Advising Programs Office of Harvard College
1414 Massachusetts Avenue, Floor 3R
617-496-0218
advising.college.harvard.edu
advising@fas.harvard.edu
Academic Advising
Academic advising is a series of intentional interactions that empower students to realize their maximum educational potential. The advising process synthesizes and contextualizes students’ educational experiences within the frameworks of their aspirations, abilities, and lives to extend learning beyond campus boundaries and timeframes.
The Advising Programs Office (APO)
The Advising Programs Office (APO) cultivates quality academic advising for all Harvard College students. The APO promotes the intellectual and personal transformation of students across the four years by encouraging exploration, planning, reflection, and informed decision-making about curricular and co-curricular choices and opportunities.
The APO leads the pre-concentration academic advising network, inclusive of faculty, administrative and residential staff, and graduate and upper-level students by providing them education, training, resources, and support to ensure students receive robust and equitable academic advising. The APO collaborates with colleagues in academic departments, partners in the Office of Undergraduate Education, the Dean of Students Office, and other constituents to ensure that students are well prepared and empowered to access the full scope of Harvard College’s liberal arts and sciences education.
The APO oversees the following advisor roles:
Pre-Concentration Advisors (PCAs)
Pre-Concentration Advisors (PCAs) serve as the primary academic advisors for students from matriculation through concentration declaration in the sophomore fall term. PCAs help first-year students select courses and advise on questions regarding the curriculum, academic requirements, educational goals, summer opportunities, and extracurricular interests. Upon declaring a concentration in October of the sophomore year, students transition into departmental advising structures.
The group of Pre-Concentration Advisors include (1) volunteer University affiliates (i.e. faculty members, staff/administrators, graduate students), and (2) residential staff Proctors. In total, the PCAs comprise about 385 individuals, with around 320 volunteer PCAs who advise 4 to 8 first-year advisees each, and between 63-65 Proctors who advise roughly 10 first-year students in their entryway. All incoming students are matched with a Pre-Concentration Advisor upon entry, and the APO tries hard to ensure a match based on student academic interest and advisor expertise.
Peer Advising Fellows (PAFs)
Peer Advising Fellows (PAFs) are upper-level students who are assigned to first-year students to facilitate their transition to the College and their acclimation to Harvard. PAFs advise students on academic, extracurricular, and social experiences and refer first-year students to other resources when appropriate. PAFs are expected to have thorough knowledge of campus resources and academic programs, so they can help peers navigate appropriate resources for additional support. Finally, PAFs play a key role in helping to build community within the entryway and dormitory by working with the Proctors and each other on study breaks, other entryway activities, and dorm-wide events. The APO oversees 190 PAFs, eight of whom serve as Eagle PAFs, that is, the student leaders of the program.
The network continues with academic oversight shifting to the academic departments and faculty advisors within the various departments.
Concentration Advising
Once sophomores select a concentration, their primary academic advisor will be assigned based on the policies of their concentration. Most use a team approach: the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) or Head Tutor, Associate or Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies (ADUS) or Assistant Head Tutor, and Undergraduate Coordinator (UGC) will advise various students, splitting duties as needed depending on the student, situation, and time. Some concentrations make use of the House Tutors to advise students by House, coordinating with the Faculty Deans in the hiring process. A full list of concentrations with affiliated contact information and overviews can be found on the APO’s Concentrations and Secondary Fields webpage.
Concentration advising seeks to guide students in three phases: into an appropriate set of introductory courses in the field of study, to advanced work in the field of study and, when applicable, through a final project or thesis in the senior year.
Each concentration plays an important role in pre-concentration advising through collaborative efforts with the Advising Programs Office and the Houses/Dudley Community. Students are encouraged to begin exploring concentrations in the first year especially through events in the Exploring Fields of Study (EFoS) program in the spring where students are invited to attend concentration events and meet with advising teams. In the third term, Pre-Concentration Advisors encourage students to seek out information from the concentration advising teams before the declaration deadline in October.
Each concentration has its own requirements. Several of the humanities and social science concentrations have a tutorial system (ranging from one to five semesters), and many students receive additional advising from their tutorial leaders.
In addition to formalized concentration advising, the Houses are vital to sharing academic information with students, particularly in an informal setting. House tutors often provide generalist academic advising by helping students develop and pursue their academic and personal interests. In addition, tutors often share their own personal narratives and experiences to help mentor students. Furthermore, some academic departments have established formal advising relationships with Houses, while others rely more heavily on concentration advisors who are not residentially based. Integral to each House/Residential Community is the Allston Burr Resident Dean (ABRD) who oversees holistic student care, but importantly serves as the chief academic officer in the House, ensuring that all students make steady progress toward their degrees.
The my.harvard Student Information System and Other Advising Resources
Students can access records tracking their academic progress in the my.harvard Student Information System. In the “Advising Network” tab, students will find the photos, names, and contact information for all their assigned advisors at Harvard and can also see important advising materials, such as score reports from placement exams. Students can use the Academic Advising Report to track their progress toward degree requirements, and they can use the What-If Report to run a simulation of their requirements based on declaring a potential concentration. Students’ advisors can also access the my.harvard portal to see the photos, names, and contact information for all their advisees. Advisors are strongly encouraged to update and consult the “Advising Journal” frequently to facilitate communication between the advising network team and leave feedback that will assist their advisees’ future advisors.
The APO offers drop-in advising, and advisors are encouraged to refer students to book appointments via the Scheduler on the APO website. For more information on academic advising initiatives within the College, contact the Advising Programs Office (visit https://advising.college.harvard.edu/ or email advising@fas.harvard.edu). Advising Programs Office staff are happy to respond to any and all inquiries via e-mail, phone, or in person.
Official advisors in the network also receive access to an Advisor Portal. A SharePoint site that has been created as a centralized academic advising hub of resource information for all members of the advising network—including Pre-Concentration Advisors, PAFs, and many residential advisors. These individuals also receive support from the APO via regular newsletters, access to a Slack real-time messaging channel, and regular Advisor Learning Series workshops to stay abreast of everything academic advising.
Finally, perhaps the most important resource is the Student Handbook and Fields of Concentration. The Harvard College Student Handbook contains the rules and procedures of Harvard College which students are expected to be familiar with and to follow. Specific requirements for each of the fields of concentration, secondary fields, and language citations can be found in the Fields of Concentration handbook.