If your early Guilford experience was anything like mine, academic advising was something that was highly recommended to you as a first-year or even prior to your enrollment at Guilford. However, if you are anything like me, you might have shrugged off these suggestions and thought to yourself, “I know what I’m doing” or “I know how to pick a few classes for myself—I did it in high school!”

Again, if you’re anything like me, you were, or will be, wrong in your assumption that academic advising is only for those coming to college without clear sense of direction or a predetermined major.

In my first year, I ended up enrolling in a calculus and an “elementary-school math” course, even after I had already taken and passed the Quantative Literary exam, because I did not have any knowledge of how to efficiently satisfy my general education requirements. Now, I have an unnecessary “W” on my transcript after having to coming to close to failing and having to drop a first-year calculus course, while my “elementary-school math” course now resides in the desolate “unused courses” section of my transcript.

Since then, I have actively engaged in one-on-one advising with an advisor before every semester, and this decision has made a world of difference. Not only have I taken classes that are in my best interest since my freshman year, I’m also on a better path and set to graduate on time next year. The changes coming to the academic advising system will strive to achieve the same effect for you.

However, if you ask anyone around Guilford College’s campus their opinion on the Guilford Edge, a majority of students will likely respond with a groan or a complaint about the planned scheduling changes to come in late August.

The current academic calendar’s “semester” is set to be redefined into two segments: a single three-week intensive course followed by three, twelve-week courses that will more closely mirror the current semester’s formatting. This is where most students’ chief concerns lie. However, amid the debate over whether or not the academic format will do more to harm students rather than help them in their courses of study, other changes coming in the fall of 2019 have been largely neglected.

According to the College’s website, these changes implemented in the Guilford Edge will help students “develop individualized plans for making well-informed decisions about academic choices, study abroad, internships and other life-shaping experiences.” Additionally, the site states that the addition of “Guilford Guides” will help pave the way “in designing a college-wide system of advising that keeps students on track as they actively explore their interests throughout all four years at Guilford.” If nothing else, these changes mean that escaping effective academic advising will be almost impossible.

Navigating my course of study alone led to me taking several unnecessary classes and wasting a lot of time and money. I hope that the Guilford Edge’s overhaul of the campus’ current academic advising system will allow others to avoid a similar fate.