Support and Advice at DePaul's School for New Learning

Choosing the right faculty advisor at DePaul University's school for new learning is a key decision that an incoming student needs to make early on in their academic career. Like many colleges, DePaul's administrative processes and procedures can be intimidating for the uninitiated. One of the best sources of support for me as I matriculated through my undergraduate degree program was my Faculty Advisor, Dr. Joan Murphey, PhD.

SNL's policy is to require each adult undergraduate to work with both a Faculty Advisor and a Professional Advisor during their academic career. In my opinion this is a very good idea because it provides both administrative support and professsional focus to the student. For example Dr. Murphey was extremely helpful on many occasions, not only in helping me decide things like which courses I should take to accomplish my goals, but also in helping to ensure that both I and the University met our respective committments. For me, as a distance education student, this extra effort on her part was invaluable in ensuring that things like transfer credits and course grades were correctly posted to my transcripts.

I personally also favor the idea of having had the benefit of choosing a Professional Advisor from my field of study as a part of my academic committee. It is critically important however, that the student recognizes the purpose of the committee and that the expectations and responsibilities of the PA have been clearly communicated. In my case this worked out really well. My PA provided helpful guidance from his many years of experience that was both helpful and relevant to my career aspirations.

Throughout my undergraduate program both of my advisors were engaged and helpful, and I felt that they both had my best interests in mind even though they were obviously very busy people.