ESS 901: Intro to ESS advising

And this week, I’m excited to have guests Mayra Rivera and Jean Nguyen. Mayra and Jean, thank you so much for being here today. Let’s start off with letting you introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about your role at Berkeley. Mayra, first.

MAYRA RIVERA
Hi. My name. Maya Rivera, and I’m the associate director of advising at engineering student services. So I do, advising for aerospace students and mechanical engineering students and a bunch of other projects. I was the associate director. Just to tell you a little bit more about myself, I’ve been working for the College of Engineering since 2017.

Oh, well, now, I really enjoy working with students and just getting to meet everyone and getting to see them as they grow from, like, their first semester here until your last semester. Some fun things about me that you should know. I have two cats. So if you are in my student cohort, expect that you will be spammed at some point with some cat pictures, hopefully around finals to give you a pick me up. But yeah, let’s just a little bit about me.

LAURA VOGT
Thank you so much. And Jean.

JEAN NGUYEN
Hi, my name is Jean. I am an  ESS  adviser with the majors of bioengineering and a section of EECS, just because it’s so huge. I’ve actually been in the College of Engineering since 2018, when I started with EECS, advising PhD students. So I was there for six years, and I jumped over to ESS last year.

So I’ve really just been with ESS for about a year, a little over a year now. A fun detail about myself is I don’t have cats, but I have one crazy pitty mix named Charlie. And if you want to talk about her, I’m more than happy to talk. I’m also advising ECE, the new major that just got added recently.

LAURA VOGT
And, Mayra, can you tell us a little bit about what advising and ESS is?

MAYRA RIVERA
Yeah. Of course. So, advising in ESS includes checking in on your degree progress . So your ESS adviser, which we refer to as a college adviser, will be the main point of contact for anything that’s related to program planning. So, and what I mean by program planning is actually mapping out the classes that you plan and taking from the beginning of your journey here until the end.

And so they’re your point of contact for petitions. If you have questions about deadlines, anything that’s related to degree programs. If you don’t know who to ask, your ESS adviser is usually the best person to get started with because they know a lot. And one thing about coming to UC Berkeley is that there are so many people to know and so many different resources out there.

So, hopefully with your ESS adviser, they can just help you get connected to the right person or the right resource. So, really we’re focusing more on degree requirements. But if you just don’t know, you can always just ask us.

LAURA VOGT
And Jean, you and Mayra had both just, introduce yourselves by saying what majors that you advise. How is that decided? And how do you students figure out who their adviser is?

JEAN NGUYEN
So students will work through GBA, which is Golden Bear Advising. And through that basically academic orientation, they’ll get assigned their adviser, so after they complete GBA, they’ll be able to contact their adviser over summer, sometime late June, to work with them individually through appointments, to do basically what Mayra mentioned before, program planning and everything they may have questions about.

LAURA VOGT
And I know that, Golden Bear Advising is the academic advising portion of getting prepared and getting ready to register for classes. What kind of questions are there? What type of things students need to do to prepare for GBA? Do they need to have paperwork in front of them or anything?

JEAN NGUYEN
They should know what they’ve done in high school so far. So there will be a series of questions asking about their preparation. There’s a math assessment that we’ll go over in a little bit, but I think knowing the classes they’ve taken, AP classes, their math preparation, any classes they’ve taken outside of high school, like if they were in any community college classes while they’re in high school, those are helpful things to have in front of them to input. So they know what kind of classes they should be taking their first semester.

LAURA VOGT
And how is it different for first year students compared to transfer students? Because transfer students have specific advising, right?\

JEAN NGUYEN
Yeah. So first year students will come in pretty clean. And they may have started with just the very beginnings of lower tier requirements. But for transfer students specifically, they are expected to have completed basically all their technical course, lower division technical coursework. So after going through the GBA modules, they’ll get suggestions on any remaining lower division requirements that they have and probably jump right into operative requirements.

LAURA VOGT
And Mayra, how long does GBA usually take for students to complete?

MAYRA RIVERA
That’s a great question. GBA is going to vary per person, and honestly, the best thing that I can recommend is that you take as much time as you need for GBA because it is long. There’s a lot of information on their information that’s super important, especially as students are getting started for their first semester. I think the question that we often get is like, you know, what is Berkeley Time?

