Pastoral Care

In the Admissions Office's experience, most students from the UK do not have different or unusual transition issues or special advising needs. All students take advantage of the strong support system in place for their academic, personal and social concerns. The Advising Programs Office has a very good website (see box at right) including the Advising Matters brochure. For UK students, the culture shock is perhaps less than for many other nationalities, but in any case the British Undergraduate Club contacts UK Freshmen on arrival and offers an informal network of mentors who pass on their expereince in dealing with settling in. The First-Year International Program hosts an orientation session just after arrival and helps UK and foreign students set up bank accounts, get mobile phones, and navigate their way through the system. One recent foreign student tells of her experiences in settling in.

First-Year (Freshman) Advising: The goals of first-year advising are to help students make the transition from secondary school to uni, and to help sort out their educational experience. All incoming first-year students start out with a network of advisers who serve as the chief initial resources for academic and non-academic advice:

• a proctor (who lives in the dorm and advises on personal, residential, social, and academic matters),
• a freshman academic adviser (a faculty member, administrator, or proctor who helps select courses and explore questions on academic matters, educational goals, summer opportunities, career plans, and extracurricular interests)
• a peer advising fellow (a sophomore, junior or senior student who offers advice and assistance from a student's perspective),
• a resident dean of freshmen (one of three assistant deans who work closely with proctors).

Second-year (Sophomore) advising: the goals of sophomore advising are to support students as they focus on their academic interests, and to help them make successful transitions into their Houses and their chosen concentrations.

• A sophomore adviser (who is matched with students based on shared interests and helps them choose classes, select a concentration, think about study abroad and fellowships, and make summer plans)
• House Masters (who help set the tone for House activities and are wonderful sources of knowledge about Harvard and the world beyond)
• House tutors and resident dean (who help with a range of academic and personal matters and broad life questions)
• Concentration advisers (who help create an academic path within the chosen concentration.)

Concentration Advising: Once a student declares a concentration, the concentration adviser assumes primary academic advising responsibility for the student.

Advising Network Portal: The portal is an online tool which displays a student's formal network of advisers in one place, with photos and e-mail links. Students also use the portal to gain access to their course enrolment, placement scores, grades, and other information.