Your Academic Advisor: Until a student declares a major (no later than March 1 of their second year), their pre-major academic advisor is most often their First-Year Seminar instructor. Once a student declares a major, a faculty member within that academic unit becomes their academic advisor. The academic advisor helps students explore the curriculum to discover their interests and to fulfill general education requirements.

Your Student Support Advisor: The Student Support Advisor program supports student success by ensuring they know whom to go to when they need guidance, assistance, or just someone to talk to. Students are assigned a Student Support Advisor prior to their matriculation and remain with their advisor for the duration of their enrollment at Bates.

The General Education Program: This page provides a helpful summary of the Bates general education requirements, which includes the Major +1, 5 MOIs, and 3 Ws). For a rationale for the program please see either the college catalog or review this PDF about “Exploring the Bates Curriculum.” Students and faculty may find the advising pyramid graphic helpful as it visually depicts all of the requirements of the general education and illustrates how the 5MOIs can be understood as a foundation on which a Bates educational experience may be built.

Major Plus One Declaration: Major Plus One must be declared by March 1 of the student’s second (sophomore year). That deadline may be earlier (early February) if a student is seeking to study abroad or otherwise away from Bates during their third (junior) year. Information on all majors can be found here. Information on minors can be found here. Information on GECs can be found here.

Center for Global Education: The Center for Global Education is the hub of global learning and cross-cultural engagement for students, faculty and staff of Bates. The Center for Global Education provides advising, programming, and resources for international students and for all students seeking to study off-campus. For an overview of all of the off-campus study opportunities at Bates, please view this video. You can find more information on semester/year off-campus study and Short Term off-campus study on the relevant websites.

Student Research/Summer Research Fellowships: Bates offers a variety of research fellowships to students to conduct independent and faculty-advised research. Students often apply for these fellowships during their sophomore and junior years. They are often a good way to begin to explore questions and topics for the senior thesis and capstone project.

Purposeful Work – Industries, Internships, and Interviews: As sophomores continue to engage with Purposeful Work activities, dive into industry exploration, and expand their professional networks (particularly through LinkedIn), they should take advantage of support from the Center for Purposeful Work in terms of assessments, industry research, resume and cover letter writing, and interview preparation. Purposeful Work-infused and practitioner-taught courses, along with Purposeful Work summer internships/funding and mini-grant funding, should also be on the radar of sophomores. We invite students to make an appointment with one of our professional advisors here via Handshake to learn more about how Purposeful Work opportunities can advance their personal and professional goals.