Students forgo academic advising

Academic advising is being taken for granted on a national level, and students are paying for it, recent surveys show.

Results released this month from the National Survey of Student Engagement show 60 percent of college students say they don’t use their academic adviser as their primary source of information and guidance to get through school.

Though IU didn’t participate in the survey this year, the University’s 2012 results revealed IU students are on level with most of the country’s college students who forgo their adviser, NSSE’s Associate Director Jillian Kinzie said.

“I was most alarmed by the one in 10 that never go,” Kinzie said. “There’s just so much advisers have to share with students, and they’re not taking advantage of it like they should.”

Some students register for classes they don’t need and miss out on those they do, which leads to the loss of time and money, Kinzie said.

According to research group Complete College America, Indiana students spend an average of 18 credit hours at college that don’t count toward their degrees. That equals the cost of a full semester’s worth of classes.

Though students who get off track can catch up before it’s too late to graduate on time, most don’t, CCA has found.

Fewer than half of students receiving a bachelor’s degree earn the credits they expected to in their first year, according to CCA’s results, and only 14 percent of students in Indiana graduate in four years.

Erin Ritchie, a senior at IU who isn’t sure if she will graduate in the summer or next fall, said advising has become especially crucial in her last year here.

Though she’ll graduate late because she switched her major at the end of her junior year, she said her adviser has helped her minimize the extra time she would have to spend finishing her degree.

“They know shortcuts that can help you get done earlier,” Ritchie said. “They know which classes count for two kinds of requirements, tricks like that.”

She met with her new adviser three times before registering for spring classes.
“I need all the help I can get now,” she said. “I need to be done.”

But Kinzie said students realize much too late they should have talked to an adviser. She said too many get by for too long on just talking to friends.

About a third of freshmen and 18 percent of seniors use friends and family for advice, and another 18 percent rely on other university faculty, according to NSSE.

Kinzie said though consulting with peers in similar fields of study is a good idea, students are missing out on the expert advice their advisers are paid to relay.

The national average expected salary for a college adviser is $41,785, and CCA says the national ratio of advisers to students is 1 to 367.

But when 60 percent —220 of that 367 — aren't showing up, advisers can do only a fraction of the work they’re paid to do.

Justin Otten, undergraduate advisor for the School of Fine Arts, said the lack of attendance is frustrating.

He said about a quarter of his appointments never show up, and most no-shows aren’t even courteous enough to cancel ahead of time.

“I’ll prepare for a student to show up, pull out their file and then they don’t come,” Otten said. “It’s a waste of my time, and it’s irresponsible on their part. Not to mention that it’s time gone that another student could have come in to talk to me.”

Otten sends a weekly “Studio Art Digest” email to his students, packed with information about job, volunteer and internship opportunities.

But students also don’t get the response Otten wishes for, he said.

“A huge issue is students just don’t check their email. I know they don’t,” he said. “We’re not holding hands here. This is the way I let students know of things going on. If they don’t read or choose to ignore their email, they miss out. And it’s just too bad.”
Statistics suggest the reason students skimp on advising is not because of a lack of advising efforts.

“Seventy-five percent of students reported their advisor was readily available and they were happy with the services they received,” Kinzie said. “For some reason, it’s just getting them in the door. That’s the problem.”

If students would just go, Kinzie said they’d find out their advisers’ assistance can reach above and beyond typical class planning.

“We just want students to take ownership of their education and the opportunities available to them,” Kinzie said. “They could achieve a lot more if they took the time to get help.”

Follow Ashley Jenkins on Twitter @ashley_morga.