Your Advising Team

Over the summer on MyWellesley, you will learn the names of your Faculty Advisor and your peer Mentor. These people are two key members of the advising team you will start to build over your four years at Wellesley. You will meet your Mentor on the first day of Orientation, at dinner in the dining hall (there are special arrangements for transfer students and students participating in the WellesleyPlus program—watch your Wellesley email!—and new Davis Scholars will not arrive until the second day of Orientation, and will meet their mentors then). First-year students will meet your Faculty Advisor either during orientation or during the first week of class, depending on when faculty members return for the school year. Regular meetings with both of these people will help you make strong initial connections to other students and to the faculty, and these are the cornerstones of a successful transition to college.

But your team will grow over time to include other helpful people on campus. Some of these will be people you will meet in the first weeks of the year:
• Your floor’s Resident Assistant (RA)
• Your residence hall’s Area Coordinator (AC) or Resident Director (RD)
• Your residence hall’s House President (HP)
• Your residence hall’s Academic Peer Tutor (APT)
• Your First-Year Dean, Lori Tenser

These people are in place and ready to help you as you arrive. It’s your task to seek them out, let them get to know you, and ask them for their assistance as you get started at Wellesley. Don’t be shy! And don’t be concerned if you “click” more with some people than others. That’s natural, and that’s why we have a network of support for you, rather than relying on just one person for each student.

Other people will become very important to helpful to you at Wellesley, and it will be you who choose these people and build relationships with them that will be mutually satisfying and beneficial. Your instructors will certainly be some of these people, and eventually you may want to ask one of them to be your formal advisor; in most cases, that will wait for the moment you choose a major, but if you want to make a switch in your formal Faculty Advisor earlier, just let the First-Year Dean’s office know.

In addition to the faculty, others who may come to play key roles in your time at Wellesley may be some of our Assistant Deans of Intercultural Education, the Class Deans who work with upper-class students, members of our health and counseling services, members of our Religious and Spiritual Life group, and the staff of the Center for Work and Service. Look out for opportunities to interact with these offices as the year goes on.

Finally, some of the most important people you will meet will be the other members of your class, along with all the other students on campus. The friendships you make here, and the experiences you share with other students inside and outside the classrooms, will be the true foundations of your lives after college. Collaborating with the people in these groups with whom you most deeply connect is the best strategy for success at college and beyond.