College leaders and faculty members are considering potential alternative models for first-year course registration and advising to provide greater flexibility and reduce time pressure during New Student Orientation (NSO). Nick Phillips, associate dean of curriculum and academic programs, said that significant changes would not be implemented for the incoming first-year class.
Phillips said that although no changes have been put in place yet, three proposals are under consideration.
The first model would move faculty advising to the summer. Under this approach, students would complete onboarding, preparation materials and placement exams online. They would then meet with their advisers virtually in late July and register for courses in early August through Colleague Self-Service. Students would arrive on campus with a finalized schedule and would only need a brief check-in with their advisers during NSO.
The second proposal would combine elements of the current system with earlier preparation. Students would complete onboarding, curriculum orientation and placement exams online and register for one or two courses before arriving on campus. During NSO, they would meet with their advisers to finalize the remainder of their schedules.
The third proposal would maintain the current system while introducing minor changes, including sharing more information with students beforehand and modifying the NSO schedule.
Professor Elaine Marzluff, a member of the Curriculum Committee, said discussions about changes to first-year fall advising and registration began more than a year ago. Both Phillips and Marzluff said the review is a direct response to the intensity of scheduling during NSO, which creates significant time constraints for both students and faculty.
“One of the issues that we know about is that we [students and faculty] are just really short on time. It’s really packed,” Phillips said.
He also said it is important to ensure that students understand the liberal arts experience during their initial advising conversations.
“It’s important to think about how well the students understand the Grinnell education when they are conducting those initial advising sessions with their faculty,” he said. “Are we allowing enough time and enough development for new students to understand that, or are we just in a crunch and pushing them through and getting them to fill out their schedule?”
Professor Jonathan Wells, who conducted summer research on first-year registration and taught a first-year tutorial in fall 2025, said that advisers face challenges navigating several tasks in a short period of time.
“I think the main challenge that I experienced in NSO was the three full demands on time that happened in a space of a 48-hour period,” Wells said. “One is advising, meeting students and introducing them to life at a liberal arts college. Two were helping them fill out their yellow cards to get registered for classes, and then three were helping them prepare for their academic career at Grinnell, and that’s just not easy in the limited amount of time we have during NSO.”
Professor Marzluff said she has observed similar concerns.
“It’s just a very intensive lead-in. Starting classes exhausted is hard for the students and for the faculty,” she said.
Zoe Kwok `29, a first-year student on the pre-med track, said she felt stressed about not knowing her schedule over the summer.
“Back home, all my friends would talk about the courses they were taking, and I hadn’t even seen what courses were available to me,” Kwok said.
Despite these challenges, Wells and Marzluff said that the current system has important strengths. Wells’ research found that the current system is fair and effective in getting students the classes they desire.
“We get students into classes that they want, and we do that relatively efficiently in a short amount of time,” Marzluff said.
Kwok said she found the advising process to be helpful.
“I think my advisor really helped me with establishing a good balance for my first semester, and even brought me to different professors in the department that I could talk to so that I would have an idea of the course load,” she said.
Phillips said that given the complexity of the issue, no decision has been made.
“They all have their strengths and weaknesses. I don’t have a champion among them, and I’m certainly open to the possibility that we stay with our current model and just try to optimize it,” he said.
Marzluff said that the process remains exploratory.
“I think we’re very much in conversation, and I’m always happy to hear from students about their experiences and ideas as we start to inform that process for the future,” she said.
Wells said that a deliberate, data-informed approach is essential.
“There is interest among staff and faculty to look at modifications thoughtfully and in a data-informed way,” he said. “If we try something, we should reflect on what went well, what didn’t and what further modifications might be needed.”
