I have a confession: I am “that girl” when it comes to advising. That girl who has had her DegreeWorks planned for graduation since freshman year. I book my advising appointment in the first weeks of school to get my hold cleared and be free to register when I want. I have always done this because that is who an adviser was to me, someone who approved my course choices and cleared me to register. Only recently did I realize how much more I needed from my advisors.

I just started my upper-division economics courses, and they have been a rude awakening. My professor, wonderful as he is, expected me on the first day of junior year to remember the calculus rules and economics concepts I had not looked at since Christmas of my freshman year. Therefore, the catch-up studying needed for my first test was intense. My plan had seriously failed me. My advisers had failed me. My college had failed me.

Most advising departments at The University of Alabama are woefully understaffed and have not expanded their numbers in proportion to the extreme growth of the student body. So I understand why it is hard for them to meet the wide variety of student needs considering the demands on their time. However, departments at this university are responsible for ensuring all advisers are well-trained and equipped to provide in-depth major and career-specific advice to students. Doing this would maximize the student’s performance, allowing them to graduate with the particular skills and knowledge needed to have a competitive edge in the workforce.

To accomplish this, the University needs advisers who are trained to look beyond the minimum requirements and provide students with a complete plan for how to use their academic choices to reach their long-term goals. Knowledge of the course catalog is no longer sufficient. For many students, their adviser will be their main source of career guidance during their time here. As such, advisers need to be trained on the common professions for each major they advise and be able to recommend classes, concentrations and perhaps even minors that will prepare students to fill the needs of the companies they aspire to join.

I needed one of my advisers to tell me to take more math classes, to delay taking calculus until sophomore year and to give me an override to take my economics classes sooner. I am one of the lucky ones. I just had to catch up in time for the test and confirm with my professor that I didn’t need higher math to graduate and pursue law school. He was not so kind to my fellow economics majors who expect their degrees alone to carry them to Wall Street or even to the headquarters of Regions. He may have been the first person to tell them that they will need close to a minor’s worth of math to secure the job (and paycheck) they want in high finance.

I have no doubt that my classmates would have taken these courses if they were aware employers expected those skills. Unfortunately, no one had ever told them.

Leigh Terry is a junior majoring in economics. Her column runs weekly.