Academic Advice

Naturally, students receive worlds of guidance from professors in Denison’s classrooms, labs, studios and elsewhere across campus.

These may seem like individual and separate experiences, but they all play an interwoven role in the larger picture of a college education, and that picture comes into focus through discussions between students and their faculty advisors.

Each first-year student is appointed an advisor prior to arriving on campus, just to get started. However, many students will change their advisor as they select (or change, as the case may be) their major. Many also will seek out a secondary advisor for double majors or concentrations of study.

On a basic level, an advisor’s job is to help the student make course selections and academic schedules, understand academic policies and procedures, and find the answers to questions and issues related to their academic success.

On a deeper level, an advisor often helps the student sort out academic interests and goals (both immediate and long-range), explore career and graduate school options, navigate their college experience as it relates to personal choices, and understand the rationale and value of a liberal arts education.