Academic Advising

Your advisor can be contacted by visiting his/her office and via phone or email. Your advisor’s email is the first letter of their first name and their full last name @escc.edu (Ex. Jane Doe jdoe@escc.edu). If you do not know your advisor’s name, email advising@escc.edu.

Plan to meet with your advisor at least once per semester, especially during your first few semesters at ESCC to assist with registration and as you near graduation. We recommend that you do a Degree Audit with your advisor after your first couple of semesters to ensure you are on track with your degree plan.

Contact any Academic Advisor at 334-347-2623 or email advising@escc.edu. Someone will assist you with connecting you to an advisor.

The academic advisor serves as a coordinator of the student’s educational experiences and assists students in realizing the educational benefits available to them. The advisor’s task is to guide the student toward accepting responsibilities for mature academic decision-making. If the advisor and the student take responsibility for their share of the partnership, then both should have a rich and satisfying experience. As such, the academic advisor’s responsibilities include the following:

•     Inform students of the nature of the advisor/student relationship.
•     Designate and post hours available for advising.
•     Assist students in selecting a realistic program consistent with their abilities and interests.
•     Discuss relationships between institutional programs and occupational careers.
•     Assist students in monitoring and evaluating their educational progress.
•     Approve all designated educational transactions.
•     Interpret instructional policies, procedures, and requirements.
•     Refer students to appropriate campus resources.
•     Encourage students to accept responsibility for their own actions and decisions.
•     Evaluate the advising system, when requested, in order to strengthen the advising process.

Academic advising is a joint responsibility of advisors and students. Students carry a large portion of the responsibility in the advising process and should take the initiative to seek advisement and develop the advisor/advisee relationship. In order to contribute to an effective advising relationship, students are expected to:

•     Make contact early in the term with the academic advisor prior to any need for pre-registration assistance.
•     Meet with the advisor during the official academic advisement period prior to registration, and keep scheduled appointments unless other arrangements are made with the advisor.
•     Prepare for advising sessions and bring appropriate resources or materials.
•     Communicate personal values, abilities, interests, and goals to the advisor.
•     Be willing to seek out the academic advisor at times other than registration for advice.
•     Follow through on actions identified during each advising session.
•     Become knowledgeable of all graduation requirements and adhere to institutional policies, procedures, deadlines, and requirements.
•     Become familiar with campus resources.
•     Evaluate the advising system, when requested, in order to strengthen the process.
•     Accept final responsibility for all decisions.

We recommend that you speak with an Academic Advisor to talk about online career interest inventories that are available to assist you with a major selection that will be the best fit for you.

If you’d like to do a career interest inventory before meeting with your advisor, complete any of the inventories below and bring a copy of your results with you to show your advisor.

• • ESCC Assessment

Visit any Academic Advisor to discuss changing your major and the impact it could have on your financial aid, degree completion, and course transferability. You can also fill out the Change of Major Form online at Change of Major Form

During Connections Week, current, returning, and transfer students will schedule an appointment with their advisor to meet with him/her during Academic Advising Week to register for the upcoming semester classes. During Academic Advising Week, students will go to the assigned advisor’s office to plan their schedule, print an Alabama Transfers guide, and discuss their plan of study. The advisor assists the student in creating a schedule, authorizes the student to register online for the next term, and explains the online registration procedure.

Students should go to the Counseling Services Department where counselors will be available to assist when academic advisors are not available.

Students can access their MyESCC account to register for classes once their advisor authorizes them. Students who are in freshmen status are not allowed to register online until they are assisted by an advisor to receive Web authorization.