Advisor’s Toolkit
Good academic advising is a collaborative effort between advisee and advisor.
Advisors support students’ efforts to realize their full potential. Both roles should know what to expect from advising.
Please see Faculty Advisor Fish 'R' Net & FisherLink Tutorials for a full menu of advising tutorials.
Advising Overview
Your Advisee List
Your list of advisees is dynamic, potentially changing throughout the semester as students add and drop majors. A current list of advisees is available through Fish 'R' Net. Select Faculty Services > View My Advisees > View My Advisee Listing. Be sure the correct term is selected. This view offers a variety of information and allows you to email all or a filtered list of your advisees. Please see the View Your Advisee List, Documents, & Details tutorial.
Your advisee list can also be viewed in FisherLink. See How to Use FisherLink to View Your Advisee List and Message Those Students for details.
Alternate PINs
All undergraduate students, as well as graduate pharmacy and inclusive education students, must obtain an alternate PIN from their advisor to register for classes. This alternate PIN unlocks course registration for that student and is specific to the registration term. The advisor issues the alternate PIN to the advisee after meeting to plan for the upcoming semester. Please ask students to meet with you after course offerings post and alternate PINs become available for distribution, as indicated by the email from the Registrar.
Alt PIN Report
Access alternate PINs through Fish 'R' Net. Select Faculty Reports > Alt PIN Report
This report displays your list of students and their alternate PINs associated with the valid registration term. Previous terms are not available. View How to Find Advisees' Alternate PINs in Fish 'R' Net for details.
Alternate PIN Best Practices
- Encourage students to capture the alternate PIN on an easily accessible, cloud-based application. This helps students access their alt PIN at a later date without requesting it again from you.
- Import (copy and paste) the alternate PIN report data into a spreadsheet to track advisee meetings for that semester.
Course Registration Time Ticket, Holds, and Eligibility
Approximately one week before course registration begins, all students are assigned a registration time ticket that indicates the day and time that they can begin their course registration. Administrative holds (financial are most common) can block a student’s course registration. As course registration approaches, please encourage advisees to view their eligibility. The How to View Individual Registration Eligibility, Holds, Time Tickets & Alt PINs tutorial guides you on how to find that information.
Communication
Advising relationships benefit from good communication. Advisors should establish expectations early each semester, and new advisees should be encouraged to introduce themselves to their advisors well before the course registration advising period.
Best Practices: Communication Plan
Early in the 1st Month – Welcome (Back)
Email advisees that you are their academic advisor. Suggest to them how best to contact you, what you expect from them as an advisee, and what they can expect from you. Include information about applying for graduation. For the sake of simplicity, craft a single email that applies to all new students with headings specific to new and continuing advisees. Use Fish 'R' Net or FisherLink to bulk email these students. For example:
Welcome to the start of a new semester! If we haven’t already met, I’m your major faculty advisor. My role is to support your academic planning and progress. To do that, we should get to know one another. Let’s meet to look at where you are in your academic progress and where you’d like to go. You can find my contact information in your Success Network in FisherLink. Please use that to schedule an appointment with me in the next few weeks. You can also stop by my office [insert location] if you see my door is open. If you’re one of my continuing advisees and would like to check in sooner than the course registration period next month, please schedule with me or stop by. It will be good to reconnect.
Later in the 2nd Month – Preparing for Course Registration Advising
Inform advisees of course registration timing, the date that you plan to begin offering advising appointments, how they should schedule with you, links to advising resources, and how you expect them to be prepared for their advising appointment. For example:
Course offerings for next semester were recently posted, and I’m looking forward to meeting with you to plan for next semester. Course registration week is [insert dates] by assigned time ticket, which will be issued to you the week before course registration. Here’s what you should do to be prepared.
Schedule an advising appointment with me through FisherLink. Make your appointment for a time when you’ll be fully prepared! I’ll offer appointments [insert date span].
To prepare for your advising appointment:
• View your registration status in Fish 'R' Net. Be sure you don’t have any holds on your account that could block your course registration - those could appear even the week of course registration. If you do have a hold, resolve it with the appropriate office. Check your time ticket, which will be issued the week before registration. See How to View Registration Holds, Eligibility & Time Ticket for instructions.
• Compare your courses completed and in progress with your remaining degree requirements on uAchieve. You can access this app through the Launchpad on mySJF. View this YouTube video for instructions on using uAchieve.
