By: Anna Sobczyk

My primary goal at PSU has been to graduate in four years. Using PSU tools like the DARS report and Course Projection Guide, I meticulously created and followed a degree map for the better part of my first three years of school. I believed it to be so thorough that I never bothered to speak with my advisor in order to sort out anything I could have missed.

Last spring, I finally decided to visit with my math advisor because I needed to ask about the Honors thesis. The math department has different requirements surrounding the thesis project, and the little nuances had me confused. I entered the meeting thinking it would be around a five-minute clarifying chat, but it turned into a full half-hour of me reworking my entire senior year class schedule. Low and behold, in the three years I avoided my advisor, I had never learned about some fine print on the degree requirements involving an Honors student in math. Where I thought I only needed one more math sequence to be done, I actually needed to take two 400-level math sequences. 

Leaving my advising appointment, I felt the strangest mix of stress, frustration, and gratitude. I was upset that I didn’t have my whole college career mapped out correctly all along and stressed about my senior year, which would no longer be chill with an additional math sequence tacked on. Overwhelmingly, though, I was relieved and grateful that I saw my advisor before it was too late. Speaking from my experience, save yourself the future grief and meet with your advisor(s). Too many horror stories exist about seniors just missing their graduation requirements; I narrowly avoided being one of them. This week I applied for graduation in Spring 2020, and I am extremely lucky that I could.