GHC Home > Advising > Student Resources > Advising FAQ

Advising FAQ

Oh, we can help you with any number of things dealing with student success:

  1. Help you figure out your goals in college.
  2. Talk to you about majors.
  3. Plot out each of your semesters until graduation.
  4. Sign you up for classes if you have holds.
  5. Talk to you about holds, especially ones dealing with academic progress.
  6. Help you figure out requirements for your next program.
  7. Give you information about campus resources.
  8. Help you make sense of DegreeWorks/SCORECard.
  9. Help you with some of the technology or paperwork: Navigate, Score, DegreeWorks/SCORECard, Portal, Petition to Graduate, Change of Pathway, etc.

Believe it or not, yes. Yes, there are some things advisors cannot do:

  1. Check your financial aid – contact the Financial Aid office
  2. Recommend professors
  3. Withdraw students from classes after the withdrawal date
  4. Change grades – contact your instructor
  5. Course availability – contact the department chairs
  6. Evaluate transfer credits – contact the Registrar’s Office
  7. Pick your classes for you – we advise, you decide!

If you are having a problem, and you have no idea what to do about it, you are welcome to come by and ask an advisor. We may not know the answer, but we can help you figure out who might know it.

Students who started at GHC in 2019 or later are a part of the Quest for Success advising program. These students are assigned their very own academic advisor and are required to meet a few weeks into your first semester as a GHC student. Then you have to meet with a faculty advisor your second full semester. After that second meeting, it is between you and your faculty advisor on how often and when the two of you should meet.

  • It is great to have these meetings before the next semester’s classes are made available. In other words, September, October, February, and March are good times to meet with advisors for AA2 and AA3.

Students who started at GHC in 2018 or earlier are a part of the Early Bird Advising program. These students are NOT assigned an advisor and are able to see a professional and/or faculty advisor. View the recommended steps to take.

Students who started at GHC in 2019 or later are a part of the Quest for Success advising program. These students are assigned their very own academic advisor.

There are a couple of ways to find out by logging into your student portal:

  1. In your student portal, access Navigate in the top left box.
    • From your home view of Navigate, you will be able to see your advisors name under “Your Success Team” on the bottom right-hand side.
    • From the “Your Success Team” area – you can also click on the mail icon to email your advisor directly!
  2. When you check your DegreeWorks/SCORECard from your student portal, the name of your advisor should be listed in the top section right above your GPA.

Students who started at GHC in 2018 or earlier are a part of the Early Bird Advising program. These students are NOT assigned an advisor and are able to see a professional and/or faculty advisor. View the recommended steps to take.

  1. You can make an appointment through Navigate.
  2. Advisors will also usually have some walk-in hours each week during registration of an upcoming semester.
  3. You can contact the professional advisor for your campus location through email or phone.

Students have a variety of ways to receive advising help:

  • Send an email to advising@highlands.edu or to a professional advisor. Remember to use your GHC student email and include your student ID number (your 900#).
  • If you set it up ahead of time, you can have a Zoom meeting with an advisor. Zoom is a video chat application where we can share our screens with you. Just send an advisor an email asking about this option.
  • If you call, we can talk about only generic advising topics. For security reasons, we cannot talk about details that reference your status as a student.

You should stay at GHC as long as you can. You won’t find a more affordable accredited college in the state of Georgia, especially one with such a great student/teacher ratio. You and your advisor can talk about the best time for you to transfer to a four-year school. A potential transfer date should be a part of any plan that the two of you come up with.

Outside of your advisor, here are some resources to help you with your transfer decisions:

  1. Transfer Advising
  2. Reverse Transfer Degree
  3. USG Colleges/Universities
  4. How to Send a Transcript

Students who wish to change their program pathway must file a Petition to Change Pathway form with the Office of the Registrar.

It may take two weeks or so for processing. If it hasn’t changed after a couple of weeks, send an email to registrar@highlands.edu.

Twelve enrolled hours constitute full-time student status, and 15 or more hours is considered a full-time course load. Learning Support courses are included when assessing a student’s course load, but are not counted in GPA calculations and are not transferrable hours. Taking fewer than twelve hours in a term may result in:

  • Compromising a student's eligibility to be included on a parent's insurance policy
  • Affecting a student's level of financial aid

Both consequences are serious and students should consider them carefully and consult with parents and the Financial Aid office as appropriate. You can reach the Financial Aid office by e-mail at: finaid@highlands.edu.

  1. Pathway checklists show all of the classes you need to take, a sample two-year plan, and milestones you should be looking for along the way.
  2. DegreeWorks/SCORECard is like an electronic version of the pathway sheet. It will show you the classes you have taken, the classes you are in, as well as the classes you have left to take. You can also click the What If Function to see how your classes would fit into another pathway.
  3. Students who started GHC in 2019 or later: you and your advisor during your required advising appointment (Advising Activity II) will work together to create an individualized academic plan for you. You will plan out each semester all the way to graduation and store it in the Planner function of Navigate.
    • After you have met with an advisor for Advising Activity II (AA2), you should be able to see what courses you need to take in the Planner function of Navigate. These classes in this schedule should have been tailored to you. The benefit of Planner over DegreeWorks/SCORECard is that these classes are in an ideal order, and each semester has an ideal workload for you.
  4. Students who started at GHC in 2018 or earlier: we recommend scheduling an Early Bird Advising appointment with your preferred faculty and/or professional advisor and specify that you would like to create an individualized academic plan. Having this plan in Navigate helps organize your remaining courses and know what to register for during each registration season.

Your academic standing is a result of both your GPA and attempted credit hours. View the catalog for more information on academic progress and standings. You can also reach out to your advisor for clarification. Also, keep in mind that there is a difference between financial aid probation and academic probation.