Academic Advising

Begin your journey at Trinity by considering interesting Majors and minors. Explore your options across five academic disciplines, with over 40 Majors and minors available to you. Visit the Majors and minors page for more information.

Every Trinity College student fulfills the curricular requirements of an academic Major. Early exploration in the college process allows students to find the right major, which must be declared by the end of the sophomore year. By beginning with a working plan, students can target areas that are interesting and may later become a focused area of expertise.

Visit the entry courses to majors website to see which courses you should explore to build a foundational knowledge that’s interesting to you.

Explore internships, summer research, short term global study, J-Term courses, as well as leadership opportunities to fulfill your Trinity Plus.

Expand your horizons by studying away from Trinity. Whether you spend time studying domestically or traveling abroad, you are sure to gain new perspectives and additional context through exciting courses and programs away. Get more information by connecting with the Office of Study Away.

First week of classes each semester. Students may freely add and drop courses via TConline, ideally in conversation with their academic adviser.

It is usually a good idea to wait to drop one class until you are sure of being able to add another. To see if there are spots available, check the Course Enrollments link on my.ngskmc-eis.net to see whether a course has spaces available (green circle), or has a waitlist (yellow triangle—on tconline you can get on a total of two waitlists at a time). If it is full without a waitlist (blue square), you can email the professor to see if it might be possible to add.

Note that some courses require instructor permission to add: on the Course Schedules link, you’ll see a column called “permission required” that will tell you (with a Y or N) whether you need permission. If you do, contact the professor, who can give you a PIN: a number code that you submit on TConline when you register.

Add/drop week is the only time when you can freely change a course to pass/fail from a letter grade. You can change it back to a grade anytime through the last day of classes.

The withdrawal deadline is the last day to withdraw from a class without having to petition the Academic Affairs Committee to do so. If you withdraw, you get a W for the course on your transcript. You get no credit for the course and have no GPA penalty. The withdrawal form is located on the Registrar’s Office website, “Undergraduate Forms,” “Late add/late drop,” “withdrawal.”

You can declare a major at any point up until the Friday after spring break in your sophomore year. To do so, contact the chair of your desired department. The majors and minors page of the Trinity website has direct links to each available area of study. You can find the department chair within each major or minor’s website, under the “Faculty” tab of the website’s drop down menu.

Meet with your advisor to discuss your list of courses for the following semester.

Preregister for the following semester on your designated day via TConline.

Professors send Progress Reports when students are not fulfilling the attendance and/or work expectations of a class.

Students, here are some do’s and don’ts when it comes to responding to a progress report:

Do:

• Take responsibility for your own situation. You have many options, and you have the power to decide which is best for you.
• Make contact with your professor. Sometimes students who are behind in a class hesitate to contact professors, out of fear or embarrassment. Those feelings are understandable, but worth striving to conquer. Remember: professors send progress reports because they want to help you get back on track.
• Reach out to your academic advisor for support, at least for a quick check-in. Your advisor too wants to help you find a way to do better in your course.
• Make a plan. Sometimes being behind can feel daunting. Dividing your work into smaller tasks, and checking them off as you finish, can help. Small steps add up!
• Connect with friends and classmates. Working together on course material can be very useful for learning and completing assignments.
• Seek out the many other resources at Trinity that are here to help you.
• If you are so far behind that you don’t think you can catch up, consider withdrawing from the class. You can do so with your adviser’s signature up through the middle of the semester. If you withdraw you get no credit for the class, but also no penalty to your GPA. You get a W on your transcript.

Don’t:

• Hide and hope the problem goes away. It won’t.
• Give up. There are many paths you can take. Reach out for help.
• Tell yourself things will get better in the future. Start now!

Trinity’s Academic Resource Collaborative combines academic support centers to impact your success. Get started by exploring the Writing Center, Math Quantitative Center, Bloom Center, and Library.

Student Life Centers are available for you including the Counseling and Wellness Center, the Women and Gender Resource Action Center, and the Queer Resource Center.

Get involved on campus by exploring Wellness experiences!

Life Design Coaching

The Career and Life Design Center offers Life Design Coaching to help you learn strategies and identify resources for academic skills such as:

• Time management
• Productivity vs Procrastination
• Developing Your Support System
• Organization Skills Development
• Planning, Prioritizing, and Goal Setting

Schedule a Life Design Appointment!

Consider utilizing WELL 169 – Thriving: Moving Beyond Surviving or WELL 170 – Your Success by Design! to fulfill your wellness requirement.