Academic Advising: A Guide for UWW Music Majors and Minors
How do we do Academic Advising at UWW?
Unlike most majors on campus, we do our own academic advising for Music Majors in the department. This means you will have an “Academic Advising Hold” on your records until after you have completed an advising appointment with your advisor. Here’s what you need to do…
- Log in to WINS.
- Check to see who your advisor is. This is usually your studio teacher, but not always: listed on your page on WINS under Advisor.
- Check to see when you can register for the coming semester. To do this, click “details” under Enrollment Dates. Select the semester, and “Continue.” The “Open Enrollment Dates by Session” tells you when you can enroll yourself on WINS. You can pretty much ignore the “Enrollment Appointments” — just talk to your advisor, and set up a time to meet.
- When it’s time to advise, bring a copy of the Academic Advising Form. These are available next to Kristi’s door, but also on the Music Dept. website (see “Information for Current Students” and “Forms”):
http://www.uww.edu/cac/music/studentinfo/current_students.html
Check with your advisor to see if they want you to bring a printout of the Academic Progress Report from WINS or not.
- It will help if you have some idea of the classes you want to take beforehand – your advisor will help, but this is also your responsibility. Note that you will find advising grids for all Majors on the Dept. website under “Information for Current Students” that list all of the classes necessary—see link above. Note: you can also find the next semester’s Schedule of Classes on the Registrar’s website at: http://www.uww.edu/registrar/schedule/
You can easily look at just the music section from this website as well as the general education classes, etc. If you scroll to the very bottom of this page, you will see the general education courses broken down by GA, GM, diversity options, etc.
- After you and your advisor finish, he/she will sign the Academic Advising Form, and make a copy. Give one copy to Kristi, and keep the other to work from when you enroll on WINS. Kristi will then remove your hold. Make sure you do this at least a few days before you can enroll (see no.3 above).
- Enroll on WINS at the earliest possible date, so you can have the best possible chance at getting the classes you need.
What if there’s a problem?
If there’s an advising issue that your Academic Advisor can’t help you with, there are two designated Master Advisors in the department, Prof. Allsen and Prof. Ellenwood. We can usually sort things out, so come to talk with one of us. Note that Music Majors who are transferring in from elsewhere should always make an appointment with Prof. Allsen sometime early in their first semester in any case. There are nearly always issues to work out for transfer students.
What if my classes aren’t showing up where I expect them to on my Academic Progress Report?
Music Major APR’s (especially the various BM degrees) are among the most complicated on campus, and WINS nearly always needs some “fixing” in order to get things in the right slots. All Music Majors should check in with Prof. Allsen sometime in their junior year to make sure everything is on track. He’ll do the final fixes after you apply for graduation, and will check it one more time when you come in for an exit interview during your last semester here. He does this by communicating with the Registrar’s office. Fixes to Music Major APRs typically include:
- Recital Attendance requirement. The APR includes only those semesters when you were actually enrolled in MUSC 100. If you did Recital Attendance as an overload, or “doubled up,” we will make sure that that is reflected on the APR.
- Waiving obsolete classes. There are a few of these that still show up on some students’ APRs (notably MUSC 190 and MUSC 422) that are no longer requirements.
- Applied music requirement: We will see that appropriate applied classes (primarily lessons and ensembles) get moved into that area of the APR.
- Other strange stuff: There are often odd things that simply show up the wrong places or do not show up in on the APR. This happens most often for transfer students, but it’s not that unusual for students who have been here the whole time. We can usually fix those as well.
In general, if you are on track with the advising grid for your major, you are in good shape. [Special note to Music Education students: If there are problems with the “PI34” section (i.e., those general classes required of all students seeking licensure), you need to check in with the Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction to get those fixed.]
What if I’m a Music Minor?
Music Minors do not need to formally advise with the Music Dept. – you do your advising with others in your Major, whether that’s at the Advising Center or in the department of your Major. However, you should be aware of the Minor Requirements – look on “Information for Current Students” on the Music Department website. At some point, you should also check in with Prof. George Ferencz, who serves as the Minor Advisor, just to make sure you are on track. [Special note to transfer students completing a Music Minor: We occasionally see students who are transferring in classes that complete most or even all of our requirements for the Minor. Be aware, however, that in addition to completing the academic requirements for the Minor, even when you are transferring these credits from another school, you must complete at least 1/4 of the minor (6 credits) here at UWW. If you have issues relating to transfer credits, see Prof. Allsen.]