Advisors here at West Chester University are typically professors, meaning they have classes to teach and mountains of papers and tests to grade. On top of their normal office hours, they need to find the time to meet with students. That being said, I can fully understand why it has been difficult to meet with my advisor in the past. Trying to coordinate schedules usually starts out with my advisor and I playing email tag, and usually, end up communicating via email as our “meeting.” While this is probably the future of our generation, I am always still on edge that my questions were not 100% understood or answered. But when I do not have a flexible schedule and our professors already have enough on their hands, I didn’t really have a place to complain. Thankfully, though, West Chester seems to have answered my prayers and found a solution that will benefit the students and professors!

While reading the school newspaper, "The Quad," I came across an article that was about a new academic advising program the school was trying to initiate this semester. Basically, the school hired people to just be advisors and made it easy to schedule an appointment with them with just a few clicks online. I made an appointment immediately with great hope that this program would be just what I needed. After going to my appointment, I can say without a doubt that this is a program that can be very useful to students here at WCU.

The advisor I met with was fully prepared with all of my paperwork, answered all of my questions completely, and most importantly, was so encouraging! Being a transfer student, my main concern has always been whether or not I will graduate on time and I had always asked advisors in the past whether I was on the right track to do so. While they would never say "no", they would skip around the answer, making me think they just did not want to tell me I was behind. However, I was finally given the reassurance from this new advisor that I was graduating on time and actually was a little ahead of the game!

Now, instead of feeling stressed this semester, I am actually looking forward to making a schedule. Of course, there’s still a chance I won’t get the classes I need, but I will still know what I have to take and that I will be graduating on time. I hope all of my concerns I expressed will be talked about with the department as well so other students do not get as overwhelmed as I have in the past. I also truly hope that this program remains in place at WCU because I believe academic advising is an integral part of college and students should be offered as much guidance as possible. I only wish it had been started sooner and not when I am registering for my senior year! Regardless, though, I will be making an appointment with this program again!