Advising

Like many undergraduate programs at Duke, we offer transactional advising and faculty mentoring. 

Part of transactional advising involves a bi-annual submission to a Qualtrics form for the education team to review progress through the major/minor. A general understanding of degree requirements, course codes, course offerings, practical steps for applying for practica/independent study/scholarship/Graduation with Distinction, processing course transfer, tracking progress in the major/minor, and connecting to campus resources can be shared by Tyler Lee, our program coordinator in the Office of Undergraduate Studies. 

Faculty mentoring is one of the most important connections students will develop during their college career. At Duke, upon declaring a major, students are assigned a faculty advisor in their major for the purpose of encouraging such connection. Students must meet with their faculty advisors at least once per semester to discuss students’ academic and professional interests, course selection for subsequent semesters, curiosity about pursuing research, exploring career options, and developing strategies for applying to post-Duke training (i.e. graduate schools, medical schools, etc.) 

Faculty advisor assignment in the major is done based on professors' availability until the capacity number of advisees per faculty is reached. Some students have a preference for a few professors, while others indicate no preference. All students will be assigned to a faculty advisor in their major!

Students who have specific professors in mind are encouraged to take a proactive stance on their advisor assignment and reach out to their program coordinator to introduce themselves and list the names of at least three faculty members they would like to have assigned as their faculty advisors in the major (only one will be assigned). All other students are assigned on a first-come-first-served basis.