Advising Meeting & Spring 2027 Plan

Due: October 30 by 11:59 PM ET · 6% of course grade

1 Purpose

Your Degree Map is a long-range plan. This assignment turns the next piece of it into action before registration opens: you will talk with an advisor about your plan, draft your Spring 2027 schedule, and pick one enrichment opportunity to start working toward.

2 What to Submit

Submit a single PDF named Lastname-Firstname-Spring-Plan.pdf with three parts:

  1. Advising meeting. The name and role of the person you met with (your academic advisor or a School of Physics faculty member), the date, and a short paragraph on what you discussed and what, if anything, you changed as a result.
  2. Draft Spring 2027 schedule. The courses you plan to register for, with credit hours, checked against your Degree Map. For any course likely to fill, list a backup section or course.
  3. One extracurricular (optional). Choose one: undergraduate research, study abroad, a minor or certificate, a co-op, or an internship. In one paragraph, explain why you chose it and name the first concrete step you will take, with a date.

Upload the PDF directly to this Canvas assignment by the deadline.

3 Expectations

Schedule the meeting early. Advisors are busiest right before registration. Request your meeting by email well before the deadline, using a clear subject line, a proper greeting, and your full name and major. See the textbook guidance on communicating through email.

Come prepared. Bring your Degree Map and a list of questions. A meeting in which you ask specific questions is far more useful than one where the advisor has to guess what you need.

Make the schedule realistic. Check prerequisites, meeting-time conflicts, and your total credit load (12-15 is a good target). The schedule should match what your Degree Map says for Spring 2027, or explain why it changed.

Make the next step concrete. “Look into research” is not a step. “Email two faculty members in condensed matter physics about their groups by November 13” is.

4 Helpful Resources