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Why do our advisors suck so much

immadiamond
edited November 2012 in General
this is ridiculous

i've talked to the sfu advisors via livehelp, i've called the student services to book an appointment (the lady was so rude too, giving me attitude when i was just asking about my major), talked to general advisors and the career advisors...

most of them are so indifferent to whatever concerns you have and have a rather robotic approach to your questions. like sfu TRAINS them to all say the same thing, but i dont want to hear THE SAME THINGS. i want to hear what each advisor has to say from their experience, not distorted realities that sfu makes them say ie. major in whatever you like because it will lead you to a job anyway. psh yeah right

does anyone else have issues with our advisors as well? i want to discuss a joint major program with a business or psychology advisor but apparently i can't because they will only talk to you about it if you're ready to declare your major. but i'm not exactly there yet, i just have so many questions about the degree itself and i doubt that 3rd/4th yr general advisors would know all the answers

why why do we lack good and proper resources here :/

Comments

  • ryan
    It is hit and miss. I think there are a few things to keep in mind though.

    -In my experience advisors seem to move around a lot. In three and half years out in surrey there have been 5 different software systems advisors. So in general sometimes the people seems to just be filling roles temporarily.

    -I dont think many advisors actually hold a degree in the major they are necessarily advising for. So if you start asking them technical things I wouldn't really expect them to have any answers.

    -This is the busiest time of year for advisors, around enrollment. If you want to go in and discuss general things the beginning of the term might be a better time.

    -In general I only really use advisors for when I am looking for electives, need help enrolling in a course, or want someone to verify that I am fulfilling all the requirements of the program. If you are interested in what majors are like in general, maybe you should try talking to some students, or some professors in the faculty that know what is going on / are sort of directors of the program. They might have a lot more to say than a general advisor.

    I agree that in the past I have not found advisors to be as useful as I would like them to be. Maybe in reality though their job is more to make sure you are on track and to get you into courses rather than selling people on the programs themselves. I think the information you are looking for is out there, it just might be better found looking elsewhere.
  • Whydoihavetoregister
    Meh they're paid to do an easy job
  • BeAnBeAnBeAnBeAn
    Yeah SFU is ridiculous, and the advisors are utterly useless. You can get superior advice from other students for free and they aren't even paid. 
  • BeAnBeAnBeAnBeAn
    I agree with Ryan to go to the professors directly though, they are usually pretty helpful. 

    They should really change advisors'  titles to "Program Coordinator" or something though because frankly, for a bunch of advisors, they don't really do what they're supposed to do and that's to advise. I feel as if though they are more like mediators between you and the school and the faculty professors sometimes. And they in fact do try to sell people on programs themselves, regardless whether you like it or not or are good at it, they'll try to get you into whatever program/major it doesn't matter because it's all about getting that sweet tuition revenue. 

    So far all I've gotten from advisors are mass e-mails telling you what you CAN'T do and what's NOT available and mass e-mails of scoldings for people who e-mailed the professors directly about enrollment stuff (don't wanna name names but *ahem* Gabirel Sauro), I wasn't one who had partaken in this but even though, the professor in lecture explicitly said people could e-mail him or the advisor about enrollment. 

    On top of that, the advisors really don't care what program you're in because they'll let the enrollment system screw you over and THEN try to "fit you in" and help you, key word-- try to. Yeah, thanks I appreciate the help for giving me whatever tutorials are left open and only having a couple spots left so not everyone can get in. They'll take ages to respond, and when they do, they're never clear or definite or at least somewhat assuring answers and are always very vague leaving you unsure what to do which is completely opposite of "advising". So even though they say "we're trying really hard" that doesn't mean anything because if you're not actually registered in the course, for instance, people needing to apply for another semester of student loans/bursaries can't because they don't even have a full course load yet. 

    Thank you SFU advisors you're so helpful. 
  • SFUTalk
    Most of them are probably tired of hearing the same questions/requests and repeating the same answers. I guess you could say some are lazy too; my friend went to see an advisor and the advisor was just playing games on the computer. She didn't even look up from her screen and kept telling my friend to check the website.

    The SIAT advisor is very reliable though. Her responses are prompt and she'll even reply in the evenings (like 11 PM). If you have some small general questions you could probably ask her.
  • immadiamond
    Thanks everyone for your replies...nice to know that other students are going through the same frustrations that I am, lol 

    To ryan whydoihavetoregister and SFUTALK; yeah, I may be looking in the wrong area or wording my questions wrong. But I just wish they'd show more interest and if they didn't know, tell me exactly where I can go to find those resources. I understand they are probably stressed out having to deal with all these "customers" all the day....but tbh, if you are tired of it, why did you sign up to be an advisor in the first place. Some of the advisors we have are just completely inadequate, I really wonder if its SFU whos doing a flop job training them, or the advisors themselves

    Hmm thanks for that SFUtalk, idk if I could talk to them though since I'm not in that department. I can't even get a hold of my own major's department because they keep redirecting my email saying how theyre not in office, or they dont know so email this person and so forth....WHYYYY

    BeAnBeAn; thank you /clap clap
    You know exactly what I mean. They don't care, most of them just have the $$$ in their mind; they stall you by saying DUDE YOU DONT NEED TO GRADUATE ON TIME yeah thats because SFU wants to keep students here for fkn ever so you can rob us dry of our money...like can't you be less obvious about it. God. I also agree about how they dont  do much for you if you desperately need a course to graduate, but can't because SOMEHOW the classes are all full...

    The career advisors I've talked to are horrendous too. Yes i've gone to sfu calendar.com. Yes I know about student services, about volunteering, about co op. No I don't want to take your dumb career quizes I can easily take online for $20 bucks are you kidding me..

    Ok, I think I'm good. Sorry for the rants. I just can't sometimes with you, s f u
  • guitarch94
    You should try the student advisors because they're usually more helpful. They're also available with an appointment which I found the most helpful.
  • SFUTalk
    immadiamond: It depends on your questions. She gave me the email of someone who could help me out when she couldn't.

    I wonder if there's somewhere we could complain/comment?
  • BeAnBeAnBeAnBeAn
    Let's form a union, go on strike and block the advisor parking lot and film it? Oh, and not give tuition but only give verbal feedback of how the term is going while retaining the actual tuition amount.

    Sound familiar? >:-P
  • immadiamond
    SFUTalk, I see your point, I just wish they had more empathy or genuine care lol...

    Is there? I wish there was a survey we could take so we could rate how inefficient they are!

    BeAnBeAn, L M A O !! Good one lol. I'm on board, lets do this
  • BeAnBeAnBeAnBeAn
    ^this.
  • immadiamond
    ^lol who's Gabriel? why, are they mean?

    sucks when we only have 1-2 advisors for each faculty and if they are rude we are still stuck with them if we ever need help with our program
  • j21
    there are around 36000 students at SFU, and less than 50 advisors that why they can't do the best for this high number of students
  • 112233
    Also, they answer the same questions over and over and over, so I'm sure it gets tough to give individual advice when they go through the same questions continuously. Also they can't tell you exactly what to do, you need to make the choices yourself, they can only do so much.

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