Advising Week Approaches, Do Panic

Angelica Gajewski ’26

Please Note: I’d like to take this moment to thank my advisors. Not by name, so as not to embarrass them (they don’t want to be associated with this section of the Tripod). Just know, I hate the game, not the players. All my homies and I extend our sincerest gratitude to academic advisors that actually do their jobs, and do them well. 

I once heard someone describe scheduling a meeting during Advising Week at Trinity College as Hunger Games-like, but I wasn’t nerdy enough as a kid to have seen The Hunger Games films. So, in my mind, Advising Week feels like when your mom would pull the mac and cheese out of the oven, and you’d rush over to make sure you get those crunchy corner pieces. Perhaps my mind is still in fat kid survival mode but, getting those burnt corners is an impossibility here, and not just because The Bistro’s mac and cheese station is woeful. 

The problem begins with the dreaded email, often sporting an offensively optimistic subject line, the body of the message presents a list of times. More likely than not, these will single handedly be the most inconvenient times one can conjure up. You’ll find one, maybe two, twenty minute time slots that work, and then it’s game time: A ping-pong of emails that leave you frustrated and wondering, does it really have to be this way? The answer is that it doesn’t. We don’t have to settle for a system that kicks you while you’re already down in the hell that is late October in college. 

The practical, but dare I say soulless, solution to this issue would be some kind of scheduling application (seriously can someone please implement this). Except, here at The Tripod, we like fun and bullet points so I’d like to propose a hierarchy for time slot selection assignments in the form of three waves: 

First Wave – Any individual that has completed one or more of the following:

• Trained the rats in Vernon to do tricks 
• Trained a member of the housing office staff to respond to emails

Second Wave – Any individual that fulfills both criteria:

• 500+ connections on LinkedIn 
• Averages 8+ hours of sleep a night 

Third Wave – Any individual that has completed one or more of the following, plus everyone else:

• Male with a Tinder Premium subscription (I feel bad for you)
• Has an ESA animal in the dorms that does not bark (I thank you) 
• Has acquired a drippy picture with Banty 

Policy on Bribery: Sure. 

Admission to a more selective wave can be purchased through one semester’s worth of meal point dollars, or, a pan of baked mac and cheese.