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Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
Eva Ignash-Speaker 1
Welcome to the first episode of the Spartan Orientation Station. On this episode, we will be featuring advising tips and tricks to prepare new students for their first advising appointment at MSU. My name is Eva Ignash. I'm majoring in International Relations and Political Science pre-law with a minor in Political Economy. This fall, I'll be a rising senior and I'm involved in Panhellenic sorority and a professional co-ed pre-law fraternity.
Ali Cramer-Speaker 2
Hello everyone. My name is Ali Cramer. I just recently graduated with my degree in neuroscience as well as minors in computational math, science, and engineering as well as Pharmacology and Toxicology. Apart from more STEM involvements, such as undergraduate research, I was also heavily involved in the Model United Nations sphere on campus, serving as the president of MSU International Relations organization, the competitive Model United Nations team here, as well as senior staffing committees for MSU Model United Nations, which runs both a middle school and high school conference.
Eva Ignash-Speaker 1
Whether you're a first year just stepping onto campus or a seasoned senior preparing for graduation, one thing remains constant: the importance of effective advising. Advisors take on the responsibility of helping new students not only correctly plan their course of study, but enjoy their experience at MSU. Together we'll uncover a treasure trove of tips, advice and insider knowledge that will help you build relationships with your advisors and make the most of your advising appointments.
Joining us today is Dr. Ebony Green, Assistant Dean for University Advising. With her nearly two decades of advising experience, Dr. Green brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the areas of student support and success. She joins us now to help answer your questions and give some advice. Welcome, Dr. Green. Can you introduce yourself and explain what work you do within the advising community?
Dr. Ebony Green-Speaker 3
Great, thank you so much for having me today. Yes, I am the new Assistant Dean for University Advising. And I'm super excited to be here because this is eight months in for me. So although I do have two decades of experience, I am new to MSU again. I will say I am a proud alum myself from the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, so it is a good experience for me to be able to return home. My duties in university advising is that I lead the university advising team which helps an array of students. Specifically when you come to MSU, if you're an exploring student, or exploratory student, as we like to call you, meaning you haven't decided on a major yet, our academic advisors will be your first point of contact. They'll be your advisors that you'll engage with, they'll be the advisors that will be helping you through New Student Orientation. You'll also see them if you're in the College of Nursing and College of Business, or even the College of Engineering during New Student Orientation, because they are also helping support the advisors in those areas through your orientation experience. So that is my team in a nutshell. And we'll be bouncing, I'll be kind of bouncing in virtually as you are going through your orientations, and hopefully I'll get to see some of you there.
Ali Cramer-Speaker 2
Perfect. Thank you so much. So I know a lot of our new students have been calling in sending us emails, really anxiously awaiting that first advising appointment. So do you have any advice on what they should prepare what they should be bringing to that first appointment?
Dr. Green-Speaker 3
Read your emails, we will start there. That is kind of first and foremost for you, we really want you to read your emails. And for as many of you you have probably actively started your new student orientation, D2L modules. So that part of the process for new student orientation has to be completed. So you can get engaged with that appointment with your academic advisor. Remember, we have 14 colleges across campus. So each college might have a little different practice. But the idea is every college is waiting on you to complete your D2L modules. I know it's prom season, I know you've got a lot going on, you got last classes to take final papers to write. But this is just as important. So we want to make sure the modules are self paced, so at least get them started. So you can get them completed. The sooner you start and complete them the sooner we can actually start inviting you to that academic experience with your advisor. So just know contacting your advisor is not something you have to do up front. Your you will actually be contacted by your advisor wants to complete the New Student Orientation Modules. Some colleges will have you go through another set of modules that is very specific to that college. So there are some kind of tips and tricks you'll need to know and those modules will help you understand those, and then you'll be invited to that advising appointment where we will happily get you enrolled for your fall 2023 semester.
Eva Ignash-Speaker 1
Okay, so you kind of touched on how to your advisor contacts you originally, but after that as you go throughout College, how do you go about contacting your advisor? And are there any specifics that you can go to them for?
Dr. Green-Speaker 3
great, you can actually go to your advisor for an array of issues, concerns or just to chat, we actually do like seeing you and seeing the good successes that you have, not just when things are going wrong. Um, so go in and visit your advisors. There are lots of ways to do it. Every college has their own website, and will have their academic resources listed. We do use an appointment scheduling system here at Michigan State University, so you can log into your student information system, which you'll learn more about as you go through your d2l modules and your advising appointment. But you can get registered for an appointment throughout your college career using that appointment scheduling system. So you can always connect with your advisor. And there are lots of reasons you might want to connect with an advisor. Say you're in a major and you really thought that that was what you liked. And then you realized, I don't like that. That's okay. We have a team of advisors. So my team of advisors and University Advising actually will help support students through thinking through and retooling and rethinking about a major that they thought they liked and then they didn't like, or you might just have questions about a major. I remember when I was an undergrad, I thought I was gonna go into speech therapy, which none of my majors are actually called the same things that they are called now. So now it's audiology and speech pathology. But I had questions about that. And I remember talking to an advisor, I got the information and decided to stick with my current major. And that's okay, too. So there are a host of ways. A lot of our advisors have drop in appointments. So you'll often find that you might have a quick question. Those are great spaces and times that you'll be able to meet with an advisor fairly quickly. But if you do have a more specific, you want to do some planning, things like that, setting up at a more appropriate 30 minute more than likely advising appointment through our appointment scheduling system is the way to go.
