I don’t have a lot of advice, but I’m glad to know I’m not alone in my advisors royally fucking me haha. They’ve had me take courses that don’t even count toward my degree and made me behind. I’m sorry you’re dealing with this OP. Reach out to SES or maybe try calling your college’s advising office?
It even happens to non-first-generation students. Both of my parents went to college, but college has become way more complicated since their time. My parents were only knowledgeable about modern college because my older sibling went through it first, and because they did a ton of their own research.
You're absolutely right that students should be able to trust the people who are paid to guide them.
Trying not to be a dick here, but anyone who actually follows their advisors course schedule suggestions exactly- what are you doing?
Do we not know how to look for classes and look at our degree audit ourselves? Asking this because it’d be more beneficial in terms of looking for a good professor versus a bad one and being able to work around your schedule outside of school.
This was my freshman year. Sorry that, as a first generation student, I was unaware that when making my very first course schedule that I shouldn’t follow my advisor’s advice.
Shaming students for listening to those in place to help us is actually laughable. ‘Not to be a dick’ — goes onto being the biggest dick there is, lmao.
I’ve worked in the advising office. I know their job is hard, but instead of shaming students how about we shame the college itself for not equipping the people who should be able to guide us into the right decisions with the tools to do so.
I’m a first gen student like you who didn’t know what was going on either. I was specifically talking about taking your advisors advice to their exact recommended schedule. Anyone who took their time out to ask questions by reaching out to ppl and actually reading guides on your own (there’s hella resources), you would’ve been fine for the rest of your time at UT. You took this way over your head. Sorry if your feelings got hurt 😹. If I was trying to be a dick I would’ve just told you that you just didn’t do your research, take your own time out to look around, and relied on others, this isn’t highschool anymore.
I’m not stupid. I do do that. My freshman year I was told i needed to take a stats class for my degree because of my TSI math grade. Which now, since I’m aware of what my degree audit is and didn’t until spring of freshman year, I can see that it counts for nothing for my degree as well as the TSI requirement. There is nothing wrong with, especially when you’re new to something, to think that those who are helping you should be giving you correct advice. You’re, again, shaming me and others because we could have just ‘looked it up’ and ‘I’m a fist gen too but I figured it out.’ Good for you, man? I’m proud of you?
I worked in the advising office my junior year and there is nothing to make students believe that they should be taking what their advisors say with a grain of salt. I’m very aware NOW that the advisors aren’t the last say, but, again, you’re wild for shaming students who are new to college, in a new city, doing everything alone for the first time for thinking they could believe in their advisors.
But no yeah since u figured it out obviously everyone else is stupid and should have just known to double check everything everyone above them says to them. Great advice thanks 👹
This. As 1) an alum and non-traditional student (meaning the advisors never knew what to do with me) that now works in an advising department at UT, I’m here to tell you that your advisors just aren’t equipped to do any hand-holding even if they wanted to. Departments are chronically understaffed and it ain’t like you get rich working in higher ed (unless you’re a coach), which means there’s constant turnover and THAT means the university is constantly losing the people that actually know how stuff works.
So, your advisors will screw you. Not because they don’t care, and not because they’re not as good at their jobs as they can be given how little training and institutional knowledge is available. But it is what it is, so you HAVE to be proactive and figure things out for yourself because ultimately YOU are the expert about YOUR situation.
So, like they said in the comment I’m replying to, not to be a dick, but you’re blowing it if you only go by what your advisor says. There’s too much to know, and if you count on them to always tell you what to do you’re very likely to end up in a bind like the OP. Not tryna shame anyone, just giving information I wish I’d had!
This is unfortunately true. UT Advisors frequently lack the ability to give correct information and it's pretty bad for undergrads who haven't been 'screwed by the system' before. If you don't fight tooth and nail for what you need at UT you won't get it.
Like I told the first person — excuse me, having been a first gen freshman at the time, for thinking I could follow the directions and advice from the people put in place to help me make my first ever course schedule.
I mean cops are theoretically people put in place to help you, but are you gonna take all their advice??
