Honors advisor vs academic advisor vs honors academic advisor
I work in higher ed, so I speak the lingo and understand how confusing all the terms and acronyms can be (gosh, we love our acronyms!). So, here I’ll let you into what I know about the differences in types of advisors as they relate to Honors.
An Honors advisor is usually the person that works with students that are admitted into the University’s Honors program (Student had to meet rigorous deadlines and grade/GPA/SAT/ACT requirements and then were given an honors scholarship of some sort). This advisor will mainly make sure that students are staying in status with their scholarship’s requirements (service hours, number of honors classes, certain GPA, etc). This person may also talk to them about leadership opportunities, getting involved on campus, research, etc. There is usually no mention of actual classes within the majors because that is left to our next advisor.
Academic advisors partner with students to make their career and college goals a reality. These advisors know the curriculum requirements, pre-requisite information, course sequencing, the major school’s policies and procedures. This person empowers students to take control of their coursework and educational journey while being a resource and support person for them. Since there can be dozens of advisors on a university campus, they will likely know each other and can offer a person’s name and contact information if the information a student needs is outside of their advisor’s expertise. This is the person a student will talk to when they have a college question as this advisor is designed to help the student transition from high school to college through orientations and make sure the student gets off to a great start. This advisor might be able to answer some very basic honors questions but will likely refer you to your Honors advisor for all your scholarship requirements.
Lastly, an honors academic advisor is generally the academic advisor within your major that manages the honors students. For example, Michael is a business student at ABC University. His Honors advisor works with all ABC honors students, his academic advisor knows the ins and out of the business degree/school, and his honors academic advisor is also a business degree academic advisor that also works with all the business honors students at ABC.
All advisors are good resources and I encourage students to get to know their advisors. They have gotten degrees and have experience working with college students and understand the challenges students face. All of these people are here to help students be successful and have seen countless, thousands of students per year and can normalize some of the things that students feel [like] ONLY THEY are experiencing. I encourage to meet with each of their people once/semester – that way if something changes, they can know about it sooner than later.
Questions? Comment below and I’ll help.
We’re in this together. 🙂
-LouAnna
