Academic Advising Remains Obstacle to Scholastics

One of the perks of paying $30,080 for a Harvard education is accessing the access to a wide range of the expertise of world renowned Faculty.

The primary method through which students can obtain this knowledge is through academic advising. But many students say that the tapping this resource requires some orchestration.

"I'd say that [advising] is one of Harvard's biggest problems," says a senior government concentrator who asked to remain anonymous. "The University seems very little inclined to change that. If you talk to students, I think you'd find that it's the biggest complaint here."

According to the senior, poor advising is due to the University's unwillingness to enforce advising within the Faculty.

"[Faculty members] don't perceive it as within their best interests," says the senior. "If they want high level research, annoying professors to advise undergraduates is not the best way to do that."

But Faculty members dispute this claim.

"I've never had anybody say no when I asked them to be an adviser," says Professor of Sociology Mary C. Waters, the head tutor of the sociology department.

"And judging from the graduating seniors' questionnaires, we do very well [in advising]," she adds.

However, Waters says that advising is a problem in other departments, especially larger ones.

"I've sometimes in my classes had students in other departments," Water says. "When I have seniors tell me that I'm the first professor who ever knew their name, I'm shocked."

James E. Davis, head tutor in chemistry and chemical biology, says an important part of good advising is making a good match between the student and the adviser.

"Before I came, the new concentrators were sort of randomly distributed to the Faculty--each Faculty [member] may have half a dozen advisees," he says.

Because he now advises all the sophomores, he is better able to guide them during their first year, Davis says.

"My entire focus is on undergraduate education. I have more time for direct face-to-face interaction," Davis says. "I know more about the curriculum than the average Faculty member who runs a research group."

While some students say that undergraduate academic advising is inadequate, others say that finding good advising merely takes some initiative.

"I admit there's very little handholding," says economics concentrator Davis J. Wang '97. "That disadvantages some people, [but] in my case, I felt the advising was adequate."

Wang says that course requirements are laid out well enough that he does not feel he needs a great deal of guidance. When he does need advising, Wang says he takes the initiative to get it.

"The academic requirements are quite clearly set out and I never felt at all the need for advice to decide my course selection," he says. "I have felt the need for advice on pursuing graduate studies and what track to take, and I was able to get the advice with a little initiative."

Students agree that advising varies greatly between different departments.

"The quality of advising depends completely on the department's commitment to it," says social studies concentrator Jedediah S. Purdy '97.

Purdy began as a philosophy concentrator and later switched to social studies. The advising in social studies was far better than the advising in philosophy, he says, partly because students have the same adviser for three years.

However, despite occasional shortcomings, Davis says that he is satisfied with the current state of advising within the department.

"I've made the changes [to advising] which I think can reasonably be made in the past five years," he says. "There is nothing I'm burning to do that I haven't done."