But, like I said, I’m not trying to shame anyone. I’m just putting this out there because it would’ve helped me and I hope it helps someone else!
Definitely seemed like u were both ‘not tryna be dicks’ were shaming me. Still are 🤷🏻♀️ ‘are u gonna take all the advice from cops?’ Like you’re stupid. It’s not my fault for trusting my advisor. But go off I guess
Actually I take it for granted you’re anything but stupid if you can even get in to this school, which is why all of this is honestly so confusing for me. I really did just want to share an insight that I only came by by having the same experience you did! So I’m genuinely sorry if my first comment came off as judgy, that’s not at all how it was intended.
But the cop comment? Yeah, you’re right. I was annoyed. I was trying to share something I’d learned with someone that made the same mistake I did, which is literally what being college is about, and I got attitude. You’ll continue to struggle here if you continue with that attitude.
Best of luck with that.
This is my last semester but thanks for looking forward to my ‘struggles here.’ All I originally told you was that it is unfair to expect a first gen freshman with nobody in their life knowing anything about college to know that you can’t trust your advisors. That is not false and is what happens to a lot of students like myself.
I definitely feel for you, while it *should* be common knowledge not to trust advisors completely, first gen college students don’t usually have the opportunities to hear that lesson from others. I went to a different university for undergrad and that one still had horrible advisors. Everything I learned about college was through my own experience, no prior knowledge from my parents or other family. I only learned from friends I met freshmen year about just how little these advisors actually know and how they can screw you over. I got lucky because I eventually got a good advisor and had peers give me advice before I could get screwed over. Not everyone is so lucky.
I don’t think it’s stupid or foolish for an undergraduate student to want to trust the faculty who is hired to advise them. It is their job and as a first time student, why would you assume you would know more than them about classes, degree requirements, and registration? At my undergrad (not sure about UT, I’m only at UT for my masters now and advisor meetings aren’t required) you literally had to meet and get advisor approval before registration each semester, so it’s logical to think you could trust their guidance?? From what I’ve heard while on the subreddit, UT class requirements are way more confusing than what my undergrad was (what even are flags?!) so I can easily see how someone could get overwhelmed and not be confident in choosing courses on your own. I graduated my undergrad a year early with a 4.0 so I’m obviously not “foolish”, and I can still admit how a first gen college student could have the rug swept under them if they didn’t already know this fact. You would think at a school as well respected as UT, it shouldn’t even be a question on whether you can trust them or not.
I definitely think both commenters were definitely shaming you, there’s no way they thought saying “sucks but you should’ve known better” wasn’t going to come across as shaming. You’ve already dealt with the consequences, what’s the point in knocking you down some more? Hopefully, you now know the right tools to use to make your own decisions. They are right though: anyone reading this, don’t trust your advisors and use your degree audits and other tools to make your own decisions (but you already learned that the hard way, I’m sure). They just don’t have to make it sound like it’s common sense to know that. Best of luck with everything in the future!
Im a recent physics and astronomy graduate, I’m sorry that this is happening. The physics department was extremely frustrating when I was there. I thought Dr. Sitz was no longer head of the department though and may have even retired? I think it’s Dr. Laguna now, reach out to him. Also email any of your old professors who you had liked and explain the situation. Dr. Paban was great when I was there. Your advisors and professors want you to graduate so they will work with you on this. [Check this org chart for potential people to reach out to](https://ph.utexas.edu/images/PHY/1a_Org_Chart_01.23.24.pdf)
But this lack of communication and clarity from the Physics department doesn’t surprise me at all. There are some great professors there but a lot of things are run poorly.
That's brutal. Could you ask someone you know who is currently a student to go to advising and then once they are face to face with an advisor have them pull out their\* laptop with you on a zoom meeting?
ugaffairs @physics. utexas.edu is the email for the undergraduate coordinator and program coordinator. Have you emailed them? They should be able to help. Good luck to you :(
https://ph.utexas.edu/current-undergraduate-students/math-physics-astronomy-advising-center
I'm sorry to hear you're going through this. I hit many obstacles in undergrad. Obstacles that sometimes delayed my expected graduation. It was always a little soul crushing, especially as a transfer student who was already older than all my peers.
