NSO Advising for Academic Advisors

NSO individual advising

Your first one-on-one meeting with your advisees is held in your office.  Note - the students are assigned their individual meeting time as part of their larger NSO schedule.  Please do not modify the meeting time, as each rotation of their day is carefully scheduled.

Use the student’s reflective admission essay, College Student Inventory report, and New Student Survey answers as a prompt for getting to know them.

• You may wish to discuss their academic and co-curricular interests as well as their adjustment to life in Iowa, small town Mt. Vernon (especially if you notice they are far away from home). Discussing the block plan and how to prepare for the pace of class is also a good conversation to start before discussing courses. 

Discuss the student's personal experiences and goals.  Asking questions about why they are interested in a particular academic or career field can be helpful. Also asking questions about what subjects they excelled in or enjoyed the most in high school can help lead to discussions of potential classes to consider their first year.

Review College Student Inventory Report briefly together

• Identify and discuss a few strengths before the meeting to discuss with each student during their meeting.

• Identify areas of concern and look at the personal success plans.

• Discuss how these areas of strength and of concern might impact course selection.

• Discuss the recommendations provided and how students might address areas of concern.

Course schedule for Blocks 2-4 (your advisees will register online just before their first FYS meeting on Friday of NSO, after their individual meeting with you). 

• Review transfer/AP credits that appear in Self-Service. If there are credits missing, check with the Registrar's Office.

• First-year students need to select a FYW seminar sometime during their first year. If they have WRT 016 transfer credit they are not required to take a FYW seminar course.

• Major/minor options. Ask the student what major(s) and/or minor(s) they've considered and consult the Departmental Guidance Document or a degree audit what if from Stellic to look at possible first year courses that are appropriate to take.

  • Sequential majors/career pathways such as Engineering, Pre-Medicine or other health professions, Education, and others should be paid special attention to the sequences needed for the first year.

  • Students who are very uncertain should be encouraged to explore topics that are of interest to them with 100 level courses, and can select different aspects from the Ingenuity core curriculum as part of this exploration process to ensure courses will still help them in their graduation timeline.

If the student wants to participate in music lessons, ensembles or adjuncts, discuss adding those adjunct credits in Self-Service.

NSO group advising session

The goal of this session is to allow advisors to share common information with their advisees so you don't have to repeat this same basic information several times. This session directly follows their first FYS class meeting, and your room assignment will be sent to you from the Registrar at least a week before NSO begins.

You will meet with your new advisees as a group (either by yourself with your students or in a group with other faculty advisors) and discuss the following topics:

• The meaning of the liberal arts at Cornell, including our mission and our educational priorities and outcomes.

• Introduce our Ingenuity curriculum to students and discuss how Stellic can help them easily track the completion of Ingenuity components. Flock leaders will also discuss Stellic with students, but that conversation is likely after group advising.

• College expectations: the differences between high school and college, including differences in study habits and the level of academic work.

• Academic survival skills and support services.

• The importance of connecting with professors (through discussions in class, office hours, etc.)

Explain the job of the academic advisor and the student’s responsibilities.

• Provide advice on how to prepare for individual advising meetings and for scheduling blocks 2-4.

• Provide information on important registration policies such as adding/dropping courses (online and via paper), 15th day drop policy, health withdrawal policy, etc.

Provide a brief overview of how to interpret this College Student Inventory report (using sample report) to prepare students for a discussion of their report during individual advising.

Note about NSO for Transfer students

See Transfer Student information for details about advising Transfer students.

Transfer students with less than 7 Cornell-equivalent credits will have registered for an FYS in Block 1 and participate in the full first-year NSO experience.  You will meet with them in the group session and then in individual meetings to select Blocks 2-4 just like the first-year students.

Transfer students with 7 or more Cornell-equivalent credits worked with Brooke from the Regstrar's office and relevant faculty during the summer to register for all eight blocks and will only attend Friday of NSO.   

• Transfer students with 7.0 - 13.99 credits are registered for an SYS course in Block 1.

• The individual meeting during NSO for transfer students is a good time to review their transfer credits, current registration, and potential graduation plans/timelines (again utilizing the features in Stellic to select the major(s) they plan to pursue).  

• Because of the shortened time on our campus, transfer students should be connected with career resources much more quickly than first-year students, so this first conversation is a great time to start talking about their plan for Ingenuity in Action.

• If a change needs to be made to their schedule, this should be done before the First-Year Registration on Friday afternoon, so you and your student should contact the Registrar during the meeting to make adjustments only if vitally necessary.  Ideally, advisors would check the student’s schedule before NSO and email the student about potential changes before NSO begins to avoid the time constraints of NSO and first-year registration, which happens during the transfer advising time on Friday.