An Academic Advisor is an individual who can help answer questions about academic decision making, provide referrals to campus resources, provide guidance and support as your new Duke navigates the course enrollment process, and explain how students’ academic decisions impact their progress toward meeting graduation requirements.

All incoming, first year students are assigned a first-year advisor. Our new first-year students will stay with their first-year advisor until mid-February at which point they transition to their major advisor. Once your student transitions to their major advisor, they will stay with their advisor in that department unless they declare a new program of student. Any student who declares an additional program of study (major, minor, etc) will have an additional advisor.

Our Advisors are a strong mix of both faculty and primary role advisors housed in every college at our university. Each of these individuals are committed to helping students make the transition from high school to college by assisting them in developing and pursuing academic goals and learning how to function successfully within the university. Each advisor advises students in a particular program or set of programs to ensure that you get the best possible information. We view our work as a partnership with our students to ensure that each individual can be the most successful during their time at JMU.

We get this question a lot. There are a few key differences between the scope and level of support of our first-year advisors and High School guidance counselors. In the hopes of answering this question fully, we put together this chart to help: 

All incoming first-year students who have completed their “Orientation Reservation & Declaring a Major” checklist step will hear from their first-year advisor sometime during the day on June 6. They should plan to check their JMU dukes email during that day. Not seeing the email? Encourage your student to check their junk mail, make sure any email filters are off and if they still cannot find it, they can contact firstyearadvising@jmu.edu.

The first interaction between incoming students and their advisors will be during virtual Group Advising, which occurs between June 9-June 16th. These virtual, small group meetings are a great way for your students to meet their advisor and a few other students in their program of study while also learning more about their major, hear important tips and tricks to help guide them through the enrollment process, and learn more about both their role and their advisors role in the advising relationship. While we know you also might have some questions during this time, it is important that only your student attend these group advising meetings.  

We do encourage you to talk to your students about the group advising sessions. Here are a few sample questions you might ask: 

• What type of advice did your advisor share with you about incoming transfer credit? Is there anything we can do to share that? 

• What tips did your advisor give you for enrolling in classes  

• Will your advisor check your schedule to make sure you enrolled in the right classes? How will that process work?  

• If you have questions, what is the best way to contact your academic advisor? 

Every incoming student must complete the Prepare for Class Enrollment Modules step in their One Book Checklist. This helpful resource will guide your student through understanding the curriculum here at JMU, key definitions of terms such as what a credit hour is, provide an enrollment worksheet by major to help guide your student as they consider which classes to enroll in and provide enrollment tutorials. Additionally, throughout the course there will be videos from current JMU students that help individuals gain different perspectives about course content. Here’s a brief course outline so you can understand what your student will be learning in this class: 

Module 1: Academic Basics (Curriculum, General Education Program, Understanding Credits) 

Module 2: Understanding Placement Exams (ALEKS & Foreign Language Placement Exam) 

Module 3: Enrollment Worksheets by Major & Understanding Incoming Credit  

Module 4: Enrolling in courses- Tips, resources and how to build a schedule. Special notes for different populations of students such as high credit, student athletes, honors college, and similar.