Although it is not a
Boise State University requirement that you meet
with an advisor, the Department of Anthropology
requires that you meet with an anthropology advisor
to discuss your degree. It's the smart thing
to do!
Advisors help you to choose appropriate
courses to take. Many anthropology courses have
prerequisites, and it is important to get
started on those courses early.Advisors can help you find internships.
Internships are an important way to learn new
skills. Internships are also important in
helping you to know whether or not you really
want to pursue a particular career path.
Although an advisor can provide suggestions as
to possible internship opportunities, it is
important to realize that it is the student's
responsibility to actually go out, make the
contact, and arrange the internship experience.
Your advisor can then help you to sign up so
that you can receive college credit for your
internship experience.
Advisors can help with preparation of
applications for graduate school. Such
applications are much more complex than
applications to attend as an undergraduate, and
an advisor can help you to navigate the
complexities.
Advisors often help by writing letters
of reference for jobs, for applications, for
academic appeals, etc. However, don't expect an
advisor to write a letter of any substance
unless you've invested the time to let your
advisor get to know you: your ambitions, your
qualifications, your history, etc.
An advisor can help a transfer student
determine which courses from the previous
institution count towards a degree at Boise
State.
When should you see your
advisor?
It is
very important to see an advisor as early in your
college career as possible. Students who wait often
don't take key courses, and therefore end up
delaying their progress towards an anthropology
degree. It is a good idea to meet with your advisor
every semester to get help with selecting courses
for the next semester. Don't wait until the last
minute before your registration appointment to seek
out your advisor; he/she may not be able to see you
promptly and then either you'd need to register
without the advise of your advisor or you'd need to
delay your registration until later, potentially
missing out on open courses.
Whom should you see for
advising?
You
will need to select one of the department's regular
faculty members (Christopher
Hill,
Mark Plew,
Margaret Streeter, or
John Ziker) as your academic advisor. It is
often helpful to choose someone with interests
similar to yours, so by going to the
faculty web page you can see the interests of
our faculty members. Or, you may choose your advisor
based on taking one of his/her classes and finding
him/her very helpful. Make your selected advisor
aware of your decision and discuss with him/her your
academic plans. He/she will help you understand the
requirements for obtaining the degree and will
assist you in registering for the appropriate
courses. If you meet with an advisor and don't
really get along, then try someone else!
You
can officially designate an advisor by completing a
Student Information Update Form. You can
find this form on Broncoweb. To find the form,
follow these steps once you are logged on to
Broncoweb: Students, Registrar, View/Change My Major/Minor Plans, View My Advisors.
Print out a copy of the form, fill it out, and take
the completed form to the Bronco Web Help Center,
Administration Building 110 (A110). You may
also get a copy of the Student Information Update
Form in the Anthropology Department office.
How do you contact an
advisor to set up an appointment?
You
can email or phone your advisor to set up an
appointment. As you get to know your advisor,
you'll probably end up feeling comfortable just
dropping by for a quick bit of advice now and again.
Office hours are posted on the
faculty web page. It is very important that if
you make an appointment, you keep it. Your advisor
will not be impressed by a person who doesn't take
appointments seriously.
Where do you meet with your
advisor?
Typically you'd meet in your advisor's office. You
can get office numbers off the
faculty web page.
Transfer Students:
If you are a transfer student from another
college or university, please bring a copy of
your transcript with you when you come to the
department for your first advising session.
In this way your advisor can assist you in
determining what courses can/will apply towards
your Anthropology degree here at Boise State,
and which courses won't. In some cases you
may be required to fill out an
Adjustment of Academic Requirements Form in
order to transfer an equivalent course from
another college/university. Don't wait
until you are about to graduate before doing
this! It may come as a huge surprise when
you try to transfer a course you thought would
fulfill a requirement towards your major, and
when you find out it won't, you are short
credits for graduation.
How to declare Anthropology as
your major
Declaring anthropology as your major (or minor) is
easy:
1. Send an email, call, or stop stop by the
department office in the Hemingway Western Studies
Center (here's
how to get there) and tell the department
secretary,
Faith Brigham, that you wish to become a major
(or minor). She will need your current mailing
address and email address so that you can be kept
apprised of departmental activities.
2. When you register for your classes on Broncoweb, make sure you indicate that
anthropology
is your major. To do this, once you have signed in
to Broncoweb, follow these steps: Students,
Registrar, View/ Change My Major/Minor
Plans.
Department of Anthropology
1910 University Drive
HWSC, Room 55
Boise, ID 83725-1950
