A few weeks into the semester, Gabriela Garcia '12 received an e-mail telling her she had chosen an "unusually challenging set of courses for (her) first semester," and it pointed out campus resources.
The e-mail encouraged Garcia, whose schedule includes CHEM 0330: "Equilibrium, Rate, and Structure," ENGN 0030: "Introduction to Engineering" and MATH 0090: "Introductory Calculus, Part I" to sign up for chemistry tutoring, which she said has been helpful.
Garcia is not alone. Because the Task Force for Undergraduate Education has put more of an emphasis on active advising, Deputy Dean of the College Stephen Lassonde said he sent e-mails to 130 first-year students after they had chosen their classes. Certain courses and course combinations caught the attention of the Office of the Dean of the College, and the deans wanted students in these courses to be aware that their schedules would be challenging.
"If you know that, it's a lot easier to ask for help," Lassonde said.
Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron called it "proactive outreach."
This was the first time the Office of the Dean of the College sent e-mails of this nature, and only first-years were contacted. Lassonde said upperclassmen, who have already been taking college courses for at least a year, are more adept at self-screening.
Five categories of freshmen received messages: students simultaneously enrolled in CHEM 0330, ENGN 0030 and any math course; students enrolled in BIOL 0470: "Genetics"; students enrolled in language classes that require two semesters for credit to be received, like introductory courses in Chinese and Arabic; students enrolled in upper-level math courses; and pre-med students enrolled in multiple lab courses.
Lassonde said the intent of the e-mails was to "reach out to students before they run ashore."
Though many students had probably already received advice about their courses from their advisers, Lassonde said he has learned from past experience that redundancy is necessary, especially for first-years who are being inundated with resources and information.
The e-mails were meant to serve as helpful reminders of where to turn for guidance, Lassonde said. About 40 percent of the students who were contacted responded, he said. The responses fell into three categories: Some students said they had already spoken with an adviser or professor, some thanked him for his advice and said they were doing fine and others acknowledged needing help and subsequently made appointments.
Garcia found the e-mail to be a reassurance that "someone wants you to do well."
"It makes it seem more normal to need help," she said. "You don't feel like, 'Oh, I'm stupid because I need a tutor.'"
The e-mails reminded students of options such as dropping down math levels, switching from CHEM 0330 to its year-long equivalent and obtaining tutors. Garcia said she might have eventually gotten a tutor, but the e-mail, combined with advice from professors, convinced her to "start off at a good pace and get help early."
Matt Smith '12 enrolled in Arabic for the fall semester, taking note that the Course Announcement Bulletin listed it as a two-semester course. When he began the class in September, his professor reminded students that it was the first semester of a yearlong course. So when Smith received an e-mail from Lassonde in mid-September, warning him that if he did not take two semesters of Arabic he would not receive credit, he found it "a little strange."
"If the dean of the College's office were going to tell me, they should have told me before I signed up for the course," he said. The e-mail also reminded Smith to pre-register for Arabic for the spring semester, which he said would have been a more useful message in late October, rather than "some random date in mid-September."
"The timing seemed odd, and it seemed redundant," he said.
The e-mails had to be sent after the deadline for adding classes had passed, Lassonde said, so he could be sure that students were definitively enrolled.
Garcia said she thought the timing was appropriate. Had she received the e-mail earlier in the semester, before she realized what she had gotten herself into, she might have disregarded the extra advice.
