Advising seems to be a question on the mind of both people just starting their college search and those coming to Tufts in the fall. As a tour guide and an ACE Fellow, I’ve heard so many questions about how advising works that I decided to write a blog talking about exactly how advising works at Tufts.
Basically, the summer before your first year, you select your top few choices about which advising program you like. You have TONS of options, but here’s a brief summary of the available types of programs for the School of Arts & Sciences and what they’re like:
- Curricular Advising Program (CAP) – Basically, for this program you pick a class over the summer and the professor just is your advisor. This is a completely regular class just like any other class at Tufts. It counts for a full credit and often has other students in it in addition to the advisees. This is a great program because you and your advisor get a chance to work together in a classroom environment and learn each other’s styles of teaching and learning. It also usually leads to a good community feel because the people in your orientation group are also in your class. If ANY of the possible classes offered for this program strike your fancy, it’s a great choice.
- Faculty Seminars – Very similar to CAP except the course you take is only a half-credit (usually meaning it’s less of a time commitment than normal full-credit courses), pass/fail, and it’s only the people from your advising group in the class. In this case, the faculty member designs the course from scratch, so you know it’s something s/he is going to enjoy teaching. This is great if you want to have a classroom experience with your advisor, but also want to form a strong community with you advising group or if the CAP classes simply don’t appeal to you.
- Host Advising – This is a traditional advising model – rather than spending time in the classroom with your advisor you only meet outside of class. Your advisor is assigned based on the general academic interests you submitted to admissions. Some people think they might be “missing out” on a classroom experience with their advisor in this program, but remember that this is exactly how every other semester at Tufts works for advising. I did this and absolutely loved my advisor – she suggested we take a course with her, but certainly didn’t require it. This is great if the offered courses don’t appeal to you or if you think you’re going to have a really busy schedule and don’t want to commit to a specific class.
- Explorations/Perspectives – In this program, you’re matched with an advisor pretty much randomly, but take an ExCollege course with your advising group led by your student Orientation Leaders. This class is a one-credit, pass/fail course you take in addition to your regular course load. This is great if your biggest concern is building a student community – usually the closest advising groups are the ones who do this program.
All of these programs are fantastic and will open so many doors for opportunity at Tufts. My best advice is to follow your gut. If you just connect with a certain class description, go for it! Even, and maybe especially, if it has nothing to do with your planned major. Keep in mind that the purpose of a pre-major advisor is to help you get distribution requirements and pick a major, so there’s no need to worry about trying to get an advisor in the department you want to major in. Your first two years are for exploration, not locking yourself in, so branch out and explore!