Advising

In order to pay the bills while I am earning my PhD, I have been working for the department in the advising office for the past 3 years. I meet with undergraduate students and help them to choose their classes, boost their GPAs, decide what they want to be when they grow up, apply to graduate school, etc.

Everyday I come into work not knowing who I am going to encounter. I have worked with so many students over the past four years, and each of them has their own dreams, struggles, and paths. For some students, my job is extremely easy, they have every semester from now until graduation all mapped out, they know exactly what they are going to do when they graduate, and they seem to be on the road to success. Other students however, are coming in to meet with me, because they don't know where else to turn. They are failing all of their classes, not getting along with their professors, etc. These can be extremely difficult conversations to have, because I am sympathetic to the students, but I also need to make sure that they are aware of the reality of their situation. I am sorry to hear that they have been having issues with their families all semester, but the truth is if they don't bring up their GPAs considerably, they are facing dismissal. More often than not though, the students who walk into my office are typical college students, looking for a little guidance as they make the decisions that are going to shape their futures.

I also see many students who have absolutely no respect for me or for my job. They dress extremely inappropriately, they are texting through the whole meeting, and they are continually cursing and badmouthing members of our faculty. These meetings can be extremely disheartening, and make me question why I do what I do.

There are many days when my job completely drains me emotionally, but then again there are even more days when I leave the office feeling like I actually made a difference. Whether I was able to help a student with their grad school application, help them stay off of academic probation for another semester, or was just there to listen as they talked about the issues they were having in their lives.

It has also been nice working in the office, because unlike teaching where there is constant prep work that needs to be done, you don't know what is going to happen until the students walk in the door. It is also nice because there can be significant down time, like the summer, though we definitely make up for it with the rush of students that schedule appointments during the month following registration opening up.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working in this office over the past three years, and am sad that I will no longer work here after the summer is over. I am going to be employed on our research grant, so I will no longer be eligible to do advising. So I guess I have to make the next three weeks count!