• Schedule An Advising Appointment
• About the Center
• Prospective Students
• Newly Admitted Students

  • Preparing for Your Orientation Advising Session
  • First Year Students
  • New Transfer Students
  • Unique Student Groups
• Current Students
• Student Resources
• Majors & Minors Fair
• Parents
• NACADA Region 3 Conference
• Support the AAPC
• Assessment
• Contact Us
• 2022 Advising Consortium

Congratulations

Welcome to the College of Charleston and the Academic Advising and Planning Center (AAPC)! We look forward to seeing you soon. In the meantime, take some time to familiarize yourself with the information here.

Preparation for Orientation Advising

New first year students will meet with an academic advisor during new student orientation. All new first-year students, except Honors, student athletes, and new transfers, should access the online learning module that will help them better prepare for orientation. The Academic Advising and Planning Center will email these students prior to their registered Orientation session with instructions for accessing the online learning module. Please note that the completion of this learning module is designed to better prepare students for their advising experience at the College of Charleston. Students are not expected to create a course schedule during this module. This will occur after students have been advised and meet with their advisor for registration during New Student Orientation.

Use this list to prepare for your orientation advising meeting. All students are provided a copy of our Advising Syllabus.

Semester Advising

First year students are required to meet with their academic advisor at least once per semester. Honors and Athletes are advised by their respective programs.

If a first year student assigned to our office declares his/her major before academic advising holds are placed on their registration (typically mid-October/mid-March) and their academic major requires academic advising, then the student is expected to see his/her faculty advisor for advising. If their academic major does not require advising, then the student will be advised by our office. Declared students should check with their assigned faculty advisor to find out whether their academic major requires advising.

The AAPC will send email notifications to students beginning in late September/mid-February reminding them to schedule their mandatory advising appointment either with our office or their academic department. Schedule your semester appointment with your assigned AAPC advisor online through Appointment Manager, also accessible through the Appointments tile in MyPortal, or call the AAPC office at 843-953-5981. You will receive an appointment confirmation email when the scheduling process is complete. 

College is Different

College is hard. You may need to rethink the study strategies you had in high school. Pulling an all-nighter or writing a paper the day before it is due often does not lead to sustained academic success. The general rule of thumb is for every hour you spend in class, you’re spending two to three hours outside of class in study and preparation. This means that if you’re taking 15 credit hours (five, 3-credit hour classes = 15 hours a week in class), then you’re spending 30-45 hours per week on your academics. Start preparing yourself now for this shift from high school.

Suggested resources:

• Majors and Minors
• Majors Fair in Fall semester
• One Stop Answers for Common Student Requests

General Education and other Degree Requirements

View this video for more information about the requirements to earn a degree at the College of Charleston.