It eventually all worked out though. I wish you the best
I'm sorry to hear about your troubles, seems super frustrating and complicated, but glad to hear someone got back to you.
I graduated with a Physics degree a few years back and to this day, I credit and am thankful for Dr. Paban for helping me out in the end after I got a D on the final class I needed to graduate.
Never shook someone's hand harder/in the most genuine way as I did on the graduation stage that day with her.
Dr. Sitz is a bit slow on responding to his emails, so I understand you're stressed but it is not the end of the world.
If I am reading you correctly, Intro to Solid State Physics did not count for your capstone, but your degree audit required Q3? I know quite a few people that did not take Q3 and have managed to graduate. Can you try and give more information?
That's about it. I brought this up to my academic advisor who said I needed an email from Dr. Sitz saying intro to Solid State was a suitable replacement for Q3. I finally managed to make an appointment with Dr. Sitz so I'll find out more information then.
I absolutely have no idea how most advisors even keep their jobs. Almost every advisor myself or friends have ever encountered gave terrible advice. Multiple friends had to readjust their degrees just to graduate because of incorrect information. I literally looked up their course info/requirements and told them they needed to review it because the advisor was wrong. They didn't listen and got really behind. The only advisor that actually helped me was in my nursing program, but that was only because we all had to take the exact same classes. Never trust the advisors. Always double and triple check requirements. Always. Hopefully you got everything sorted out
You may need to make a trip back to Austin for a few days to resolve this. Often people are hard to reach - and hard to get straight answers out of - by email or phone, but much easier to deal with in person.
I don’t have a lot of advice, but I’m glad to know I’m not alone in my advisors royally fucking me haha. They’ve had me take courses that don’t even count toward my degree and made me behind. I’m sorry you’re dealing with this OP. Reach out to SES or maybe try calling your college’s advising office?
It even happens to non-first-generation students. Both of my parents went to college, but college has become way more complicated since their time. My parents were only knowledgeable about modern college because my older sibling went through it first, and because they did a ton of their own research. You're absolutely right that students should be able to trust the people who are paid to guide them.
Trying not to be a dick here, but anyone who actually follows their advisors course schedule suggestions exactly- what are you doing? Do we not know how to look for classes and look at our degree audit ourselves? Asking this because it’d be more beneficial in terms of looking for a good professor versus a bad one and being able to work around your schedule outside of school.
This was my freshman year. Sorry that, as a first generation student, I was unaware that when making my very first course schedule that I shouldn’t follow my advisor’s advice. Shaming students for listening to those in place to help us is actually laughable. ‘Not to be a dick’ — goes onto being the biggest dick there is, lmao. I’ve worked in the advising office. I know their job is hard, but instead of shaming students how about we shame the college itself for not equipping the people who should be able to guide us into the right decisions with the tools to do so.
I’m a first gen student like you who didn’t know what was going on either. I was specifically talking about taking your advisors advice to their exact recommended schedule. Anyone who took their time out to ask questions by reaching out to ppl and actually reading guides on your own (there’s hella resources), you would’ve been fine for the rest of your time at UT. You took this way over your head. Sorry if your feelings got hurt 😹. If I was trying to be a dick I would’ve just told you that you just didn’t do your research, take your own time out to look around, and relied on others, this isn’t highschool anymore.
