SOPHOMORE ADVISING

General Requirements

During the sophomore year it is especially important to take a look at how the advisee is progressing toward fulfilling the general college requirements (formal reasoning, etc.). The "Wells College General Requirement Check-Off" (part of the WLLS 101 faculty’s advising folder or available from the Director of Academic Advising) can be helpful in keeping track of what a student still needs to do. Sophomores need to be encouraged (sometimes heavy-handedly) to finish fulfilling general requirements (except in the case of budding BCS majors, who have to take a lot of early courses in the BCS pre-requisite structure and need to branch out later with their general requirements). An advising nightmare (sometimes a graduation nightmare) is prevented by a student NOT leaving, say, the formal reasoning requirement, or the natural science requirement, or he arts requirement, or 102 of a foreign language, or, or, or, until the spring of her senior year.

If she is delaying a certain type of requirement, there may be an element of fear or revulsion involved. Helpful strategies are:

• Point out that college courses are different from high school courses. If she has had a bad experience in HS, the same subject area may well be a very different experience here.
• Remember the pass/fail option (available for one course per semester). The form is the same as the POI /audit form and can be filed through the 10^th class day. Such courses cannot be used for the major or minor, however. Hot tip: petitions to change a course from letter grade to pass/fail that are filed much beyond the deadline are not likely to pass.
• Point out college resources available to her (Janet Snoyer, student T.A.s, Writing Center, Math Clinic, PROFESSORS!).
• Help her think of different ways of fulfilling requirements. (Examples: If she has had 5 years of one foreign language but placed into 101, perhaps she should try another. If she absolutely hates US history, try Russian history. Eventually she may find it in her heart to try US history again, we would hope!)

Declaring a major

Many sophomores have some idea of what their major might be. For some it is a very difficult decision – either they have NO idea, or they are trying to decide among several choices. The latter group needs sympathetic guidance. Some tips:

• Your major is not (TRULY) the most important decision in your life, and does not determine your career for life. Many of our alums end up in careers seemingly very unrelated to their majors.
• Breadth and flexibility are the most important content aspect of their education. Skills (getting at information, analyzing information, presenting information orally or in writing¼ ) are going to help them, whatever the major and whatever the occupation.
• Students can and should speak with faculty and students in any area of interest.
• A combination of a major and a minor can give a student some depth in more than one field.
• Internships can be helpful in focusing a student toward, or away from, a career of interest.
• Take a look again at the "Beginning Courses to take in Majors" part of this web site, and at the catalogue, and see if the student really needs something ASAP in a particular major, regardless if the student actually ends up in that major, to avoid needing more than four years to graduate: http://aurora.wells.edu/~advising/majbeg2.htm

Sophomores can continue to use their course registration to explore various fields, except for majors like BCS that have heavy requirements and a step-like pre-requisite structure.

For a small group of sophomores, the advisor may have to guide them sympathetically away from a major that they have, in fact, started, but in which they are doing very badly. Occasionally sophomores suffer loss of their own dreams, or of family dreams, about potential careers, not to mention changes in self-image. In these cases, striking the balance between firm and gentle can be difficult.

Malaise

For some sophomores "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence," that is, at the school to which they want to transfer. Help them discover the "green grass" here, as well as solutions to problems for which there are solutions, but they have not known how to pursue solutions. If you do not know to whom a student should be referred, the Director of Academic Advising or the Dean of Students may be helpful.

Off-campus study is good for this group, as well as for satisfied students.

Minimum academic standards increase with each semester (see the Catalog, p. 62). By the end of the sophomore year, students must achieve a minimum cumulative GPA of 1.9, with at least 48 accumulated hours, to remain in good academic standing. Even before mid-semester grade time it would be a good idea to speak with your advisees about how they are doing – not with a question to which they can answer with "OK." Instead of saying, "How do you feel you are doing?" ask, for instance, "What do you see as your strengths or weakness in approaching this course?" or, "What do you find easy and what do you find hard in this course?" or, "This catalogue description is so short -- what sorts of topics and assignments come up in this course?" or, more directly, "What kinds of grades are you getting on your exams and homework?" -- questions that will be more likely to get at what is happening with that student in a course. If you receive advisor copies of mid-semester warnings, as always, call the student in for a talk about how to re-coup in that course; she should also speak with the instructor of the course.

This page (Sophomore Advising) is maintained by Diane Koester, Associate Dean for Academic and Learning Resources and Director of Academic Advising, who is solely responsible for its content. Please see our Statement of Responsibility. Last updated June 7, 2005.

Return to Advising at Wells College (top-level page on advising).