NSO Individual Advising

  • Your first one-on-one meeting with your advisees is held in your office.  Note - the students are assigned their individual meeting time as part of their larger NSO schedule.  Please do not modify the meeting time, especially this year with our large incoming class.

  • Use the student’s reflective admission essay and New Student Survey answers as a prompt for getting to know them.

    • You may wish to discuss their academic and co-curricular interests as well as their adjustment to life in Iowa, small town Mt. Vernon, their residence hall, their roommate and the block plan schedule.

  • Discuss the student's personal experiences and goals.  Sometimes students perceive a certain educational path or major is needed for a certain career and another direction might actually serve them better.

  • Review College Student Inventory Report

    • Identify and discuss a few strengths

    • Identify areas of concern and look at the personal success plans

    • Discuss how these areas of strength and of concern might impact course selection

    • Discuss the recommendations provided and how students might address areas of concern.

    • Discuss different methods.  Sometimes an advisee may struggle with active reading skills, note-taking, presentation skills. Simply sharing the way you approach a text or task may give them some insights.

  • Course schedule for Terms 2-4 (your advisees will register online just before their first FYS meeting on Friday of NSO, after their individual meeting with you).

    • Review transfer/AP credits. If there are credits missing, check with the Registrar's Office.

    • First-year students need to select a FYW seminar sometime during their first year, and preferably during the first semester.

    • Major/minor information.

    • If the student wants to participate in music lessons, ensembles or adjuncts, discuss adding those adjunct credits in Self-Service.

Note about NSO for Transfer students

  • See Transfer Student information for details about advising Transfer students 

  • Transfer students with less than 7 Cornell-equivalent credits will have registered for an FYS and participate in the full NSO experience.

  • Transfer students with 7 or more Cornell-equivalent credits worked with Brooke Paulsen and relevant faculty during the summer to register for all eight blocks and will only attend Friday of NSO.   

    • Transfer students with 7.0 - 13.99 credits are registered for an SYS course in Block 1.

    • The individual meeting during NSO is a good time to review their transfer credits, current registration, and potential graduation plans.  

    • Because of the shortened time on our campus, transfer students should be connected with career resources much more quickly than first-year students.

    • If a change needs to be made to their schedule, this should be done before the First-Year Registration on Friday afternoon, so you and your student should contact the Registrar during the meeting to make adjustments only if vitally necessary.  Ideally, advisors would check the student’s schedule before NSO and email the student about potential changes before NSO begins to avoid the time constraints of NSO and first-year registration.