Changing Your Advisor
Occasionally circumstances arise that call for consideration of a change in advisor. A student wishing to change advisors should communicate formally via email the reasons why the student would like to change their advisor with the Associate Director of Academic Advising, Gina Brewington—contact info below. The student needs to set up an in-person appointment with the associate director to discuss their request. A change in advisor must be approved by the associate director and advising leadership in order to keep advising loads equitable.
*If an advisor leaves his/her advising role, their advisees will be notified and assigned another advisor by the current Coordinator of Advising.
Circumstances that might be approved for a change of advisor are:
- You may have recently changed majors and need an adviser in a new department.
- Your adviser might be on leave and unavailable for a semester or a year.
- You might have thought you changed advisers but that change isn’t reflected in the student database (because someone might have entered it incorrectly).
Circumstances that will most likely not be approved for advisor change:
- General dislike of advisor or advising style
- Don’t think you need an advisor
- Your friends have a better advisor
- In other colleges, they let students switch advisors
Contact Gina Brewington, Associate Director of Academic Advising at gbrewing@umn.edu for approval appointments or the CFANS Advising Center at 612-301-2389 for general assistance.
