Academic advising is an essential part of an undergraduate's educational experience at the University of Maryland. It is available to all students at College Park, but it is the responsibility of the student to make arrangements for advising with the appropriate persons. Students are encouraged to use the many advisement opportunities available.

• Advising is strongly recommended for all students, and is mandatory for the following groups: Newly admitted first-year and transfer students
• Concurrent enrollment students
• Students on academic warning
• Students seeking reinstatement after dismissal or withdrawal
• Students nearing senior status
• Students not meeting fundamental studies requirements
• Student athletes
• Individual Admit and students in the AAP program
• Students in certain majors and colleges

Undergraduate advisors, their room numbers, telephone extensions and in some cases, e-mail addresses are available. Students who have general questions about campus programs and advising policies may visit or call Letters & Sciences, Room 1117, Hornbake Library, 314-8418

• Basic advising directed at the identification and satisfaction of university, program, and departmental requirements.
• Advising directed at identifying and evaluating potential academic majors and careers.
• Advising directed at evaluating choices within academic majors.
• Advising upper-level students on career options, graduate school, etc
• Advising that focuses on personal development. This is a mentoring process, which may or may not develop between a student and a faculty or staff member.

• Accurate and up-to-date information about departmental programs.
• Reasonable access to faculty and advisors throughout the semester.
• Adequate staffing to offer advising to all new students at orientation and all early registrations.
• Faculty and advisors with an up-to-date knowledge of departmental and university programs and requirements.
• Transfer evaluation completed within the first semester at UMCP for all students transferring to College Park.
• An individualized audit be prepared on request when the student has completed 75 credits and is within three semesters of his/her expected graduation.

• The student must recognize that the final responsibility for his/her education is his/her own. Advisors can only help.
• The student reads university, college, and departmental materials (such as the catalog, regulations listed in the schedule of classes, departmental handbooks, handouts about the options and sequences in the student's major) before coming to see an advisor.
• The student recognizes that there are different types of advising and different people to do the different types of advising. The student should ask appropriate questions for the different kinds of advisors. For example, faculty are best able to advise on career opportunities, grad school, etc.; college advisors are probably best on university regulations; peer advisors know the most about individual professors, workload expectations, balancing the course load in a given semester, etc.
• The student understands that no single advisor can answer everything.
• The student should schedule an advising appointment well ahead of his/her registration appointment. It is unreasonable for the student to expect the advisor to drop what he/she is doing 15 minutes before the student's registration appointment to help the student. Students unable to keep appointments should notify the advisor.
• The student prepares an academic plan and a proposed schedule of classes before coming to see an advisor. The student should bring these and other appropriate material to the advising session.
• The student has an agenda for the advising session that includes items to be discussed and questions to be answered.