PrintAdvisers and Advising: Who is your adviser?
If you don't already know who your adviser is, you can find their name in Lionpath or Starfish. In the ESP program, all students are advised by Brandi Robinson and I. We also get a lot of help from Sue Spaugh, from whom you should have received your original "Welcome" email.
You should have learned a lot about responsibilities vs your adviser's responsibilities in the New Student Orientation's, Academic Advising module. As your Academic Advisers, Brandi and I are here to help you navigate the ESP degree requirements, but we are not experts in:
- Financial aid
- Tuition bills
- Reading your mind
How can your adviser help you?
Your adviser can't help you if they don't know you need help! Reach out and communicate with your advisers regularly! That is what we're here for!
Penn State policy dictates that advising matters should only be discussed using Penn State email addresses. Therefore, you should always use your @psu.edu email when contacting your adviser.
How to contact your adviser:
At this time, ESP advisers do not routinely use Starfish to schedule appointments or correspond with ESP advisees.
Contact your adviser using their @psu.edu email address:
Haley Sankey: hjs142@psu.edu or haley@psu.edu
Brandi Robinson: bjn151@psu.edu
Tools
When you were admitted to the program, your adviser should have provided you with an Excel document titled "My ESP Academic Plan" - typically the file names look something similar to this: "Last Name, First Name_My ESP Academic Plan" - and the Excel file should have been emailed to you as an attachment. If you did not receive this, it is possible that it was sent to your personal email address or your PSU email before you had it set up. If you do not have this Excel file, please contact your adviser immediately and ask for a copy of your "My ESP Academic Plan".
The My ESP Academic Plan Excel file shows a list of all the courses you'll need to complete in order to earn an ESP degree*. The Excel spreadsheet is our attempt to simplify Lionpath's Degree Requirement report. If you run a Degree Requirement report using Lionpath, chances are it will not understand how to use your transfer credits and therefore, won't adequately reflect your standing. The My ESP Academic Plan will show you where we, as advisers, think your prior coursework will fulfill ESP degree requirements. You should double-check the spreadsheet to ensure that all of your prior coursework is showing. If there is missing information, please contact your adviser immediately!
The My ESP Academic Plan lists ESP degree requirements in logical order. This means that you'll probably want to tackle the courses in the rows at the top of the spreadsheet at the beginning of your academic career, as many of them serve as prerequisites for the 400+ level courses listed lower down in the spreadsheet.
Additionally, the spreadsheet lists the special degree requirements that are specific to the BA and the BS (shown on separate tabs in the Excel file). The University's Gen Ed requirements are also provided. Basically, this Excel spreadsheet is your one-stop shop for making sure you're taking the classes you need.
Below is a screenshot of what your My ESP Excel spreadsheet might look like. The spreadsheet is constantly updated and reformatted to make it more useful to you and to the advisers. If your spreadsheet doesn't look exactly like the one below, it's probably because you have a newer/better version. But the info outlined above and below are still very relevant and pertinent!
I've included some pointers on how to read the spreadsheet below:
There is a lot of information that the advisers add to the spreadsheet before sending it to you. The most important thing you need to know is:
If you see something noted in column D (Under where it says "Institution, Course Number and Name, Semester Taken/PSU Designation") you probably do NOT need to take that course again at Penn State. Of course, you'll want to double-check with your adviser to make sure, but in general, when we list a transferred course on the same row as an ESP required course, it's because we think it's a good substitute for the Penn State ESP requirement.
If there's a course listed in column C and there's no corresponding information in Column D, or in the rest of that row, then you probably need to take the course.
The above example does provide more information, though:
- This student definitely does not need to take a GQ course (row 27) or a GA course (row 29) because courses that the student previously completed transferred in as a direct equivalent to Penn State's Math 21 and ARTH 100, respectively.
- In row 12 the adviser has noted that the student previously completed a Public Speaking course that will probably work as a good substitute for the CAS 100 requirement. The next column says "XFR credit" because although Penn State's system knows that the course is a good transfer, it wasn't sure exactly what to call it, so it gave this student the credits, but didn't assign the course name/number equivalency as it did for the Math and Art courses discussed above.
- The last column is the adviser's notes on what paperwork we need to complete in order for Penn State's systems to acknowledge the prior coursework as a legitimate substitute for the ESP requirement. If you see a note in there, it will remind the adviser to process some paperwork so that the substitution can be recognized by the Penn State system. In these instances, you may have to provide a course syllabus or course description to your adviser in order for the proposed substitution to be considered.
- For the GN Gen Ed requirement (row 28) the student has completed a course that will probably fulfill the requirement, but Admissions hasn't yet finished evaluating the course to see how it relates to Penn State. So, it's marked XFR Pending so that we know to check back later to see if Admissions has entered an update to the evaluation status.
*All students need to have completed 120 credits in order to earn the ESPBA or the ESPBS degree. So, completing all the courses listed in the My ESP Academic Plan alone, will not ensure your graduation, a total credit count is also required. Talk to your adviser about your total credit count. It is possible that your transfer credits will make up the difference. If not, you may want to consider picking up a minor while completing the 120 credit requirement.