What does that mean? And Berkeley Time just refers to classes starting ten minutes after the listed hour. And so it’s going to have a lot of tidbits like that in GBA. So really you want to take as long as you need. I often recommend that if you finish it on the first day, that’s probably not a good sign because there’s so much on there that you need to read and really digest and understand.

And taking your time will just help prepare you so that when you come into Berkeley in your first semester, you don’t feel like you’re at a disadvantage because other people know the same thing that you don’t know. And there will be many things that you don’t know, and that’s okay. But at least Golden Bear advising will give you the first introduction.

Like what you should know from an academic perspective. So really take as long as you need to. Don’t feel like you have to rush through it. And there will be a math assessment for some students. And that’s going to take longer too. So I would say, a week minimum is usually pretty good so that you can space it out.

I don’t know about other people, but me sitting on a computer and reading through things for hours at a time is not necessarily good for my retention. So that’s sort of what I recommend students do, is you, take your time, read through some things and then revisit it again. Just make sure that you’re submitting it by the deadline.

And that deadline will be in GBA. Once it officially gets posted, the deadlines will be different for, for sure, student versus the transfer student. So just keep an eye on the dates.

LAURA VOGT
And can you tell us more about that math assessment that we’ve talked about a couple times now?

MAYRA RIVERA
Yeah. So the math assessment is called the Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project, which we call DTP for short. Basically it’s a calculus one readiness assessment. And if you do not have AP credit for Math 1A if you have never taken calculus or if you don’t have any transfer work, from a community college that satisfies the math one, we will ask that you take this 70 minute exam.

The exam is meant to help prepare you to prepare you to choose the right math class for your first semester as an engineering student. Math is everything, and it’s going to be a prereq for so, so many of your classes. So we really want to make sure that you are enrolling in the right math class for your first semester.

So just know that, not everyone will have to do it. Some people that are coming in with, you know, more transfer work than others can just skip it. But that will be made clear in your Golden Bear advising module. So just make sure that you’re taking a look at it. You’re allocating the proper amount of time when you take the exam.

It’s actually going to give you some results. And if there are certain areas that the exam can identify that, you know, maybe you need to review, it’s going to give you that information so that you can work on that during the summer. Another question we got is, you know, what can I do this summer to prepare? And that’s definitely something that you can do.

So review the math material to make sure that you’re feeling good about getting started your first semester.

LAURA VOGT
And when you’re doing that, going through GVA for both the first year and the transfer students, it’s at one point. It’s a lot of like, have you taken this class? Well then did you take that class? And so what’s the purpose of having to answer all those very specific questions about the courses you’ve done?

Mayra Rivera
Yes, that’s a great question. So the purpose for answering those questions is that the goal for GBA is that at the end it’s going to generate a recommended first semester schedule for you. So the information that you’re providing in those questions about, you know, things that you’re coming in with, whether it’s transfer work like AP classes, community college, the system is going to suggest classes that you’ll take.

And then based on the classes that I recommend, you’ll look at those, you’ll actually select your lectures. And so you’ll have a finalized schedule ready to go hopefully before enrollment begins. And then that gets emailed to you and your adviser for review.

LAURA VOGT
And Jean, tell me a little bit more about what happens once you submit that once you’ve finished GBA and that schedule has been submitted to your adviser?

JEAN NGUYEN
Yes. So we get a copy of your submission. And we’ll take a look at what you’ve chosen as your first semester schedule, as a proposed schedule. And we’ll make recommendations based on that or advice based on any changes we want to, we want you to make in that schedule. And once we respond to your GBA submission, you’re welcome to make an appointment with us to follow up about anything that we’ve just suggested or advised.

LAURA VOGT
And why is it so important for students to finish GBA before making that first appointment with an adviser?

JEAN NGUYEN
Just to know everything. Basically what Mayra mentioned before about getting a very in-depth introduction orientation into all the academics of SEO. So a lot of the questions we get asked are answered basically in GBA. And I think being able to have students go through that, in depth and understanding, everything that goes into your degree requirements is helpful in, assessing your knowledge.

And then once you have all that knowledge down, then we can talk about things more in depth. If you have more questions about anything policy wise or degree requirement wise.

LAURA VOGT
And what is like a parent role in all of this, or is there a parent role in all of this?

JEAN NGUYEN
Parents, I mean, once you get into the university, there’s something called for, which we don’t have to go into right now, but it’s something where students are expected to take ownership of their academics. And they can include their parents if they want to. But parents can be a guide, but they don’t have a role specifically in GBA.

