Genius Advisor Reduces Repetitive FY Appointments Thanks to Advising Hotline
Mid-July is here, which can only mean one thing: Advisors are slogging their way through repetitive first-year appointments in a zombie-like state, answering the same handful of questions roughly 20 times per day – and they still have half a summer of first-year appointments ahead of them. For one innovative first-year advisor, however, the summer is filled with possibility thanks to their newly created Advising Hotline!
“The way it works,” explained the advisor, “is I put the Advising Hotline phone number in BPA so that all my incoming student appointments are directed to call that number. The Advising Hotline prompts students to select from a series of carefully crafted options, and then provides them with high-quality advice.”
“Students can also press 0 to speak with me directly,” added the advisor, “but, so far, nobody has.”
One incoming student invited The Bacon to sit in on their Advising Hotline appointment, and we were impressed! Here’s the transcript from that stellar interaction:
Welcome to Academic Advising at CU Boulder. Please select from one of the following options:
For Course Enrollment, please press 1.
[student presses 1]
If you are an Arts & Sciences student, please press 1.
If you are a College of Media, Communication, & Information student, please press 2.
If you are a Program in Exploratory Studies student, please press 3.
[student presses 3]
If you wish to transfer to either the College of Engineering & Applied Sciences or the Leeds School of Business, please press 1.
[student presses 1]
What is your Plan B? You have less than a 20% chance of getting into either Engineering or Business. (But thank you for choosing CU Boulder! #skobuffs)
Please select a Plan B from the following list of options:
For the College of Arts & Sciences, please press 1.
[student waits in silence for other options]
[more silence]
For the College of Arts & Sciences, please press 1.
[student presses 1]
Thank you for selecting the College of Arts & Sciences.
If you are an in-state student, please press 1.
If you are an out-of-state student, please press 2.
If you are an international student, please press 3.
[student presses 2]
If you are from either Texas or California, please press 1.
[student presses 1]
To be properly prepared for winter, please go to patagonia.com and select their latest down jacket.
Thank you for choosing CU Boulder. Have a good semester.
[hotline terminates call]
