Spring Checklist for College Advisers to Sophomores

• When to contact your advisees
• Where to find your advisee’s contact information
• What your email to your advisees might say
• When to meet with your advisees and for how long
• What to talk about during your advising meetings
• When spring 2020 first-year course schedules are due
• What if …
• What else …

When to contact your advisees

• Please contact your sophomore advisees by Wednesday, January 15 — the third day of the term. (For those of you reading this after that date, now’s the time!)

Where to find your advisees’ contact information

• Your advisees’ contact information, academic record (including fall 2019 grades), and other advising-related information are available via Student Profile (under Advising, 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.
  • N.B. The Registrar’s Office deactivated the Academic Adviser Website (the old advising portal) in fall 2019.

What your email to your advisees might say

• 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)

When to meet with your advisees and for how long

• Plan to meet your advisees twice between January 13-22:
  1. once for a thorough (30-60”) one-on-one meeting
  2. once for a brief (15”) check-in before signing the schedules

Please keep in mind that some sophomores will reach out to their college advisers first, but that college advisers are responsible for taking the initiative to arrange January advising meetings.

What to talk about during your advising meetings

• Your meetings should be holistic in nature and touch on academics (including course selection and distributional requirements for the sophomore year) as well as extracurricular activities, but also — and perhaps more important —they should recap the fall term. You’re encouraged to elicit your advisees’ thoughts on lessons learned and adjustments they plan to make in the spring term, as well as their thoughts about their prospective majors.
• The vast majority of sophomores declare a major by the end of the year, while all undergrads must declare a major by the beginning of the junior year. Sophomores who intend to major in a STEM field but haven’t yet declared a major should be encouraged to do so as soon as possible in order to receive accurate advising on course sequences and major requirements (most students interested in STEM declare the major in their first year).
• Any questions about academics that you don’t know how to handle should be addressed to the dean of your residential college deans or to the relevant DUS. In other words, you’re not expected to know all 2,000 Yale College courses, 80+ majors, and the academic rules and regulations!
• Conversation starters

When spring 2020 sophomore course schedules are due

• 5:00 p.m. on January 23 is the spring 2020 deadline for submitting course schedules for the Class of 2022. All schedules are submitted to the residential college dean’s office
• Students must print a paper copy of their course schedules and procure your “wet” signature by the deadline

What if …

• You’re unable to sign your advisees’ course schedules by the deadline
  • click here for instructions.
• You’re unavailable to meet your advisees before January 23
• inform your residential college dean so that the dean may make alternative arrangements.
• your advisee has declared a major and the DUS has become your advisee’s adviser
• Students are missing from your list of advisees, most likely explanation is:

Only the Registrar’s Office has full access to adviser/advisee matches, so please direct any questions about “missing” advisees to registrar@yale.edu

What else …

• January 17: Monday classes meet on Friday
• January 20: Martin Luther King Jr. Day; classes do not meet
• Spring deadlines
  •  Yale College Calendar with pertinent spring deadlines is available here
  • January deadlines are printed below: