Academic Advising
As a new Dickinsonian, you will begin your academic journey this summer by requesting your first semester’s courses, one of which will be your First-Year Seminar. Calls will be made from the Advising Office from July 10 to 14 to review your plans and offer guidance. Please check the Orientation website and review the information in this brochure for when to expect to receive your call and how to prepare for the conversation.
FROM THE DEAN As the dean of academic advising, I want you to have the best Summer Advising experience possible. I’ll make sure that our team is ready to help you, and I’m asking you to make sure that you’re ready to work with us. — Damon Yarnell, Dean of Academic Advising & College Dean
YOU’RE IN THE RIGHT PLACE Students begin their educations at Dickinson with different priorities and plans. Some arrive with very clear ideas about what they want to study and are already looking ahead to declaring a major in a particular field. Others arrive knowing that they want to take some time to explore their academic interests as widely as possible. Still others find themselves somewhere in between, curious about a handful of possibilities. No matter what group you fall into, you’ll find appropriate guidance on the Orientation website, and you’ll consult directly with a faculty member about your specific questions, options and decisions before you request your courses.
MAKING DECISIONS, MAKING YOUR WAY & MAKING THE BEST FIT Summer Advising represents a key step in your academic journey because you have important decisions to make. Every semester for the next four years, you (!) will get to make choices about your academic program: which courses you will take, in what field(s) you will specialize and how you will explore subjects outside your eventual area of specialty. Together, your choices will define your path through the Dickinson curriculum, the totality of our courses, programs and requirements. In fact, not only does our liberal-arts curriculum give you the opportunity to explore and to make decisions, but exploring and making decisions is an integral feature of a liberal-arts education.
Over the next eight semesters, by making thoughtful choices about what courses to take (and what courses not to take), you will acquire a deep appreciation of your intellectual interests and how they relate to a variety of academic disciplines. You will also gain invaluable insight into how to develop and exercise your best judgment about your most precious assets: your energy, your time and your priorities. Some elements of the decision-making process will probably seem straightforward, and some are likely to seem complex. In either case, you already have relevant experience, and you’ll always have help. One useful way of approaching the decisions ahead of you is to imagine them as a continuation of your college-application experience. You found your way to Dickinson through a process of reflection and research, and you made the decision that our community and programs represent the best “fit” for you. Now that you’re a Dickinsonian, you’ll continue to find your way through a similar process of reflection and research. By enacting thoughtful decisions about your courses and programs, you will make the best fit for yourself here on campus.
EVALUATE, LOCATE, ORGANIZE & REPEAT How should you approach choosing courses for your first semester? By evaluating your interests, locating courses that fit your interests and priorities and organizing a plan. Because we expect that your perspective on your educational experience will change over time, you should expect to repeat this process each and every semester. If you’re already committed to a particular path, the academic advising program will help you discover depth and nuance. If you’re still exploring or decide
that you want to change direction, the academic advising program will enable you to discover your intellectual niche. One of the many benefits of Dickinson’s approach to the liberal arts is that you will acquire a rich repertoire of decisionmaking and problem-solving skills. You’ll gain confidence as you move forward this summer and every semester. By the time you graduate four short years from now, you’ll go out into the world secure in the knowledge that you’ve designed an educational experience uniquely suited to your intellectual interests and personal goals, and you’ll be ready to apply your educated best judgment to whatever challenge you embrace next.
CAREER & CURRICULUM At Dickinson and across the country, many students are anxious about how the courses they take may affect future career opportunities. Our view is that some level of concern is rational and appropriate. In fact, we devote a great deal of attention to this and related issues, and we encourage you to speak with Academic Advising and Career Center staff in Biddle House early and often! (continued on back)
CAREER & CURRICULUM (Continued) Sometimes, students assume a one-to-one correspondence between a given major and a future career outcome—a degree in economics, say, and a career in finance. It’s true that certain graduate programs and professional fields require specific training, and we encourage you to investigate the implications with us. At the same time, however, it’s important to remember that no such one-to-one correspondence exists. The critical thing is to select courses in which you are seriously interested and have the capacity to do well. Employers and graduate schools are almost universally more interested in how well you have done than exactly what you studied. So choose courses based on what you want and what interests you, not what someone else tells you to do or thinks is best for you.
1. Be able to describe (with confidence!) the state of your emerging intellectual interests: • Still exploring and wide open to
possibility? Awesome!
• Choosing among a short list of
possibilities? Super!
• Already committed to a driving
intellectual passion? Cool.
2. Be able to explain (with confidence!) whether and how your emerging intellectual interests relate to your: • Favorite courses in high school
(Have a list of your least favorite courses? These matter, too!) • Academic aspirations • Sense of community engagement • Other formative life experiences • Emerging career interests (Don’t have any yet? This is just fine. Always known that you wanted to be a brain surgeon or poet or investment banker or…? This is fine, too.)
3. Know where to find nuts and bolts academic information such as course offerings, academic programs and the college curriculum. 4. Explain the decisions you made:
• What courses did you identify when
you mapped your interests and goals onto our curriculum? • Why did you make the choices you did?
BASIC STEPS IN COURSE PLANNING: 1. Evaluate your interests 2. Identify courses that fit your interests and priorities 3. Organize a possible schedule 4. Consult with a faculty member of our summer advising team during your summer advising call (July 10-14)
WHERE SHOULD YOU GO FROM HERE? The Academic Advising page on the Orientation website (orientation. dickinson.edu) will walk you through the process step by step and provide a host of useful links.
Academic Advising Damon Yarnell, Dean of Academic Advising yarnelld@dickinson.edu 717-245-1080 Orientation and New Student Programs 717-245-1555 orientation@dickinson.edu orientation.dickinson.edu 750PC417
By the end of Summer Advising, you will: