It’s unfortunate that our college advisors aren’t provided with sorting hats that will put us neatly into our various colleges and tell us the majors and classes for which we are best suited. That would make registering for classes a lot easier. It would cut to the chase, avoid the hassle of running around to the offices of our faculty mentors and having them sign off on sheets so we can finally obtain the holy grail, our pin numbers.

It’s unfortunate that we are not at Hogwarts, but that’s life. We have to make decisions about classes and major for ourselves, and have to take responsibility for our own careers; it is necessary to keep this in mind, because the vociferousness with which students complain about the advising department is unwarranted.

Our advisers are not our parents. They send out more than enough e-mails to remind us to see them in order to register on time; they have clear guidelines on the types of classes each college requires. If we miss our deadlines, if we are too busy watching “Lost” to fill out some forms, if we wait until the last minute to register, the fault is our own.

Do advisers make mistakes sometimes? Sure, they’re human, and the departments themselves are stressed. We complain that our advisors don’t know our particular needs, that they overlooked some classes we needed, that all they did in our meeting was scroll through Banner and hand us a slip of paper with a signature on it.

However, it is impossible to expect them to know everything when many advisers have only been in their current positions for a year or more. The turnover is incredibly high; pay is low, and advising staff haven’t received raises for one year, going on two. This isn’t the students’ fault, but it is a factor, and another reason why students need to be proactive themselves in planning out necessary classes.

We want our advisers to know everything, to have years of experience dealing with students and be able to offer up seamless advice, but this is impossible when the University treats the advising position so poorly.

We have an imperfect advising system. It is unfortunate, but it is what it is. There is no magical sorting hat. Until we get our Hogwarts letters, we’re just going to have to be adults and deal with it.