Academic Advising
Committed to Your Academic and Personal Success
At Florida Southern, student-centered holistic academic advising fosters an environment of collaboration between students, faculty, and professional advisors. This intentional relationship helps students explore educational opportunities, identify and achieve both their short-term and long-term goals, and navigate their academic experience. Academic advisors serve as facilitators, coordinators, teachers, mentors, and guides, offering support and guidance as students work to reach their ambitions and aspirations. Through this collaborative, caring and trusting relationship, students are encouraged to explore their interests and strive for academic success.
The FSC experience is greatly enriched by the student-academic advisor relationship, which assists students in creating dynamic, educational plans that are tailored to their goals. Through this developmental process, students gain clarity about their life and career objectives, and create an educational plan to meet them.
What Your Advisor Does
- Promote a sense of belonging for students
- Holistically guide students to plan, learn, reflect, and engage in the world in ways appropriate for their major, career, and personal development
- Build relationships and facilitate connections
- Educate advisees to make registration choices that promote realistic degree progress
- Understand and navigate the class registration process
- Explore and determine career and other degree completion/post-graduation goals
- Through proactive advising, acts as an agent of referral to other campus resources and services to help students thrive in college and beyond
What You Bring to the Partnership
- Engage in the collaborative relationship with the academic advisor
- Identify and work towards short and long term goals
- Actively listen in a respectful and inclusive manner
- Collect all information needed to make viable, informed academic decisions
- Pursue curricular and co-curricular opportunities that support a productive collegiate experience and help prepare for life beyond college
- Prepare to discuss career goals, curricular interests, and plans for personal development
- Be empowered to take responsibility for their own educational experience
Advising for New Students
New First-Year Students
- Complete the Course Preference Form. Your advisor uses it to build your first-semester schedule.
- Review your schedule at Orientation. Your advisor walks you through it in detail.
- Meet your advising team. At Orientation, advisors help you get settled into academic life at Florida Southern.
New Transfer Students
- Send all transcripts of college credit you've earned.
- Attend phone advising. Before the semester starts, phone advising is offered on select days. Your admissions counselor has the details.
- Get your schedule. Your advisor builds it around your prior credit, intended major, and class interests.
Common Advising Questions
Students plan their course schedule with their Academic Advisor. Because the partnership of student and Academic Advisor requires close cooperation, all Florida Southern College students are required to meet with their Academic Advisors at designated times during the academic year. Throughout the student’s career, the student and the Academic Advisor work together to establish personal, educational, and professional goals for the student.
Students who desire to change their major should first speak with their Academic Advisor. Then, students complete the change major form, located on the Registrar’s webpage or obtained from the Registrar’s Office. This form requires the signature of the student’s Academic Advisor.
Start by talking with your academic advisor about how a minor fits into your degree plan. Then complete the Change of Minor form, available on the Registrar's Forms & Documents page or from the Registrar's Office. Some minors, including dance and neuroscience, also require a signature from the department.
You will need to fill out a drop/add form found on the Registrar's Forms & Documents page. This form needs to be signed by your academic advisor.
Additional Resources
Get in Touch
Have questions about advising, your schedule, or your academic plan? The Center for Student Success is here to help.