Ali Cramer-Speaker 2
Perfect. Yeah, I know, I definitely leaned on my advisors, I added a biochem major for a little bit, and then I dropped it a couple of semesters later. And yeah, definitely like the connections between all the advisors too is I think something that a lot of students don't realize is that they have that ability to talk to each other. And so it's you're really never pigeon holed and into only being able to go go to one place, which is nice,
Dr. Green-Speaker 3
That's super important too. We do take notes. So if you do pop into another college or another advisor has to serve you, because sometimes advisors do go on vacation. You know, it's nice to not have to backtrack and repeat everything, they can at least have a baseline of what you maybe may have talked about before, and try to make sure that we move every appointment forward that helps you get to where you need to be.
Ali Cramer-Speaker 2
Yeah, so then, once students have met with their advisor, and they have that list of classes that the advisors have given them, could you walk us through a little bit about how they go about registering for those classes.
Dr. Green-Speaker 3
So in your D2L modules, which I'll keep harping on, because they're super important, it's going to be very important for you to see how and there's a lot of tutorials to walk you through how to see our system, how to walk through the system, how to look up classes, and those types of things. So during your academic appointment, lots of our teams will be kind of shadowing that at least giving you a walkthrough with them of how to do it. And then many of our colleges and advisors will leave you to actually go through the process. Don't worry, if you get stumped, make sure every advisor will kind of leave you with a space in place that you can connect to, come back to, contact virtually to help make sure that you get the courses that you need on your schedule. So use those tutorials, make sure you're paying attention when they're walking through that part of your academic advising presentation. And it's pretty easy to do. So the other thing is we're gonna have there be lots of peers around during your orientation experience, whether it's through the new student orientation office, or specifically housed in your college. So they'll also be these other connections that you might feel more comfortable connecting with a peer or a student. They can also help you through the process as well.
Eva Ignash-Speaker 1
Okay, so I just have a quick question, too. So, being in James Madison, you know, I have a lot of small class sizes. So I've experienced this, but what should students do if they're unable to enroll in the class, it might happen to get filled before they're able to get in it? What do you recommend?
Dr. Green-Speaker 3
Especially for our new students, it is not the end of the world. A lot of things you might hear one of the things that we like to do at Michigan State is waitlist. So just remember that and we're hoping that it actually won't be that bad this year. But the waitlist process is just that, it's a process. When a course gets filled, it means that you get on the waitlist, it means that you're waiting for somebody to make a decision whether they really need that course or not. You'd be surprised at how many times students decide. I don't really need that course or I was holding this course, because I needed to do something else, or maybe I decided to do an internship. So I don't actually need those courses, so seats will open, but you are on just that a waitlist. So as one student decides they don't want the class, that student at the top of the waitlist will be encouraged to actually add the class. Remember, you have to actually add the class. So when I go back to check your emails, please, please, please check your emails, because that's how that information is prompted. So it's really important to do that. Now say that waitlist just never opens. One of the things that academic advisors will do, they will tend to give you more classes than you actually need to register for. So you can play around with that list of classes and make some determinations, they're usually all the things that you need, you'll need 120 credit hours to get out of MSU some kind of way. So we've we give you your first 15 or 18 variations of credits, that 16 that work, register for those. So we will work with you to try to make sure that just because that particular class isn't open, there should be something else in your in your plan of work or action that you need to take anyway. So we tell you to recommend that you do that. The only time that we would get really concerned if it's a course that you're trying to take is what we call a requisite class. So you really need that class to do something else. So you need to take that class before you can take the next math class or you need to take that class before you can get into your econ class, or you need to take the class before you can take that internship, depending on where you are in your program. So that's where we'll be a little bit more critical. And you could reach out to your academic advisor and see the best course of action. But for our new students, you've got a plethora to choose from, so I wouldn't be too worried about it.
Ali Cramer-Speaker 2
Perfect. Yeah. So then what happens if students let's say they get a semester, and then they realize, Oh, I'm in, you know, engineering, but engineering really isn't the major for me, I would like to explore, you know, maybe a couple other majors maybe doing something completely different, maybe doing something in a similar field, how do they start that conversation and start that process?
