Roosevelt Hall offers advising to students to fix problems originally made with their class schedule during summer orientation. Photo by Grace DeSanti.
Summer orientation has been notorious among students for messing up schedules and putting students in classes that they already have credit for from high school.
In terms of general education classes in the current academic year, students are all required to fulfill specific outcomes as well as take 40 credits of gen-eds in order to graduate. The outcomes are separated into five categories with specific requirements under each. The categories include knowledge, competencies, responsibilities, integrate and apply and grand challenge. There are one to four specific course requirements beneath each category.
Some courses meet more than one outcome, but each course can only count once towards the total 40 credits students are trying to achieve.
Freshman Emma Hayes came to the University of Rhode Island with 26 credits after doing dual enrollment throughout junior and senior year of high school. She entered URI needing to fulfill only her 14 remaining credits and a few of the specific outcomes that were still deemed incomplete.
“The summer advising during orientation told me that if I took the classes I signed up for that I would get credit for them, but I already had that credit,” Hayes said. “I regret taking these classes because I already had credit for them, and they were on things that did not interest me. I could have taken a class for credit that would have benefitted my interests.”
Hayes said that she thought that the advisors at orientation had her take these classes she was not interested in just to achieve the 40 credits aspect of gen-eds. However, Hayes was not informed that any class could count for the 40 credits, and simply took the classes she thought she had to take.
“For the outcome A2, social & behavioral sciences, I came in with nine credits for that already from high school,” Hayes said. “They equated to be Economics 202, Psychology 116, and Political Science 113. And then I took a Gender and Women’s Studies class first semester which also fulfilled A2.”
Had Hayes not taken any repeated outcomes and focused on completing the outcomes she needed to finish to finalize her requirements, she could have completed most of her gen-eds first semester. Hayes would have had to take the grand challenge course this semester, but everything else would have been complete.
Instead, Hayes is enrolled in three gen-ed courses this semester. Of these three gen-eds, two could have been completed last semester with the proper advising.
“I don’t know what the [advisor’s] goal was,” she said. “It’s just a waste of money if you think about it.”
Dean of the University College for Academic Success (UCAS) Jayne Richmond assured this would never happen.
“Here’s where people get confused: you have to have 40 credits of general education and you have to meet each of those 12 outcomes with at least three credits,” Richmond said. “That would not equal 40, so you have to take four courses in certain outcomes. You take additional credits that are of interest to you.”
Richmond said the summer advisors are all properly trained to avoid instances where students are misadvised. “We’re really careful,” Richmond said.
Students on the past three catalogs are also allowed have some major credits count as gen-ed credits, which is something that had never been done in previous catalogs.
“The same course can count as a gen-ed or a major credit,” Richmond said. “What that does is gives you that much more flexibility. Say, ‘Okay, I’m going to take this [public relations] course.’ It happens to be a gen-ed, but I’m using it as my major credit. You can take more courses that you want opposed to checking off boxes.”
Students should never be placed in classes they already have transfer credits for, and often it is simply due to the misunderstanding of the 40 credit requirement and the outcome requirement. Often students are taking those classes for the sake of achieving the goal of 40 credits, which may result in repeating an outcome to do so.
“We would never put you in a course for which you’re getting transfer credit,” Richmond said. “It’s so rare that mistakes happen because our advisors know.”
Students with questions regarding their schedules and academic advising should reach out to their advisors and UCAS with further inquiries.