Advising is an integral part of the teaching and learning mission of MSU. In the one-on-one advising relationship, students are guided in the kind of systematic thinking, knowledge integration and decision making they will need throughout their college career.

As you approach this advising season, here are a few pro tips on academic advising that you may already practice but may find helpful as a reminder.

  • Ahead of time, review the curriculum to make sure you are familiar with the requirements for degree, paying attention to recent catalog changes and multi-semester prerequisite chains.
  • When the student arrives, get to know them and ask them generally how the semester is going.
  • Confirm what classes they are taking currently and how they are doing in them.
  • Use DegreeWorks to see how they are progressing towards degree and review notes from prior advising meetings. You can access DegreeWorks from the Advising tab in MyInfo.
  • When discussing classes for the next semester, start by asking them what they are thinking to place some of the ownership on the student.
  • Consider working with the student to plan out the remainder of their path to graduation by semester.
  • Before ending the session, ask if there is anything else they would like to ask about or discuss.
  • Finally, be sure to document the advising session in a note in DegreeWorks and give the student their registration PIN.

Use navMSU to easily connect with your advisees.  You may use this platform to create an appointment campaign to set up available times for appointments, sync with your Outlook calendar; send mass email notifications to your assigned advisees, and set up automatic reminders to be sent to students. navMSU also allows students to cancel or reschedule appointments, and sync changes automatically to your calendar so you do not need to manage them.

Advising Commons has several resources to help you as an effective academic advisor, including:

The Division of Students Success provides Faculty and Staff Tools for Student Success.

The Alan Yarnell Center for Student Success website has the following resources to help students and advisors: