I spend nearly as much time advising the advisors as I do applicants. There are many reasons why advising is at best so uneven across many schools
1) It is really not a well established career path. People just fall into it, often those who were students at the school and worked in the office as an undergrad.
2) There is little formal training. While there are a few academic counseling programs starting to popup (a certificate called MCP) most of it is on the job training. So it takes time for anyone in the position to gain any knowledge, experience, etc. Just because they get time in the job, it doesnt mean they will be any good.
3) Most advisors deal mostly with their own school specifics. That is, they advise which courses to take to fill requirements and perhaps some more.
4) Small staffs have too many students and programs. In may medium and small schools, you get maybe a few advisors responsible for all health programs. MD, DO, DDS, DVM, RN, PA DPT, etc. Its like OMG! and WTF! How can anyone be good at having insight to so many complicated programs, the specifics of each application system, and the ability to advise students across these programs. Especially when they have hundreds of students.
5) Many only know how it begins static with static knowledge. What I mean is, like applicants, they only know the process to get into to medical school and not what goes on after. Why is this important? The biggest argument I had on the advisors listserv was the residency squeeze. So many advisors still thought the Caribbean was a reasonable path to medicine. A decade ago it was. But now with the increasing sales/recruiting pressure from the off shore schools, they still advise applicants to take this path, despite the data that I present over and over again that effectively, under 45% of those who start off shore even get any residency slot. This static knowledge also includes course work, MCAT, etc. Just yesterday there was a discussion on the need for Calc III (yes III). Most school barely need Calc I anymore.
Now, there are many schools with strong advising, often connections to the campus med school. Indeed the best advisors are those worked in admissions and know what the real deal is. But many are stuck with one or more of the weakness above
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Why are incompetent Pre-Med advisors allowed to officially advise students?
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