Yale College urges all members of the faculty to make themselves available to advise. “College advisers,” in particular, advise pre-major students in the residential college with which the faculty member is affiliated. Contact the dean or head of your residential college for information on how to become a college adviser, or, if you were not assigned to a residential college, contact Dean Risa Sodi, the Yale College director of Advising and Special Programs.

In addition to their college adviser, first-year students are advised within their residential colleges by the residential college dean and a first-year (peer) counselor (colloquially called a “FroCo”). Incoming transfer and Eli Whitney students benefit from similar advising arrangements. Information about advising for first-years and sophomores is available on the Advising Resources website, especially in the Your Adviser and Advising section; information aimed at college advisers is available in the For Advisers section.

As an instructor, you may find that you wish or need to contact a student’s adviser about that student’s performance in your course. The student’s residential college dean — not the college adviser or first-year counselor — should be your first point of contact in these cases. Residential college deans are skilled at handling student issues and at maintaining confidentiality.