Students at Andover are blessed and challenged with nearly 300 distinct academic courses, a wide array of requirements and an even larger array of possibilities. Because of this, students should not have to navigate Phillips Academy’s classrooms alone, and yet many do. The current disparity in the advising system is unacceptable and unfair. When it comes to academic advising, PA is settling for mediocrity. Students need special guidance throughout their time at Andover. What if you want to take two languages? Theatre 520? An English elective as an Upper, or Math 650 as a Junior? The majority of students who have not decided on a particular passion are still faced with crucial decisions. Which science should they use to fill their requirement? Six classes or five? How many hard classes can they take at a time? Academic advisors when faced with such questions are more than facilitators for the course selection process; he or she should be a student’s academic insider and advocate. The advisor’s significance is such that a lackluster advisor can ruin a student’s term, while a superb advisor can enrich a student’s PA experience. Day student advisors have a different set of responsibilities and a different set of problems. The problem with boarding student advisors is that they are given very few responsibilities at all. Parents meet and contact house counselors, not academic advisors, and many times concerned teachers turn to house counselors as well. Boarders receive midterms not from advisors, but house counselors, which sends a confusing message as to who is really responsible for the student’s academic life. When a student is failing a course, the center for response coordination is again usually with house counselors, not advisors. Advisors are assigned by cluster and dorm, and while a good concept in theory, in practice the overlap of job responsibilities of house counselors and academic advisors creates holes in the system, instead of preventing them. Because advisors have no clearly defined role in a student’s life, many step back, leaving the student to identify their own needs and aspirations, and simply available for course sign-ups and crisis management. Few students, fewer than 50 in fact, switch advisors every year. Yet most students are not using their advisors to their full potential, and most advisors are not acting up to it. To improve the advising system, perceptions of the advisor’s role in student’s lives must be altered. Advisors should distribute and discuss midterms and should have to meet with parents during Parents’ Weekend. Expectations of the advisor position must be raised. What should an advisor be? An advisor should be a counselor very familiar with the courses offered. Advisors forgetting basic requirements, which does occur, is simply unacceptable, as are the many advisors who do nothing more than remind you to fulfill basic requirements. Though there are some non-academic faculty who serve as exceptional advisors, for the most part advisors should be teachers or administration working in relevant departments. There needs to be more formal training, with explicate emphasis on these raised expectations. On-the-job practice may work well for the advisor, but rarely turns out well for his or her unfortunate advisees. While faculty can certainly be trusted to read the online advising handbook, handbooks can never replace the importance of personal meetings. Perhaps advisors should “shadow” advising meetings spring term before they begin. Advisors should know the student equally well and understand their interests, strengths and weaknesses. Advisors that meet once a term with their advisees, or that do not realize their advisees are in danger until that D appears on the midterm, or even simply fail to know their advisee’s favorite subject and main extracurricular are failing the students. Individual meetings with advisees should be mandatory, with a minimum of one or two a term. Most importantly, students should have input when choosing their advisors. Different advisors will inevitably have different styles, and it is inherently unfair to randomly assign students to a system that is impossible to streamline. Students should be asked if they have a specific interest they might want an advisor to be knowledgeable about. They should be asked about preferred advising styles; how hands-on do you want your advisor to be? They should have the option of an advisor related to their cluster or dorm, but also the option of avoiding this and getting to know a faculty member they might otherwise not. A well-trained, prepared, dedicated and involved advisor can change your PA experience in ways that no one else can. What classes a student takes might seem like simple decisions, but these decisions ultimately lie at the heart of the PA experience. That there is no clear and regulated guidance for making these decisions is a serious mistake, and the upcoming Advising Council should be thorough in their review and ambitious in their changes. Many students have an exemplary advising experience, but many do not, and PA needs to aim higher.
