Navigating the waters of freshmen year course selection can be hard, but it might be easier for the Class of 2010 thanks to new Internet video question-and-answer sessions.
The College of Arts and Sciences hopes to alleviate some of this stress through its second year of live webcasts, with a personal introduction from some of the highest administrators in the College.
The College webcasts have become a way to provide the incoming freshmen with the answers to common questions concerning their course registration.
Although the College has already assigned a pre-major advisor to each member of its incoming freshman class, the three one-hour sessions over the summer allow any viewer to preview academic life at Penn.
Along with College Dean Dennis DeTurck sitting in over every webcast session, the broadcasts will feature a variety of pre-major advisors from across the College.
"We wanted to give [first year students] the opportunity to get different perspectives," said Niel McDowell, associate director of academic advising for the College. "The advisers are fulfilling two roles: as an advisor and also as a faculty member who does research in their field."
By using such a diverse range of topics, the advising office hopes to appeal to the greatest range of students who will be seeing Penn for the first time in the fall.
"I certainly think that because there are so many academic options, having a conversation in a personal way is critical to advising's mission," said Katrina Glanzer, the College's assistant director of freshman services.
Unlike some of the other schools at Penn, the College has a General Requirement that all students must fulfill regardless of prospective major, and all College students enter as undeclared.
This particular strategy differs from the pre-professional schools at Penn -- for instance, nearly three quarters of Engineering freshmen enter with a declared major.
"People coming into professional schools will more easily understand the required course work, especially in their first year," said Joe Sun, director of academic affairs for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "College students have to sift through all of the opportunities of the liberal arts, and therefore there is a greater need for advising."
Administrators are hoping that the regular use of webcasting during the summer will be useful to curious students.
"We had quite a bit of success" last year, said McDowell. "I've talked to students in September, and they thought that the webcasts were great."
The College hopes that through frequent announcements from peer and pre-major advisers, greater awareness of the online programs will translate into more Web site hits.
Although the advising office claims success with the webcasts, many students don't know about the online advising resources available to them.
"There's an advising webcast?" asked incoming freshman Michaela Tolpin. "Is it long?"
When Sophomore Naureen Hoque was asked about the webcasts, she said that was the first time she had heard of them, though she did agree that first-year students might find them useful.
"I don't think there was a deficit of information to necessitate an online webcast, but perhaps that sort of interaction would be helpful for incoming freshmen," Hoque said.
Although face-to-face advising will remain the core of freshman pre-major advising, administrators hope the online webcasts will improve and increase the level of communication between adviser and advisee.
"I'm glad we're going on for a second year, and we're all very enthusiastic about it," Dean DeTurck said.
