Academic Advising › Advising in Trinity College
Academic Advising Center
Mission Statement
The academic deans and the staff and advisors of the Academic Advising Center guide and support each student in making a successful transition to college, by empowering the student:
- To devise coherent academic plans that are consonant with his/her life goals;
- To take the steps necessary to achieve those plans and goals;
- To develop sound academic attitudes and practices that will enable the student to be an autonomous, self-regulated learner; and
- To act strategically to identify and use resources effectively and to challenge him/herself in constructive ways, so that he/she may thereby fruitfully pursue the goals of a liberal education.
Academic Advising • advising@duke.edu
Box 90697, Duke University, Durham NC 27708
919.684.6217 • fax 919.684.4515
Advising in Trinity College
The advising of Duke undergraduates has been a fundamental part of the educational mission of Trinity College for many years. Academic advising in Trinity College accomplishes two related tasks: monitoring of students’ academic progress toward the bachelor’s degree and assisting students in a variety of ways in exploiting their talents and the resources available to them at Duke. The first of these tasks is attended to primarily by the deans of Trinity College, by the Academic Advising Center staff and, when students have declared a major, by departmental directors of undergraduate studies. Everyone associated with the Trinity College academic advising system contributes in various ways to the assistance of students.
Advising in the first and sophomore years
The Academic Advising Center oversees approximately 125 academic advisors who each work with a cohort of first-year students and sophomores until they declare a major. These advisors include faculty members who hold teaching appointments in the faculty of Arts & Sciences and senior administrators and staff in Trinity College. All are volunteers and all are motivated by a genuine wish to serve the first-year and sophomore community.
The essential responsibility of the academic advisor in the first and second year is to help students adjust to academic life at Duke by introducing them to the curriculum and to the resources of the college and by seeing to it that each student's program has a defined purpose. To this has been added in recent years an emphasis on advising as teaching, i.e., guiding students to develop certain skills that will serve them well and enable them over time to function effectively as independent, self-regulated learners.
Like all healthy and productive relationships, that between advisors and advisees should be founded upon familiarity and mutual respect. While each student bears the primary responsibility for decisions about his or her program of study and the selection of courses, the academic advisor assists the student in making informed choices and helps to steer the student away from pitfalls. Helping the student to make and to be responsible for his or her own academic decisions is one of the advisor's most important contributions to the student's educational and personal growth.Advising in the major
When Trinity students declare their major (between the end of the first year and the middle of the second semester of the sophomore year), they will work with a faculty advisor in their major department or program. In addition to helping students plan course work that will satisfy major requirements, the faculty advisor will often facilitate independent study and research completed by advisees within the major course of study, and provide advice on graduate school and other post-baccalaureate opportunities.
In many departments and programs, students request specific faculty advisors based on mutual interests and/or an existing relationship. Alternatively, the director of undergraduate studies in the major department or program will assign new majors to available faculty based on information provided by students about their interests and goals.
Specialized advising
Throughout their undergraduate careers, Duke students can take advantage of specialized advising resources and expertise. For many students, the first encounter with specialized advising occurs during the summer preceding their arrival at Duke. Summer advisors in the Academic Advising Center are available by phone, email or in person to assist these students as they select courses for their first semester at Duke.
Students who anticipate attending professional school or graduate school once they graduate from Duke can get advice on course work and other ways to prepare from Trinity’s prehealth, prelaw, prebusiness and pregraduate school advising teams.
Students interested in studying abroad are encouraged to visit the Office of Study Abroad to learn more about program options and discuss the optimal time to study away. In addition, the Study Abroad staff and academic deans can work with students to ensure that the proposed study abroad program complements – and ideally is integrated with – their pre- and post-experience courses of study.
The interdisciplinary focus of many of Duke’s programs and academic opportunities may inspire some students to consider a self-designed major. Guidance on preparing a Program II or interdepartmental major is available through the Trinity Academic Dean’s Office.
Career advising
Complementing the array of academic advising resources available to Trinity students is the expertise of staff in the Duke Career Center. Students are encouraged to visit the Career Center early and often to learn more about their career interests and preferences (via one or more of the Center’s self-assessment instruments), explore internship and summer job options, build resume-writing and interview skills and, eventually, seek post-graduate employment.