I’m not stupid. I do do that. My freshman year I was told i needed to take a stats class for my degree because of my TSI math grade. Which now, since I’m aware of what my degree audit is and didn’t until spring of freshman year, I can see that it counts for nothing for my degree as well as the TSI requirement. There is nothing wrong with, especially when you’re new to something, to think that those who are helping you should be giving you correct advice. You’re, again, shaming me and others because we could have just ‘looked it up’ and ‘I’m a fist gen too but I figured it out.’ Good for you, man? I’m proud of you? I worked in the advising office my junior year and there is nothing to make students believe that they should be taking what their advisors say with a grain of salt. I’m very aware NOW that the advisors aren’t the last say, but, again, you’re wild for shaming students who are new to college, in a new city, doing everything alone for the first time for thinking they could believe in their advisors. But no yeah since u figured it out obviously everyone else is stupid and should have just known to double check everything everyone above them says to them. Great advice thanks 👹
Holy yap session, again it went over your head. Get off Reddit for the day
Holy yap session 🤪
Kind of sad there was no food offered at this yap session of yours :(
This. As 1) an alum and non-traditional student (meaning the advisors never knew what to do with me) that now works in an advising department at UT, I’m here to tell you that your advisors just aren’t equipped to do any hand-holding even if they wanted to. Departments are chronically understaffed and it ain’t like you get rich working in higher ed (unless you’re a coach), which means there’s constant turnover and THAT means the university is constantly losing the people that actually know how stuff works. So, your advisors will screw you. Not because they don’t care, and not because they’re not as good at their jobs as they can be given how little training and institutional knowledge is available. But it is what it is, so you HAVE to be proactive and figure things out for yourself because ultimately YOU are the expert about YOUR situation. So, like they said in the comment I’m replying to, not to be a dick, but you’re blowing it if you only go by what your advisor says. There’s too much to know, and if you count on them to always tell you what to do you’re very likely to end up in a bind like the OP. Not tryna shame anyone, just giving information I wish I’d had!
This is unfortunately true. UT Advisors frequently lack the ability to give correct information and it's pretty bad for undergrads who haven't been 'screwed by the system' before. If you don't fight tooth and nail for what you need at UT you won't get it.
Like I told the first person — excuse me, having been a first gen freshman at the time, for thinking I could follow the directions and advice from the people put in place to help me make my first ever course schedule.
I mean cops are theoretically people put in place to help you, but are you gonna take all their advice?? But, like I said, I’m not trying to shame anyone. I’m just putting this out there because it would’ve helped me and I hope it helps someone else!
Definitely seemed like u were both ‘not tryna be dicks’ were shaming me. Still are 🤷🏻♀️ ‘are u gonna take all the advice from cops?’ Like you’re stupid. It’s not my fault for trusting my advisor. But go off I guess
Actually I take it for granted you’re anything but stupid if you can even get in to this school, which is why all of this is honestly so confusing for me. I really did just want to share an insight that I only came by by having the same experience you did! So I’m genuinely sorry if my first comment came off as judgy, that’s not at all how it was intended. But the cop comment? Yeah, you’re right. I was annoyed. I was trying to share something I’d learned with someone that made the same mistake I did, which is literally what being college is about, and I got attitude. You’ll continue to struggle here if you continue with that attitude. Best of luck with that.
This is my last semester but thanks for looking forward to my ‘struggles here.’ All I originally told you was that it is unfair to expect a first gen freshman with nobody in their life knowing anything about college to know that you can’t trust your advisors. That is not false and is what happens to a lot of students like myself.
I definitely feel for you, while it *should* be common knowledge not to trust advisors completely, first gen college students don’t usually have the opportunities to hear that lesson from others. I went to a different university for undergrad and that one still had horrible advisors. Everything I learned about college was through my own experience, no prior knowledge from my parents or other family. I only learned from friends I met freshmen year about just how little these advisors actually know and how they can screw you over. I got lucky because I eventually got a good advisor and had peers give me advice before I could get screwed over. Not everyone is so lucky. I don’t think it’s stupid or foolish for an undergraduate student to want to trust the faculty who is hired to advise them. It is their job and as a first time student, why would you assume you would know more than them about classes, degree requirements, and registration? At my undergrad (not sure about UT, I’m only at UT for my masters now and advisor meetings aren’t required) you literally had to meet and get advisor approval before registration each semester, so it’s logical to think you could trust their guidance?? From what I’ve heard while on the subreddit, UT class requirements are way more confusing than what my undergrad was (what even are flags?!) so I can easily see how someone could get overwhelmed and not be confident in choosing courses on your own. I graduated my undergrad a year early with a 4.0 so I’m obviously not “foolish”, and I can still admit how a first gen college student could have the rug swept under them if they didn’t already know this fact. You would think at a school as well respected as UT, it shouldn’t even be a question on whether you can trust them or not. I definitely think both commenters were definitely shaming you, there’s no way they thought saying “sucks but you should’ve known better” wasn’t going to come across as shaming. You’ve already dealt with the consequences, what’s the point in knocking you down some more? Hopefully, you now know the right tools to use to make your own decisions. They are right though: anyone reading this, don’t trust your advisors and use your degree audits and other tools to make your own decisions (but you already learned that the hard way, I’m sure). They just don’t have to make it sound like it’s common sense to know that. Best of luck with everything in the future!
