The First Year Advising Center is implementing a new system where students can speak
with First Year Advising Center student leaders without altering their busy schedules.

The First Year Advising Center chat, which you can contact at the address
[email protected], uses the Google instant messaging system to keep in contact with students and answer student question and or concerns they may have in real time.

Theresa Raths currently works at the First Year Advising Center as a First Year Advising
Center assistant. Raths’ job is essentially to be a helper to the advisers.

“The First Year Advising Center advisers have two appointments per year with every freshman at the university, so they are very busy,” said Raths. “After their meetings are concluded with their actual adviser, I provide any additional help that the student needs that can be supported elsewhere.”

“My job entails me helping to schedule classes with these students, organize schedules, give study and time management assistance, and help students find and get involved in different activity around campus that are outside of their everyday classes,” said Raths.

Raths job with advising center, in addition to the actual advisers who are employed there, is necessary in order to help students get acclimated with the change that comes from attending your first year in college as opposed to what a student is used to with high school.

In her job, Raths often sees common mistakes that many first year students make upon making the leap from high school to college.

According to Raths, first year students often make mistakes with study habits, time management, and note taking styles. Raths advises students to be open to all different types of methods in all regards of their work habits.

“Students often get overwhelmed with amount of studying required for college, one thing I can recommend to first year students is to break up studying throughout the week instead of doing a cram session right before a test,” said Raths. “Go to the library and study for about an hour and half a day, it can make studying so much more manageable.”

“One other practice I can recommend is to try some new styles of note taking, it can help a ton, because everyone has different styles of learning.” said Raths.

As for the First Year Advising Center’s new chat, it can be a helpful and easily usable tool for students who have questions on a wide variety of topics.

In order to utilize the new technology, students who have a student advisor need to click a plus box next your name on the given Oakland University email. After completing this, an
instant chat box will pop up on the bottom of the screen.

Once this happens, students will be able to ask the advisors about any questions they have on basically any topic from study tips to building locations. According to Raths, students who need a question answered in real time will be able to have their questions answered as quickly as possible.

“In general, the advising center is a great resource for freshmen because advisers are here to help the students,” said Raths. “However, we additionally have five advising assistants all
trained to help students in the same way.