Advising: Tips for students
Advising plays an important role in the life of an undergraduate student at Penn. Advisors help students make choices, and ensure that their academic trajectories are on the right track.
1. The structure of academic advising in the College is two tiered. Initially (until declaring a major, usually through freshman and part of sophomore years), the advising is handled by the College advisors in 120 Logan Hall, or by the student's academic advisor. For students transferring credits from outside Penn, they may also be the people to approach: greater details about such transfers are provided here.
2. Once the student declares a major, or is seriously contemplating such a declaration, advising related to requirements for graduating with this major is handled by the "major advisor," in the respective departments. For PPE, the Associate Director oversees all advising related matters. Students contemplating a PPE major are urged to contact him. The Associate Director, or your academic or college advisor will make your worksheet official when you are ready to declare. Making a worksheet official guarantees that all decisions by advisors and students are embedded in one place. If a worksheet is not official, it may be deleted by the student in error, or an advisor may work on another one, which means decions are scattered across worksheets, and continuity is lost. The best way to proceed is to have an official worksheet, and have all official decisions (by college, major and minor advisors for example) incorporated within the same worksheet. Students should make sure that worksheets are official and up to date.
3. If a student plans to major in PPE, the student is advised to contact the Associate Director of PPE as soon as possible, since we can offer the best guidance about which courses to take in the sophomore and freshman years. The courses we recommend will best prepare students to enter PPE in their junior year.
4. An important source for students about PPE related matters should be the PPE webpage. The web page tries to make the requirements as transparent and detailed as possible. It is entirely possible that the answer to routine questions may well be already available on the webpage.
5. The next step is to look at your worksheet.
6. If further clarification, confirmation or help is sought, the best way to start the process is to contact the Associate Director. Minor matters may be emailed at any time to ppe-major@sas.