Advising Hours

CS Chair Advising Slides Spring 2008

Proper and timely advising has been shown to significantly improve students’ success and graduation rate. We summarize here our advising process and new changes involving mandatory advising.

***  Please note that we added some mandatory checkpoints ***

All SFSU CS students are responsible for the following

• New/transfer students are strongly encouraged to attend the orientation program prior to the first semester of attendance.
• Regularly visiting CS home WWW page www.cs.sfsu.edu and advising page http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/People/advising.html
• Reading all e-mail from CS office and faculty sent to them
• Seeking advising whenever a need arises, in a timely fashion with respect to any deadlines
• Following the advising process as outlined below
• International students: please observe specific rules like minimal load and maintenance of minimum required GPA. Be sure to get proper advising upon arrival to USA

CS Advising Day:
Once per term the CS Department will hold an Advising Day, usually the day before classes start each term in the late afternoon. Note that SFSU no longer schedules general Advising Days. The advising day will generally be as follows:

• Chair welcomes students: 30 min., undergrads, 30 min. grads covering motivation, new trends in jobs and research, why study CS, about CS Department and accomplishments and projects, review schedule, new classes, new policies and Q/A. Slides will be posted on advising page
• Meet Undergraduate advisors 1-1 in their offices after the Chair’s presentation 

Pre-CSC 213 Advising – “entry level” advising  (Starting Fall 2007)

Pre-CSC 413 Advising – “mid point” advising (Starting Spring 2007)

Transfer students:
Transfer students are strongly encouraged to get advising before starting at SFSU. Records will be checked and advising will be required to enroll in CSC 413.

Individual advising – ongoing:
Get general advising in advisors’ office as per posted schedule whenever you need it. Check advising page for advising hours: http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/People/advising.html
It is important that you get timely advising and not wait for problems to become hard to resolve.

Peer Advising – done by experienced CS students
This is an excellent way for you to talk to fellow students who can advise you on some topics based on their experience.

 *** Peer advising does not replace official advising ***

• Begins first week of classes every term
• Continues throughout term, every other week.
• Contact the CS Department office for location/time

Probation Advising
Students who need probation advising need to see the probation advisor first, and then the Chair. If probation advisor can not be reached on time (i.e. during recess and vacations), see the Chair.

Useful links:
General: http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/undergrad/undergraduate.html
Sequence of study: http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/undergrad/under-rec-sequence.html
Prerequisite chart: http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/undergrad/under-prereq.html
DARS report: http://www.sfsu.edu/~admisrec/reg/dars.html

New Students

• All new students MUST schedule a meeting with a graduate advisor upon start of graduate studies either on Advising Day or shortly thereafter. Students should schedule meetings with advisors by going to the department office or sending an email requesting an appointment to csgrad@sfsu.edu.
• All new students MUST attend the first Graduate Seminar during their FIRST term. The seminar will take place on a Wednesday at 5:30pm and the date will be posted on the web site. The Chair will discuss many important issues regarding our graduate program at the seminar.
• All new students are strongly encouraged to attend the Chair’s welcome meeting on Advising Day

In summary, new students should attend the Advising Day meeting with the Chair, see a graduate advisor the same day or shortly thereafter and attend the first meeting of the Graduate Seminar. Subsequently, students should meet with an advisor at least once per term.

Continuing Students
You should schedule a meeting with a graduate advisor at least once per term. Advising times are posted at http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/People/advising.html

CS Advising Day:
Once per term CS Department will have Advising Day, usually the day before classes start each term, late afternoon. Note that SFSU will not have a general advising day any more.

• Chair welcomes students: 30 min., undergrads, 30 min. grads covering motivation, new trends in jobs and research, why study CS, about CS Department and accomplishments and projects, review schedule, new classes, new policies and Q/A. Slides will be posted on advising page

Graduate students planning to go to Ph. D. program
Please see CS Chair for additional advising and assistance.

Probation Advising
Students who need probation advising need to see the graduate advisor first. There is no need to see CS Chair unless there is some additional issue or advising needed.

Useful links:
General: http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/grad/graduate.html
Sequence of study: http://www.cs.sfsu.edu/grad/grad_recom_sequence.html