And we can’t really see if parents are helping with GBA, but it’s expected that students go through it themselves.

LAURA VOGT
And Mayra once students are able to start making these appointments. But if they don’t live locally yet.

MAYRA RIVERA
So during the summer and actually during the semester too, we have online appointments so students will be able to book appointments with their adviser online. And that’s something that they’ll have access to even beyond summer. So just know that if you’re not in that area, that’s okay. You’ll still have access to your adviser, whether that’s in a specific one on one appointment or if your adviser offers drop ins, which is basically a designated amount of time where a student can just stop by and ask a quick question, and then get hopefully going to be, which is what they need.

LAURA VOGT
And what other types of advising are going to be available for students while they’re here at Berkeley?

MAYRA RIVERA
Oh. So many. So I can start off with the ones that engineering students are most likely to use, which is peer advising. So peer advising is, meeting with another current engineering student to get advice. So sometimes students have very specific questions about, you know, is this professor better than this other professor. Right. And that’s more useful getting a student perspective who’s actually gone through the class.

So I would definitely recommend visiting an engineering peer adviser. They’re going to be an invaluable resource, especially during your first semester, as you’re trying to get used to everything.

LAURA VOGT
And peer advisers start working in August. Correct?

MAYRA RIVERA
Right. They’ll start the first day of classes so you can see them in person. They have very specific in-person hours. And then they also have online hours in the evenings. Now another, another advising resource for students. And this will vary depending on the department. Some departments have faculty advisers so that means these are professors who are available for advising.

For that it’s better that you actually just check in with your department to understand what it takes to, you know, meet with a faculty adviser. So that’s one resource. And that would be helpful if you have more questions about, you know, research like what is the professor actually looking for? To get admitted into a lab. The other advising resource is your department adviser.

And so every department in the College of Engineering has a department adviser. And then, yes, is a college adviser. So where it’s helpful to meet with the department adviser is, you know, if you’re wondering, is this class going to be offered in the future? Your department advisers are the ones that schedule your classes for your specific classes.

They’re the ones scheduling like your 61 eight class. And so they usually have a better understanding of what classes are going to be offered and when. If you need help connecting to a very specific faculty member, because you’re really interested in only one category of your major, they can help you get connected. So they’re really great resources for anything that’s department specific. So, whether it’s a department newsletter, whether you’re just trying to figure out some events at a department, that’s when you’ll be utilizing your department adviser. 

For our international students, we do have the Berkeley International office and they have their own advisers. So really, if it’s anything related to a visa or anything that you’re worried about, in terms of policy as an international student, you should definitely check in with the Berkeley International office. They have their own advising. I would say these are the most common types of advising. There are advisers that exist in other areas. As a large university, we advisers do not know everything. And so we’ll often refer you out to the experts for your degree programs. But if there’s anything out of that we may not have as much information will refer you out to a different resource.

Another one too, that I forgot is, you know, career engagement. So the Career Engagement Office has advising for, you know, trying to apply to internships, trying to find a job. So there’s a lot of different resources on campus available and lots of different advising. I think the best thing that I can recommend is, you know, start off with your ex adviser because it can be overwhelming to try to find out who the right person is to contact, and then they can help you get started.

LAURA VOGT
One of the things I remember, one of the advisers in ESS often said, students say well, I googled and this was the answer. And it’s like, Google doesn’t necessarily tell you what you need to know for engineering specific things. You might get information that’s for other departments or other colleges on the campus. So Google is great. But also ask the people who know the policies and know the curriculum better.

JEAN NGUYEN
Yeah, I completely agree. I have had several emails from new students, very confused about policies and stuff, but what they linked me to was L&S’s multiple times. So it’s a lot more helpful to just talk to us for sure.

LAURA VOGT
Because there are some significant differences like the number of units you have to take per semester, the number of time or the amount of time that you have to complete a degree. So it’s important to know that college of Engineering is different. And how often would you, in a perfect world, have students visit with their ESS advisers?

JEAN NGUYEN
I think as often as they would like. It really depends on the students. Students? We really only see, a couple times during their careers, which is fine, but it would be nicer if they would meet with us yearly or semester early, depending on their needs, especially when you’re starting out, freshman year, first year, I would say each semester for the first couple of years is really helpful as you get, get well acquainted with the campus and planning out your lower days, which can be difficult to plan out based on, availability and timing.