• If you’ve been using the academic pathway you created with your first-year advisor, review that document and share it with me.
• Use the Course Search to develop a list of courses you plan to take toward completing your major and any minor and Core requirements. Bring this list of courses you’re planning to take to our appointment. We’ll review them together.
• Once we’ve determined a course plan for next semester, I’ll give you your alternate PIN. Please record this number in a cloud-based and easily accessed location, like a note on your phone or in your Fisher email account. You’ll need it later if you want to make schedule changes.
If you arrive at our appointment without prior planning, you may not receive your alternate PIN and may need to follow up later. Preparing in this way will make for a productive meeting. Once you’ve met with me, obtained your alternate PIN, and your registration time slot has opened (in order of hours earned and currently enrolled), you’ll be able to register for your next semester. See How to Enter Your Alternate PIN to Register for Classes Using CRNs for instructions. Registration remains open through the first week of classes in the next semester, but some course availability goes quickly. Register ASAP!
Common Advising Issues
Students must fulfill the graduation requirements for the year they entered the University.
Transfer students' catalog year is indicated on their Transfer Credit Evaluation.
Students may move their catalog year forward to follow new degree requirements (core always remains the same), but they may not move it backward. Degree requirements must be followed from only 1 bulletin. It is important to know which catalog is being followed when using the online degree evaluation. Archived undergraduate catalogs are available online.
Catalog year changes are made by submitting the Academic Program Change Request to the Registrar's Office.
Catalog YearStudents who begin as freshmen must complete the entire Core. Advanced credit earned in high school, such as AP, IB, CLEP and transfer credit, may be applied toward completion the core.
Transfer students may have part or all of their Core Foundations Tier 1 waived. See the student's Transfer Credit Evaluation (TCE) for details.
Core RequirementsThere are significant differences between earning a double degree and adding a 2nd major to a program of study. Students often declare second majors in pursuit of their college degrees. If a student meets all of the course requirements for both majors, the student may graduate with one degree and have two majors listed on the academic transcript. With careful planning, degree requirements for two majors can be completed within the minimum 120 credits needed to earn the one degree.
Sometimes students wish to pursue two distinct degrees—either a B.A. and a B.S., or two B.S. or B.A. degrees. In these cases, the requirements for each major and each degree must be met, and students must earn a minimum of 150 credit hours.
In the case of a student returning to earn a 2nd degree after the awarding of the student's first degree, the student must earn a minimum of 30 additional credit hours and meet all requirements for the second degree. Please refer students to the Registrar for clarification.
Dual Degrees- B.A. degree students must complete the two semester sequence of a foreign language. The introductory foreign language sequence also satisfies two P5 Core requirements.
- Placement details at are available at Modern Languages and Cultures. If further clarification is needed, refer students to the department.
You are considered eligible for the study abroad program if you are a:
- sophomore with a minimum 3.0 GPA, and have declared a major and secured approval from your department.
- junior or senior with a minimum 2.75 GPA.
You also must be in good disciplinary standing with the University.
Study Abroad- 2.0 overall for all undergraduate students
- 2.0 in the major
- 2.0 in the minor
Transfer course grades are not included in the Fisher GPA. In the case of major and minor electives (courses not specifically required), all courses that may be applied are used in determination of the GPA, even if the student takes extra electives.
Some majors, including education, sport management, and nursing, require minimum grades of C (2.0) for individual major courses. Other majors, including sport management and education, require specific GPAs for eligibility for practicums, internships, and student teaching.
GradingSt. John Fisher University is a member of the Rochester Area Colleges Consortium. The Consortium allows undergraduate matriculated students to enroll in undergraduate courses on a space-available basis at any RAC college. The student must be enrolled full-time (12 credits minimum) at the home school and receive the appropriate permission on the "Inter-institutional Undergraduate Student Enrollment Form" available from the Registrar.
There is no tuition charge for Inter-institutional enrollment at the RAC schools, which include Nazareth, MCC, SUNY Geneseo, SUNY Brockport, RIT, U of R, FLCC, and Keuka College. This is not available in the summer. Academic and administrative policies, dates, and procedures of the host school govern students. Credit earned from the host school is applied as transfer credit to the Fisher student's record. See the Registrar for more information.