Dr. Green-Speaker 3
There are a couple of different ways they can go about it, especially if they're thinking about staying in that college, for example, the best place to start is to start with that college advisor. One of the things that I encourage every single student to do is once you know what college are admitted to keep looking at all the majors in that college, because that's going to really help us, you know, define and direct you the way that you want to, however, but you know, if you say I was in engineering yesterday, and I really want to go into dance, that's a completely different college. So we have to have different conversations. Some students know exactly or, you know, they really know where they would like to land. So talking to the adviser in that next college would be appropriate. If you're just not sure there's just we have 170 majors, there's just too many to choose from. That's where a good spot to come back to University Advising my shop, for example, where we specialize in helping students explore those majors, we might encourage you to really be more thoughtful about the general education classes that you choose. Now, those core kinds of courses that meet our general education curriculum across campus, we might recommend you taking one that's more unaligned with maybe your new college exploration ideas to see if you really like it. The other thing is, we also encourage students, although it's not always on the academic side, learning if you really like something is sometimes you got to try it. So maybe engaging with them student organizations across campus, if you thought you liked radio, try coming over to the radio station. Once you see all of the equipment, some people love it, some people panic. So you'll be able to, you know, use some resources for yourself and start trying some new things. And then that might help you also target your new academic direction. So it doesn't always have to be about taking the right class right then and there. Sometimes it's about actually doing the exploration process and trying some new things.
Eva Ignash-Speaker 1
Okay, so just kind of staying on that major questions. I personally have majors in both James Madison and the College of Social Science, but I'm a double major. So can you just kind of explain the differences between being a double major and dual degree program student?
Dr. Green-Speaker 3
I sure can remember, I'm a mess (Not sure here). And so I am still learning all of these official policies myself. A double major means that you'll receive one degree with one actual diploma, but you'll have two different majors. So we're only going to give you one piece paper, but we'll tell you what those two majors are, and it can usually be done within that full 120 credit hours of getting your bachelor's degree. If you plan it well, sometimes a few more credits than that. A dual degree means that you'll actually graduate with two distinct separate degrees. So you'll have two diplomas usually in two different colleges. Um, and those are usually require way more than 120 credit hours more like 150 credit hours, but you will also have two undergraduate degrees when you complete the process.
Ali Cramer-Speaker 2
Great. So then kind of sticking with that you've mentioned, you know, the 120 credits and kind of shopping around for classes a little bit. So how do students if maybe they're just looking into different majors or even curious about their own major? How do they find those course requirements and selections?
Dr. Green-Speaker 3
A great website to start with is reg.msu.edu. So REG.MSU.EDU, that is the space and home to all of our Academic Catalog. So as it'll list everything out by college, and then you can narrow things out by major and then ultimately narrow things out by program, you will have to look, you'll notice when you'll see all of the courses for that particular majors program. But you'll find that our general education requirements are located in a different section. So there are two parts to when you look at this website, we're hoping that we can get that updated in the near future. But that's kind of the first official way, everything or every course that you will need for that specific program will be outlined in our academic college catalog, which you can find on the reg.msu.edu website. Of course, meeting with an advisor is also integral to this process.
Eva Ignash-Speaker 1
Just asking, What advice would you give to new, incoming students meeting with their MSU advisor for the first time?
Dr. Green-Speaker 3
Be open, be excited, be ready to learn. It's going to be a short four years. It really is. Ask any undergraduate we thought we were going to be here forever and in a blink of an eye, it was over. So I tell you just take it all in, enjoy yourself, and prepare yourself to use this academic space to figure out who you're going to be and be the best you that you can be. It's a short period of time in your life. But it's probably the most impressionable time of your life. Because pretty much when you leave out of here, you're going to be who you're going to be. And you'll get that from all the experiences that you're going to open yourself up to be an MSU Spartan.
Ali Cramer-Speaker 2
Ya know, someone who just graduated, I definitely understand it does fly by. So then just generally, you mentioned you know, you graduated here, and now you're back. So what's your favorite part about being a member of this big Spartan family?
Dr. Green-Speaker 3
My favorite part is that I got to return home. So this has been a really good experience for me. And I'm a testament that it's about the skills that I learned here. I told you, I was a telecommunication major, not once did I actually work in radio as a professional. But those skills that I learned how to talk to people how to work in groups, how to build community, make those connections, started my job search off fairly easily because I worked in human resources. When I first started, I thought, yeah, I could transition into that couple of years in, it was like you should take a shot at higher ed - why not. And two decades later, here I am. So this journey has really been it was founded. My foundation was really built on the skills that I learned here from the major that I got, although I'd never actually worked in that. I always tell students be flexible in this process, because your first job will not be your last job. It will be just that your first one. And as you continue to morph and grow into the things that you are passionate about, you'll find the love and the joy and the work that you will actually ultimately do and I love being a continued Spartan.
Ali Cramer-Speaker 2
Perfect. Thank you, Dr. Green so much for joining us to discuss advising. And thank you all for joining us for this episode of The Spartan Orientation Station. Tune in next week for MSU 101: Acronyms and Abbreviations.