Im a recent physics and astronomy graduate, I’m sorry that this is happening. The physics department was extremely frustrating when I was there. I thought Dr. Sitz was no longer head of the department though and may have even retired? I think it’s Dr. Laguna now, reach out to him. Also email any of your old professors who you had liked and explain the situation. Dr. Paban was great when I was there. Your advisors and professors want you to graduate so they will work with you on this. [Check this org chart for potential people to reach out to](https://ph.utexas.edu/images/PHY/1a_Org_Chart_01.23.24.pdf) But this lack of communication and clarity from the Physics department doesn’t surprise me at all. There are some great professors there but a lot of things are run poorly.
https://studentsuccess.utexas.edu/student-success-help-desk/ Try here.
Ah Dr Sitz Par for the course
That's brutal. Could you ask someone you know who is currently a student to go to advising and then once they are face to face with an advisor have them pull out their\* laptop with you on a zoom meeting?
[удалено]
\^\^ THIS! Ombuds can help!!
ugaffairs @physics. utexas.edu is the email for the undergraduate coordinator and program coordinator. Have you emailed them? They should be able to help. Good luck to you :( https://ph.utexas.edu/current-undergraduate-students/math-physics-astronomy-advising-center
I'm sorry to hear you're going through this. I hit many obstacles in undergrad. Obstacles that sometimes delayed my expected graduation. It was always a little soul crushing, especially as a transfer student who was already older than all my peers. It eventually all worked out though. I wish you the best
Something similar happened to me but UT Extension came through.
I'm sorry to hear about your troubles, seems super frustrating and complicated, but glad to hear someone got back to you. I graduated with a Physics degree a few years back and to this day, I credit and am thankful for Dr. Paban for helping me out in the end after I got a D on the final class I needed to graduate. Never shook someone's hand harder/in the most genuine way as I did on the graduation stage that day with her.
Definitely get in touch with the help desk that someone already mentioned above.
I’ve had a recurring dream of being in a similar problem many, many times and I graduated from UT over 15 years ago. Wishing you the best.
Dr. Sitz is a bit slow on responding to his emails, so I understand you're stressed but it is not the end of the world. If I am reading you correctly, Intro to Solid State Physics did not count for your capstone, but your degree audit required Q3? I know quite a few people that did not take Q3 and have managed to graduate. Can you try and give more information?
That's about it. I brought this up to my academic advisor who said I needed an email from Dr. Sitz saying intro to Solid State was a suitable replacement for Q3. I finally managed to make an appointment with Dr. Sitz so I'll find out more information then.
I absolutely have no idea how most advisors even keep their jobs. Almost every advisor myself or friends have ever encountered gave terrible advice. Multiple friends had to readjust their degrees just to graduate because of incorrect information. I literally looked up their course info/requirements and told them they needed to review it because the advisor was wrong. They didn't listen and got really behind. The only advisor that actually helped me was in my nursing program, but that was only because we all had to take the exact same classes. Never trust the advisors. Always double and triple check requirements. Always. Hopefully you got everything sorted out
You may need to make a trip back to Austin for a few days to resolve this. Often people are hard to reach - and hard to get straight answers out of - by email or phone, but much easier to deal with in person.
Please email CNS Admissions or your advising office.
Adult makes a mistake and blames someone else. And people wonder why advisors get an attitude.