AdvisorTrac: Student is outside my advising area

Many of us will encounter students with program plans outside our advising areas.  There are a number of reasons why could have occurred.  Some students may have changed their program plans after data was pulled from PeopleSoft.  It is also possible that some advisors have been assigned outside their areas of expertise.

SHORT TERM SOLUTION

Advise the the student as best you can by doing the following:

1. Provide the student with a program checklist from the BCTC Program of Study page.  The UK-BCTC Pathways are a great resource for transfer students.  
2. Lift students' advising holds.
3. Refer the students to the program Web site for additional information.  
4. Refer the student to a program coordinator.  Note: some programs like nursing have pre-admissions advising counselors who can assist students.  The AA and AS pages also provide contacts for students.  All these details appear on the Program of Studies page. 

This email exchange offers an example how to provide this kind of assistance efficiently.

LONG TERM SOLUTION

The long term solution is to have students update their program plans in PeopleSoft. The Program Change Form form is located on the college Web site.  Students can fill out that document and return it to the campus registrar OR put the information contained on that form in a KCTCS email and send to bl_studentrecords@kctcs.edu.  Note: students must send the information using their official KCTCS email.

It is also possible that entire classes of students have been misassigned on the Advising Crosswalk.  The Crosswalk lists every possible program offered by the system and then organizes those programs into broad advising areas.  For example, there are nearly a dozen different programs that studenta can select to indicate they are a nurse.  If you see errors in the Crosswalk, share them with your AD.