University students predictably hit the ground running with their schoolwork as soon as they return to Grounds. This, combined with balancing extracurriculars and social life, can leave students feeling stretched thin.
The advising system at the University purportedly exists to ease this burden, guiding students through course selection, prerequisites and long-term planning. However, many University students — even in the wake of recent changes to advising — find themselves frustrated with the advising process, citing confusion and a lack of personal connection and communication.
This year, the University adopted a new model for undergraduate advising. Under the new system, first-year students receive a pre-major advisor who also doubles as their first-quarter Engagements instructor. This has taken the place of the University’s old faculty advising system, where faculty members across departments advised students on a volunteer basis in addition to their teaching and research responsibilities.
According to Dr. Creighton Coleman, lead advising fellow and lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences, this new system aims to flesh out a more dedicated advising experience for students.
“Faculty advising had its issues. It was really great, but you would have really varied student experiences,” Coleman said. “So the new model tries to give more focus to advising, with people dedicated to advising.”
However, even with these changes, many students still find themselves without the guidance they hoped to gain from the advising process. First-year College student Coltyn Dishner shared his frustration with the lack of support he has received.
“I wouldn't say I have a lot of great experiences with advising [at] U.Va.,” Dishner said. “I feel like it’s [as if] they push you out on your own, and you're expected to figure it out. Honestly, help from my second-year friend has helped me a lot more than anyone has at U.Va.”
Echoing this sentiment, first-year College student Amanda Feinberg described how this lack of guidance has left her feeling overwhelmed. She said that the feat of navigating academic requirements seems to fall wholly on students, and students’ assigned academic advisors are not particularly helpful.
“There are so many requirements to graduate, and they don't make it easy to find out what you need to do,” Feinberg said.
However, one thing that has been helpful is a new Stellic course planning program, which has been phased in for first- and second-year students over the last year. The platform, which has largely received positive feedback, facilitates student-advisor communication and allows students to explore major and general education requirements.
Even with the new Stellic platform, Dishner said that he has felt a lack of communication from his advisor — an issue that left him wasting credit hours.
“I was told by one of my friends that I was taking two classes that cancel each other out. They’re both under the same [disciplines], and I'm just getting one credit because they both count towards the same thing. And nobody said anything,” Dishner said.
Although the overall advising system has changed since she was a first-year student, third-year College student Meredith Clay’s experience shows that some issues have carried over from the old system. Like Dishner, she said that she experienced a dissonance between the support she expected and the help — or lack thereof — she received.
“I definitely got an understanding that [the advisors] didn't know who their advisees were or what they're interested in, nor a sense of what was going on in any of the other departments,” Clay said.
For Clay, this lack of clarity became more than a mere inconvenience. Just before course registration for Spring 2025, Clay was completely ready to enroll in all of her classes — that is, until she received a notification telling her she would not be able to enroll in a class she needed as a prerequisite for all of her other classes. She said that her advisor did not inform her that she had to take the course.
“I burst into tears and emailed [my advisor], who said I need to just take [the class] over the summer,” Clay said. “[The requirements] were never made clear to [me] until the day that my course registration happened. That was horrible. I definitely cried a lot that day.”
As a result, Clay had to move back to Charlottesville for Summer Session III, leaving her family several weeks earlier than planned. As an out-of-state student, she had to pay $5,000 for the course itself, in addition to housing, an often expensive challenge in Charlottesville. The cherry on top? To accommodate the move back to Grounds, she had to move her in-person internship online.
Aside from a lack of communication, perhaps the biggest complaint from students about advising is the lack of tailored advice for specific majors. Under the new advising system, Dishner expected that his pre-major advisor — who doubles as his Engagements instructor — would align with his interest in computer science. However, he was placed in an Engagements course about the ethics of pollution and trash, and he expressed doubt about his advisor's ability to help him navigate his courses.
“People who want to major in specific things … should be paired with an advisor who has a lot of knowledge in that field [and knows] what specific classes they should take,” Dishner said.
This is not dissimilar from the old system, where students received pre-major advisors that may not have been familiar with their major of interest. With a first- and second-year advisor outside of her major, Clay spoke to how she felt lost when it came to her prerequisites and general education classes.
“The first two years were just a lot of floundering,” Clay said. “My major has always been declared as behavioral neuroscience, but my advisor [was] in the Chinese department. She just kept sending me websites that I had already seen,” Clay said.
Clay’s experience was one of many that compelled the University to revise the existing system. In an effort to make student-advisor relationships more compatible, Coleman explained how the new model dedicates specific individuals, like himself, solely to advising. The model will therefore allow students to forge more personal relationships with their advisors.
Coleman emphasized his excitement for the program’s more individualized approach, especially given the AI-based advising that other larger universities have adopted.
“A lot of big universities are going the way of efficiency and giving students something like a chatbot,” Coleman said. “But I’m really excited … I think [our] students are going to be better for it.”
Still, Coleman acknowledged that the program is still in its infancy. He said that the University is working out the kinks, and it will be a couple of years before students can see, and appreciate, the benefits.
“Our creation was very rapid, which was good, right? Students have benefited from that. I think education at the College is better because of that. And we are growing into ourselves,” Coleman said. “So these things will be worked out in years to come, but years to come is not now.”
For now, students are left with a new-and-improved advising system in the making — one that, hopefully, will not leave students floundering in a sea of unknown prerequisite courses and general education requirements.
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