Goals of Academic and Career Advising

A&S students often say they come to Cornell because the university's curriculum is extraordinarily rich and its faculty among the most distinguished in the world. You say, "I can study anything here with someone who has written a book on the subject." The faculties in many fields - in more than at all but a handful of institutions (and those usually much larger than Cornell) - are among the most distinguished in the world. They offer hundreds of courses, no single one of which is required of every undergraduate and no selection of which forms a core curriculum. Our curriculum and degree requirements, like our intellectual, social, and administrative structure, are non-hierarchial (and have been since the day Ezra Cornell and Andrew D. White created this "new university"); no subject is considered inherently more intellectually important than others. In addition, sciences and math departments offer several levels of entry courses. Consequently you come to the college both free and required to choose among hundreds of courses in dozens of subjects and at several levels the four or five you will take each semester. This freedom is exhilarating and sometimes overwhelming. All at the same time, you explore and test your academic interests and options for majors, start at levels appropriate to your background, and satisfy general college requirements.

Academic advising helps you design imaginative and solid curricula that also satisfy degree requirements. It informs you about the college's many special academic options such as independent research/study and study abroad. In short, it helps you make the fullest and best possible use of Cornell's extraordinary resources. It also supports you when you feel vulnerable - when you feel confused, overwhelmed, or troubled or when you change academic directions.

We all need career skills; we do not magically acquire them at the moment we are looking for a job. Consequently, A&S career programs and counseling are geared to students at different stages of their undergraduate careers: explorations of interest, abilities, and careers in the freshman and sophomore years, work experience in the sophomore and junior years, job search in the senior year.