Improving Advising

The Advising Programs Office (APO) will be two years old this February, and we are now taking stock of our programs to begin to chart future directions. I would like to thank the many students, faculty, administrators, and alumni who have shared their ideas with us. Some of you continue to advise and assist us on all aspects of our work. It is only through the contributions of others that the APO can develop and continually improve undergraduate advising, and sharpen our vision of what it is and should be.

Designing and supporting advising programs in a place where faculty, administrators, and students constantly tell us how busy they are is a challenge. What we promote (and desire fervently) is that students and advisers spend time together to build effective, substantive relationships. Advising does not arise from brief encounters. It comes from honest, even probing conversations, which require some trust and commitment on the part of both people who are together constructing an advising relationship.

In the Harvard universe, however, faculty are called upon to make an impact on the world outside of Harvard—as pundits and theorists, as advisers to states, as consultants to organizations and communities around the world. Graduate students are trying to finish their dissertations in the allotted time and to support themselves—more than a full-time occupation.

Administrators put their hearts and souls into making Harvard a better place and never have enough time for all of their projects, let alone e-mail (a battle we all fight!). And students spend a great deal of time engaged in activities outside of the classroom, whether it be in political organizations, civic engagement, social clubs, athletics, music, theater, art, or a combination thereof.

In a universe where people are this busy, when do they slow down to talk to one another, to share meaningful stories, to provide transformative moments for one another? This is something that we worry about every day.

Another thing we worry about is the increasingly pre-professional perspective that students bring to bear on their academic choices. We ask our advisers to encourage students to look at course selection and concentration choice in new and “outside the box” ways, hoping to discourage the perception among students that choosing a concentration is merely an administrative hurdle or a stepping-stone to a career.

We hope to convince undergraduates to see concentration choice as an integral part of making their four years at Harvard a fulfilling, rich, and productive experience. After all, we hold out the idealistic hope that students will use their undergraduate education to explore new things, to discover their passions, so that they can understand themselves, their world, and their relationship with that world in more profound ways. We want students to discover new passions because doing so is an enriching experience that we return to throughout our lives—whether for solace, intellectual satisfaction, future guidance, or merely to inspire more interesting dinner party conversations.

How do we get students to explore new ideas, to talk to the people who know what the options are, to consult with the experts who can tell them that concentration choice has little if anything to do with future career opportunities and realities?

After all, it is a myth that you must concentrate in economics to become an investment banker. It is a myth that you have to concentrate in a science to gain admission to medical school. It is a myth that you have to concentrate in government or social studies to get into law school. And the greatest myth of all is that in order to be financially successful and personally fulfilled you must become an investment banker, a doctor, or a lawyer.

Our thought is that advisers and advisees would (in some cases they already do) hold substantive conversations, enabling one another to see things differently: encouraging students to see their time at Harvard more expansively, encouraging advisers to understand the world of our undergraduates in new ways. Harvard is an intimidating place. Large introductory classes set a tone of anonymity and unaccountability.

Classroom experiences are not always what students, faculty, administrators, TFs, or TAs would ideally like them to be. I know that the adviser/advisee matches made in freshman and sophomore year and in concentrations for general and thesis advising are not always perfect. But, I also know that this community is made up of human beings who have a lot in common. We are all moved by our love of learning and see ourselves as works in progress. We all experience love and loss, joy and sorrow. We all take our world—both inside and outside our gates—very seriously. And we are all motivated to contribute to making these four years as meaningful as possible.

We very much want to hear from anyone who has ideas about ways to get more people in this great Harvard community to slow down and see one another, to acknowledge one another’s perspectives, to enable them to become important to each other, for the enrichment of themselves, each other, and our community. Write to us at advising@fas.harvard.edu.



Monique Rinere is the associate dean of advising programs at Harvard College.