First Advising Meeting

Advising New First-Year and Transfer Students

ESU offers resources to help you understand your advising duties. Your department chair should provide training and support during your first semester (one-on-one training, discussions during department meetings, etc.). Please carefully review the requirements for your degree program as well as General Education requirements.

Spending a little extra time with new students will allow them to take ownership of their degree requirements. A few suggestions:

• Make students aware of the department's advising resources (e.g., 4 year curriculum plans in catalog, major’s handout, D2L site for majors)
• Have them log in to the MyESU portal:
  • Show them how to access degreeworks
  • Explain the legend (complete, in progress)
  • Ask your chair about any discrepancies (this will likely occur for transfer students)
• Show them how to register for classes
  • Review schedule builder
  • Explain how each section has a unique CRN
• Give student his/her PIN and explain that it is different every semester
• Review advising website with advisee and point attention to the student section

If you are meeting for the first time with a new transfer student, ask him or her if all of the transfer classes were posted to degree works, as sometimes the student forgets to send a final transcript.