Academic Advising FAQ

  • What is Academic Advising and what can an advisor help you do?

    Academic advising is a collaborative relationship between a professional advisor and a student. An academic advisor can help students understand major requirements, general education requirements, help with course planning, assistance in selecting a major based on career aspirations, understanding University policy and procedure, graduation evaluation and act as a resource for a variety of other general questions and concerns as well as a place for referrals to appropriate campus resources.

  • Who needs to meet with an academic advisor?

    All students are welcome to utilize academic advising as a campus resource. Students under 60 credit hours, student athletes, veterans are mandated to meet with an academic advisor.

  • What can I do to prepare for my advising appointment?

    Insert Handshake instructions. If you are not able to utilize handshake, please reach out to your advisor via email.

  • What is ALEKS and why is it important?

    ALEKS is the math placement testing program used by Youngstown State University to gauge a student’s math competency. All students are required to take placement testing if they do not submit viable ACT/SAT scores. Math courses are the bedrock of all majors in the College of STEM, students begin a stronger foundation in their majors if they review work in ALEKS and are placed in an appropriate math level in their first semester. Students who delay beginning their math coursework will often be delayed in beginning their major coursework and this can sometimes lead to an extended graduation timeline.

  • Graduation Evaluation question?

    All students who complete 80 hours will automatically be sent an e-mail saying to request their graduation evaluation. For our STEM students, we like these to be submitted the year prior to the desired graduation date. This is done throuhg your Penguin Portal. Once the request is in, our team will be notified and the paperwork will be started. The student will then be notified via email to set an appointment up with a member of their academic department to finalize the evaluation. If you have questions, please reach out to your advisor.

    Calculating GPA link

    https://ysu.edu/penguin-service-center/calculate-gpa


  • How do I find contact information?

    https://ysu.edu/faculty-staff