Speed Advising

Advising students in the registration process can seem a little daunting. We anticipate having 1300 students go through the "reg room" in two days. On average, advising and registration take place in 15-20 minutes. How do we get students through this process efficiently, without it seeming like a cattle drive?

First of all, there are a few things to keep in mind. The biggest priority is to make sure the student is well advised. If that takes longer than 15 minutes, then it takes longer. Advising and registration do work efficiently, in general, because students and advisors have prepared for before they get to the reg room.

To that end, the other main point to keep in mind is that this speed advising is first and foremost, advising. Many of the same techniques that help with any advising situation work here, too:

• Make the student feel comfortable: introduce yourself & ask the student's name; ask where they are from, and how they are doing.
• Find out what curriculum they plan to follow and special programs they are in (more on this below). Expect that for some, they not only will not know, the question itself is a source of anxiety. But ask.
• Listen to what they want to take: depending on how much work they have done and what is open (or even appropriate for the program they want to follow), this may have to be revised drastically. But start from where they are.
• An advisor helps students make choices, but the student lives with those choices. Let them drive.

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