Advising day should be for all students

Christina Judy, Staff writer

My advisor does a great job of reaching out to his advisees and reviewing their schedules with them. However, they are expected to have created a schedule prior to meeting with him. This has been troublesome for me in the past because of all the requirements there are for certain majors. As a biology major, most upper-level science classes require various prerequisites before taking them and while the core classes are made readily available, elective courses are very limited in their offerings. The core classes for majors are usually not a problem to get into. There are many classes though that are only offered at very specific times. This causes planning issues for future semesters. For example, there are classes that are applicable to student’s career ambitions that are only offered in the spring of odd years. This is a problem because if a student was not made aware of that class until the fall semester before graduation, they then would have to cram classes in or miss the class they actually wanted to take. I believe it would be most beneficial to meet with our advisors before our registration period to discuss which classes to take in the next semester as well as in future semesters. This would ensure that students are not scrambling at the last minute to add classes and so that they can take all the classes they are interested in while also fulfilling the required classes.I believe freshmen do need to meet with their advisors about scheduling because it is a new system of planning for them. However, continuing to meet with their advisors throughout their time at Mercyhurst would be most helpful to their success. Many students switch out of their major and declare a different field of study and with that comes many new classes and requirements which they might not be aware of unless meeting with their advisor. As someone who has switched majors a few times, meeting with my new advisor was really helpful in navigating planning out my schedule as well as looking into what classes to take in the future. This is why it is so important for all students, regardless of the status of their time at Mercyhurst, to meet with their advisor every semester before registration. Receiving clarity about questions or potential schedule conflicts can help students avoid a stressful and overloaded schedule. Packing classes students did not know they had to take in a few semesters takes a lot of fun away from a student’s social life and could impact how they perform on exams or other various assessments. It also makes those classes less enjoyable as they will be more stressed about their workload. For the most part, students enjoy taking classes for their major because they have a genuine interest in the course content. But when students feel overwhelmed with their workload, it becomes less about enjoying what they are learning and more about just passing all of their classes.I have run into the issue of being overloaded with core classes and it has caused many scheduling conflicts in my future semesters. I have a lot of required courses that run at the same time during the day. This conflict has caused me to have to push classes off to other semesters which has been difficult in planning extracurricular activities such as a job and sports. I do not feel confident getting into classes because many other students have to take the same classes I do and there are a lot of time conflicts, so this leads to many wait-lists being formed. If students consistently met with their advisors, they would have a reduced chance of running into this issue. This would also help students feel more confident and comfortable about what is in store for their future at Mercyhurst.