advisees’ Student Profiles pages also include links to “Supplemental Advisee Info” (biographical information) and “View Grades” (see below for location of links). GPAs are listed on the top right.

What to say in your email to your advisees

  • Your welcome-back email might contain words of greeting plus the dates and times you’ve set aside for one-on-one advising meetings (or a link to your calendaring app)

What to talk about during your advising meetings

  • Your spring-term meetings should be holistic in nature (academics, including course selection, and extracurricular activities, but also — and perhaps more important — a recap of the fall term, including your advisees’ thoughts on lessons learned and adjustments they plan to make in their second term at Yale.
  • First-years who intend to major in a STEM field normally declare a major by the end of the first year. Nearly all other students wait until the sophomore year — and generally the end of the sophomore year — to declare a major. For those students, their second term at Yale is still a term of exploration and they should be reassured if they don’t have a major selected after a single term of college.
  • You’re not expected to know all 2,000 Yale College courses, 80+ majors, and the academic rules and regulations. Any questions about academics that you don’t know how to handle should be addressed to the dean of your residential college,  to the relevant DUS, or to advising@yale.edu.
  • Also helpful are First-Year Academics,  Goals of College Advising, and Conversation starters

When are spring course schedules are due?

  • Students must finalize their course schedules by 5:00 p.m. on the last day of add/drop period. See the University Registrar’s Registration Calendar for dates.

What if …

  • You’re unavailable to meet your advisees this spring?
    • inform your residential college dean so that the dean may make alternative arrangements.
  • Students are missing from your list of advisees?
    • there are two possible explanations:
      • your advisee has selected a new college adviser for the spring term
      • your advisee has declared a major and the DUS has become your advisee’s adviser
    • only the University Registrar’s Office has full access to adviser/advisee matches, so please direct any questions about “missing” advisees to registrar@yale.edu

What else …

  • Spring deadlines
    •  the Yale College Calendar with pertinent spring deadlines, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when classes do not meet, is available here