Academic Advising

Advising at Colby-Sawyer empowers you to shape your own educational experience as you work to achieve the college’s learning outcomes and your own personal, academic and career goals. Encouraging initiative and responsibility is central to an advisor’s role. Supported by your advisor, you assume the primary role in fulfilling curricular requirements, accessing campus resources, identifying appropriate off-campus learning experiences and outlining the steps necessary to achieve your goals. Advisors provide guidance and serve as a resource for academic information and a link to campus and community experiences that support your learning and growth.

At Colby-Sawyer, you are assigned an academic advisor who has specialized knowledge of your major and related career fields.

Benefits of Academic Advising

  • Make effective decisions concerning your degree and career goals.
  • Develop an educational plan for achieving your goals and select courses to fulfill that plan.
  • Understand the value of the liberal education requirements.
  • Utilize resources on campus to assist in achieving your academic, personal and career goals.
  • Make use of referrals to campus resources as needed.
  • Read and effectively utilize a planning worksheet in your educational planning.
  • Graduate in a timely manner based upon your educational plan.

The Advising Process

  • Developmental: Advisors guide and teach you about how to take responsibility for your learning.
  • Systematic: Advisors know college policies and procedures.
  • Informed: Advisors seek out guidance and training in topics related to developmental advising, appreciative inquiry, referral resources, and available tools and research to guide you towards effective goal setting, independent decision-making and personal responsibility for choices made regarding your educational and career planning.
  • Educational: Advising contributes to your total education, complementing and supporting learning that occurs in the classroom and in co-curricular activities.
  • Relational: Advisors build a working relationship with you to help you discover your academic path at Colby-Sawyer.
  • Individual. Advisors engage you about needs, wants, hopes, dreams and insecurities, as well as encourage you to move outside of your comfort zone.
  • Facilitating. Advisors help you identify and find resources that will help you make the most out of your college experience.

Additional Information

School of Arts & Sciences

Hilary Williams
Dean, Associate Professor
hilary.walrod@colby-sawyer.edu
603-526-3669

School of Business & Social Sciences

Randy Hanson
Dean, Professor
rahanson@colby-sawyer.edu
603-526-3657

School of Nursing & Health Sciences

Peter White
Interim Dean, Professor
pwhite@colby-sawyer.edu
603-526-3681