But once you get into your upper division coursework, we kind of work hand in hand with departmental advisers to navigate through that. So as many times as you need, I’ve had students meet with me multiple times a semester every semester. And some students I see once a year. I mean, I’ve only been with them for the year, but I’ve only seen some students at the very end of their careers.

LAURA VOGT
And one of the exciting things that’s happening for ESS is that you got a completely new remodeled space in the engineering center. Mayra, can you tell me a little bit more about that space and what do you think it’s going to be able to offer students?

MAYRA RIVERA
Yes. So we’re really excited that we’re going to be in a new building. We’re actually working on moving right now. But this new space is going to be meant to be the heart of engineering. So it’s going to have a bunch of different programs that will include ESS advising. So it’ll house advising, it will house the tutoring center.

The engineering library will also be located in this building. So it’s called Kresge. Besides offering those specific programs, we also have M.E.T, which is the Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology program. It is also home to SCET which is the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. You can see that we have a lot of acronyms. It’s really exciting because it’ll be a lot of study spaces too in the building. 

So hopefully even though you’ll be studying and on a computer, you’ll be getting some sunlight. Space that we plan on using for events. So if there’s any workshops that’ll be hosted by the College of Engineering, this will just be the hub of all activity. So just expect that many things will be happening here. If the goal is to have very collaborative spaces.

And so it’ll be like a one stop shop, hopefully to get your tutoring or advising any additional activities and programming that you want to participate in. But we’re all about we’re just really excited that it’s finally happening. We’ve been waiting for two years.

LAURA VOGT
And just to end on, note of do you is there or do either one of you have tips that you think, as students go into this process of getting ready to register for classes and planning out their schedules, what’s your favorite tip, or the number one tip that you want all students to keep in mind?

JEAN NGUYEN
I always stress  having a balanced schedule for your first semester. Just because you probably, I mean, students probably are capable of doing more than they take in their first semester, but it’s kind of about getting acclimated to university life and making friends and going out and doing things outside of academics. I feel like those are all pretty key components to a successful first year.

And like the first semester. And I feel like overloading yourself with technical coursework is overall going to be a detriment to that. So I always stress  in my GBA responses to have at least a balanced schedule the first semester. And if you feel like you can take more technical classes in the second semester, then go for it. But I think for the first semester always, like, take it easy.

MAYRA RIVERA
I think one of the main things that I stress to my students is to stay calm and be flexible when it comes to schedule planning. Because, you know, students are working on GBA and trying to create the most ideal schedule. They want to avoid all those 8 a.m. classes because they don’t want to wake up early. And then when the day of enrollment came, their first choice got full.

And now they no longer have this perfect schedule. And so I would say for your first semester, it’s really important that you’re flexible and you stay home when your ideal schedule doesn’t work out. It’s not the end of the world. You definitely have your adviser as a resource and will help you make sure that you’re getting into the classes that you need.

Sometimes it just requires a little bit of waiting, and I think that can make students really nervous if they’re like, oh no, I didn’t get into my math one eight class or my math AP one class. What am I going to do if I don’t get into math? And then I won’t be able to get into everything else right.

And the answer is like, you know, we’re going to help you work through that and you’re going to be waiting for a little bit while we’re working through that process. So I think the most important thing is like, don’t freak out. You know, if yours doesn’t work out your ideal one, there are backups. And that’s what’s important that through GBA, you’re looking at those backup classes and they will help you work through that.

Our advisers will be available on the day that students are enrolling, and so that anything goes wrong, they can just hop on a zoom call with us, and then we’ll try to work it out and give them different suggestions. So don’t freak out and know that it’s going to work out. I know that it requires a little bit of patience, and maybe a little bit of faith to just know that it’s going to work out.

And it definitely does. But because we’ve made such a big deal, like enrolling, creating your perfect schedule, I think sometimes when that perfect schedule doesn’t happen, students can freak out. So just know that it’s going to be okay and we’ll work on your schedule together.

LAURA VOGT
Well, thank you both so much for being here today to introduce us to Engineering Student Services. And yes, advising along with GBA, which everybody is going to be starting up here.

And like I said, we’re going to have six episodes this summer. So we’re introducing these every other week. So, the first episode is going out today, June 2nd, and we’ll meet you in a couple weeks to tell you about more resources and student experiences. Thank you, everyone for tuning in today and we’ll talk to you later, goodbye!