How to make the appointment

• You might consider setting up a Teams advising site for announcements, appointments, calendar, deadlines and documents. 

• Prioritize appointments based on registration dates: Start with Veterans, “Special Populations”, and seniors.

• Print a list of advisees to track whom you have and haven’t see to make sure none are missed  

• Schedule in breaks to combat your meeting fatigue. 

• Some students are anxious about the coming semester, and contact their advisor asking to meet long before the advising period begins. Most come to understand the rhythms of the semester as they gain more experience. It is appropriate to tell early birds your plan for the advising period and to reassure them you will be in touch with plenty of time for them to prepare. 

• Some faculty wrap up advising before any registration days open. Others stagger their appointments to meet with first and second years after upper class students have started registering. They may include late responders and follow up appointments with upper class students during this time, 

• It is appropriate to send a reminder or two to students who do not respond to the initial sign up prompt. Some faculty send these at the one week mark then a few days before advising ends.  

• For the student’s development, it is important not to violate your own or college policies about advising meetings. If the student fails to meet with you for required advising, does not reschedule after coming unprepared, or otherwise does not complete follow-up actions agreed to, you should not give way to pressure to release their registration access code simply because their registration date has arrived. Mandatory advising is intended to prevent random course selections that can hamper degree progress, and students need to learn that actions have consequences. 

(You can also download this sample email.)

Sample email soliciting sign up for advising appointment 

Greetings! 

It is time to meet to talk about your midterm grades and to plan for the coming semester.  

[For mandatory advising only: You must meet with me in person in order to obtain your registration access code (RAC).]

Please use the check list below/ pre-advising form attached to get ready to we can make the most of our time together.

Looking forward to our conversation, 

Professor X 

CHECKLIST

Make your appointment

• Please sign up for an appointment using this link: [insert as appropriate].  
• Please note: all appointments will be in [office location or Zoom office link]. 

Prepare your documents

• Check your midterm grades in Homer. For any course(s) of concern, check the syllabus to see how much of your grade is still to be determined 
• If you haven’t already, have and Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate scores and dual enrollment or transfer transcripts sent to the Ithaca College registrar, and note these in your plans.
• Check your scores on math and any language placement tests in Homer before making your wish list for the coming semester.

Plan your path

• Watch the how-to videos and do a degree evaluation (and What If) to consider your progress as well as the potential impact of changing your major or ICC theme, adding a minor, etc.
• [If your major has a published four-year plan for sequence of courses: Compare your progress towards the degree with the attached semester maps and make note of any differences for us to discuss.
• [If your major does not have a published four-year plan for sequence of courses: Draft a map of course work for each remaining semester to ensure on-time graduation and desired experiences such as study abroad and internships.]

Plan your schedule

• Make a wish list of courses for next semester that includes ICC, major and minor courses, and include the Course Registration Numbers (CRNs) and modality (face to face, hybrid, online synchronous, online asynchronous) for each. Come with third and fourth choices for each course.
• Go beyond course titles and read the descriptions in the catalog to avoid unpleasant surprises.
• Consider PALS courses (health, wellness, credits!) as well as ICIC courses (integrative learning 1-credits). 
• Don’t schedule too many back-to-back online courses to mitigate screen fatigue, and leave enough time to switch between online and in-person classes, since there might not be many spaces on campus for you to sit down and log in to an online class.

ALTERNATIVE TO CHECKLIST

[If using a departmental or personal pre-advising form, attach or include link and this statement:

Complete and submit this pre-advising 24 hours in advance of our appointment.]

Final email reminder for advising meeting 

Greetings! 

Registration season begins on [date] and I am concerned that despite my two other messages to you, you have not made an appointment with me to discuss your current progress and your plan for the coming semester.  

You must meet with me in person in order to obtain your registration access code (RAC). Please sign up for an appointment using this link: [insert as appropriate]. I cannot give you your code if we do not meet. 

If you are struggling this semester, I can help you make a recovery plan or decide if withdrawing from the class might be a strategy for protecting your grade point average. But I cannot help you if we do not meet. If the delay was just because you are busy, we can talk about that too. The bottom line is we need to meet.  

Please make an appointment at this link [insert link], and gather the materials listed in my initial message below.  Please note: our meeting will be in [office location or Zoom office link]. 

Most sincerely, 

Professor X

• One option is to do two-step advising: Meet all advisees in a group in week one then individually in the second week to catch anyone who's having a hard time; this reduces repetition and follow-up emails 

• Another option is to do small group meetings as longer sessions devoted to providing step-by-step instructions for deciphering the degree audit so that it becomes a meaningful and useful planning tool. The small group sessions are intended to foster independence so that students can learn to manage their own programs.  Having upper class students coach newer students in this session builds community. 

• As a third approach, students are required to bring their degree audits to small group sessions. Under faculty or peer leader guidance, they identify courses needed, calculate total credits, figure remaining credits, and compute the number of remaining semesters. Students are instructed to align  a Sample Semesters, Schematic or Advising sheet with the degree evaluation to outline remaining semesters. As students work through this process, the abstract nature of program planning becomes more concrete.