Registrar's OfficeFifty-four (54) hours of Fisher graded coursework must be earned in order to be eligible for Latin Honors at Commencement. Coursework graded only on an S/U basis that is required by the major may also count in the graded hours determination.
Transfer students who complete fewer than 54 hours at Fisher are ineligible to receive Latin Honors at Commencement. Please make sure to make all transfer students aware of this stipulation. They may want to consider not transferring some electives so they can make the 54 at Fisher.
Academic HonorsThe B.S. degree requires 60 liberal arts credits. The B.A. degree requires 90 liberal arts credits (plus a foreign language sequence and a minor).
Applied coursework in most professional programs is not considered liberal arts, including NURS, MGMT, MKTG, HRMG, ACCT, and FINA. Many ITDY, SPST, MSTI, and EDUC courses are also not considered liberal arts.
Use the Course Search to find liberal arts courses by selecting "All Courses" and the attribute "YLIB" (Yes Liberal Arts) near the bottom of the list.
Courses that transfer from other institutions in the areas of COMM, ARTS, criminal justice, and CSCI-related fields may not transfer in as liberal arts. For clarification, view the student's TCE (Transfer Credit Evaluation) or check with the Registrar.
Liberal Arts and Sciences RequirementsA course may be repeated as many times as desired unless restricted by a program, i.e. nursing. When a course is repeated, the original grade is not removed from the student's record, but only the most recent grade is calculated into the cumulative GPA. When a student repeats a course in which any passing grade has been earned, additional credits are not earned for the course.
199C courses, regardless of their departmental designations, are repeats of one another. A student may not receive credit for more than one 199C course.
Graduate schools may consider all graded attempts at a course as part of the cumulative GPA. This varies by School and program.
A student wishing to repeat a course at Fisher for which transfer credit was already awarded must consult the Registrar.
Repeated coursework might not be considered toward full-time enrollment for some kinds of federal/state aid. Additional aid questions regarding full time-status should be directed to Financial Aid.
Grading and TranscriptsThe maximum transfer credit awarded for any combination of 2-year schools, AP, CLEP, IB, and ACE recommendations of credit from non-collegiate sources, such as the Armed Forces, is 66 credits.
All students must complete at least 30 of the final 36 credits of the degree at Fisher. This means that no more than 6 credits may be transferred once a student is in the final 36 credits of degree completion. Students should plan transfer of credits early in their program rather than wait until their senior year.
Every student must complete at least 1/2 of the major and earn a minimum of 30 credits at Fisher in order to earn a degree. See Academic Programs to view major requirements and Degree Requirements for Graduation for full details.
Degree RequirementsAwarding transfer credit is based on receipt of official college transcripts and official score reports (AP, IB, CLEP). Fisher does not award credit from a high school transcript. Once credit is awarded, the articulated credit is posted on the student's Fisher transcript, viewable via Fish 'R' Net.
Students need to know what coursework has transferred in order to avoid enrolling in the same course at Fisher. Credit cannot be earned twice for the same course.
Consult the Transfer Articulation Guide for more details and to access the Transfer Credit Request Form, which is required to verify transfer course equivalencies.
Course Credit Information for Transfer StudentsWhen advising students who are struggling with a course, consider the following questions, courses of actions, and their consequences.
Q: Have you met w/your instructors to discuss your academic progress through midterm?
Q: What is your goal grade for the course? Is it still realistically achievable?
Q: What have you done to try to improve your standing in the class? Are there additional resources you could be using to further assist your efforts?
- Resources: Tutor Resources, Improving Academic Performance
Q: Is this course required for your major? Do you plan to continue in the major? If so, what are your plans to complete this requirement?
- Notes: Certain major requirements are only offered once per academic year. Sciences, math, and computer science majors have especially strict sequencing considerations.
- Resources: Undergraduate Catalog, Course Schedule
Q: Will dropping this course put you below full-time (12 credits)?
- Notes: Dropping below 12 credits can impact financial aid, housing, and/or athletic participation.
- For financial aid, It may be possible to drop to part-time between midterm and the last day to W, but it's important to see a financial aid counselor (Kearney 204) to assess your individual situation.
- Resident students need written permission from Residential Life to remain in the residence halls w/less than 12 credits. See Residential Life office on the second floor of the Campus Center.
- Athletes must be full-time to compete. Students are encouraged to discuss their academic needs with coaches as well.