academic advising

Academic Advising at St. Lawrence is accomplished through a variety of programs, each one designed to meet a specific need. These programs are coordinated and supervised by an Associate Dean who, as a senior member of the teaching faculty, knows the culture, structures, and people at the university. Along with the other staff working in Academic Advising Programs, the Dean strives always to respond to immediate student need—problem solving, advising, suggesting new directions. Through these programs, St.

Many St. Lawrence students choose to pursue graduate programs in management or careers in business. Majors from any discipline may complete the pre-management program at St. Lawrence, which combines an individually tailored course of study with career building programs and leadership skills development.

Students who wish to attend seminary to prepare for the ministry, priesthood or rabbinate should take a broad range of courses in the liberal arts and sciences: English composition and literature; philosophy and religion; history; social and natural sciences. Work in a modern language-French, German or Spanish-and/or in Greek, Hebrew or Latin is also desirable. Enrollment in at least one course that is designated "service-learning" is highly recommended, as is a semester on one of the University's international or off-campus domestic programs.

All students must complete at least one major with a 2.0 major grade point average as a graduation requirement.

Students may take any four courses in a semester, regardless of their unit value, without additional tuition charges. Students may also take five or six courses that total no more than 4.75 units without additional tuition charges. An overload consists of five or six courses totaling more than 4.75 units, or more than six courses.

Early Warnings

During the third week of classes, the Office of Academic Support asks all faculty to identify any student who is already at risk to fail the course. While this might seem early, some students are always judged to be in trouble. Sometimes this is due to low grades on the initial assignments, but usually it stems infrequent attendance, failure to submit required work, or other evidence of disengagement from the work involved in the course. Early warnings are an internal notation only; they do not appear on a student’s APR.

During their time at St. Lawrence, students will find a hold has been placed on their next semester’s registration in the APR (Academic Planning and Registration) site. Holds are placed to ensure that a student takes a particular action. Holds are of three types:

Advisor Holds

Each student’s registration each semester begins with an Advisor Hold. A student cannot submit course requests for registration until this hold has been lifted her or his academic advisor. This hold ensures that each student speaks to the advisor about his or her academic plan.

In those instances when a student finds her- or himself dealing with serious medical issues, it is possible take medical withdrawals from courses. This may be done either for a portion of the schedule or for the entire schedule. Medical Withdrawals are the responsibility of the Dean of Student Life, who consults in every instance with the Associate Dean for Academic Advising before making a decision.

Matriculated St. Lawrence students may transfer up to eight units of approved credit from another college or university. Students who come here as transfer students may transfer up to seventeen approved units.