Each Political Science major is assigned a full-time faculty member as his or her advisor. To find the name of your advisor, log in to BroncoDirect and click on "Student Center " on the left side of your screen. Your advisor's name should then be on the right side of your screen under "Program Advisor." If not, contact Ms. Cathy Gomezin the department office (94-303). In general, students are assigned randomly to advisors as they elect to become Political Science majors. It is possible for a student and faculty member to jointly request that any individual student be assigned to a particular faculty member. The request needs to be a joint request to ensure that the distribution of students among the faculty members remains relatively even. Contact the department office (Bldg. 94, Rm. 303; 909/869-3887) if you are interested in changing advisors.
Advising serves a couple of purposes. One is to assist students with course selection each quarter. A second is to provide career advice to students who may be wondering "what to do" with their political science degree. This might be advice about graduate or law school or about possible jobs.
Note: if your Cal Poly GPA is 2.2 or less, you are considered to be "at risk," and a special hold is placed on your registration. To have this hold removed, you need to meet with either Dr. Jill Hargis or Dr. John Korey (or, in a genuine emergency, with the Department Chair) to work out a plan so that you can get out of at risk status and return to your regular advisor.
BroncoCompass, a learning center for students, faculty and staff, provides information and guidance as students move through the different stages of their college experience from admission through graduation.
IMPORTANT ADVISING ADVISORY (October 14, 2009): Because we are very shorthanded this year, the department has suspended its policy of requiring every major to see his or her advisor every quarter. Instead, you are asked to see your advisor at least once during the 2009-2010 academic year on the following schedule: last names H-N, Winter Quarter 2010 registration; O-Z Spring Quarter 2010 registration; A-G Fall Quarter 2010 regitration. This is the minimum required; you are of course, encouraged to see your advisor more frequently. If your last name is in the H-N range and you have already been advised, you may have had a registration hold added since then. If so, contact your advisor to request that it be removed.
The new policy applies to regular advising holds and does not affect at-risk (<=2.2 CPGPA) holds, which continue as in the past and will be handled exclusively by Professors Korey and Hargis.
Ideally, you should meet with your advisor in person, but occasionally an advisor will be willing to release your hold after a phone conversation or an e-mail exchange. The decision is up to the advisor. Before meeting with your advisor, you should review your curriculum sheet (the "pink sheet") and indicate how all of coursework you have already completed fits into your overall program of study. You should also have reviewed the course offerings for the next quarter and have identified five or six courses that you think you would like to take that would meet the requirements you have outstanding. In other words, you must be PREPARED for your meeting. Most advisors will meet with advisees on a first come, first serve basis during their office hours. If those hours conflict with your class or work schedule, contact the advisor by e-mail or telephone to set up an alternate time. Do this at least three (3) days before your first scheduled opportunity for registration. Trying to contact your advisor for the first time the night before you are allowed to register may mean that you don't get the hold lifted in a timely manner and you lose out on getting in to some popular classes.
The Department of Political Science at Cal Poly, Pomona, supports the "polytechnic" philosophy of "learning by doing" and encourages its majors to undertake an internship as part of their academic program. There are several internships available to students in the California Government every year on a competitive basis and several well-established internship programs in Washington, D.C. There are also many internships that "pop up" unexpectedly. The best approach is to meet with one or more of the internship advisors (listed below) in your sophomore year to let him or her know of your interest in doing an internship in your junior or senior year. They can let you know of the relevant timetables for the established internships and they can keep your name on file for those internships that we learn about at the last minute. For more information on internships, see Dr. Lisa Nelson (Bldg. 94, Rm. 338; lnelson@csupomona.edu; 909/869-4739).
While a student may receive advice about both course schedules and their careers from the same person, many students choose to seek career advice from someone other than their assigned advisor. That is fine. The Department has some faculty members who "specialize" in particular types of advising in addition to their duties as general student advisors. For advice on:
In addition, students should early on in their academic careers become familiar with the services offered at the University Career Center.
Last Updated: October 18, 2009
