Academic Advising

Meeting an ACCESS Advisor

An ACCESS Advisor is what you need as a College of Social Sciences Major if you have questions regarding requirements outside your major/minor. GE's, PE, American Institutions, transferring classes, unit numbers, all these things!

Scheduling Help, Tips, Drop-Ins

• How to Schedule an appointment on EAB (step by step)

  • Quick Start: Student Self-Service Appointments

• Preparing for your Advising Appointment

  • Our ACCESS GE advisors are here to help you during your academic journey, and help you plan acheive your goals (academic, personal, or career). If you aren't sure what your goals should be, we're here to help you figure those out too! Remember these things in preparing for your advising appointment.

    We're All Humans (yes, even our advisors)

    SJSU can be a daunting place academically, mentally, emotionally, financially, and administratively, and we're here to help you get through it. We are absolutely committed to making sure that you find success in everything that you want to pursue in school. Your success is our mission, and we are on your side! We'll be with you every step of the way to make sure that you get to where you need to go, even through the detours and road bumps, if you want us to. 
    

    Our advisors can assist you with everything outside your major.

    This includes but is not limited to general university graduation requirements like GE, transferring credit, transferring to another school. If you have a major-specific question "(can I take (this class) instead of (this class)," or "should I take (this class) for my major." you'll want to ask your department major advisor.

     

    Help Us Help You!

    There's a lot of circumstances that can affect your plans outside of school. If you think there's some information that can help us help you, let your advisor know!

    Have Your Advising Documents Available!

    -Transcripts (if you took classes from other places)
    -AP/IP/CLEP/IB Scores-Prior documentation, and who you contacted previously (if necessary).
    -Anything else you think might be important or relevant (always better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it!)

    Think of Questions You Want to Ask!

    To talk to our advisors, you obviously had a question about something, wanted to know more about something, or wanted to plan for the future. Feel free to ask any and all questions relating to academics because you never know when a question you asked might be absolutely critical to your situation.

Department Major Advisors

A Department Major Advisor is what you need if you have questions regarding a specific major like asking if a class can be taken instead of a major course requirement, or other related questions regarding specific college programs.

Do you have a question regarding a specific college major/minor? You'll need to connect with a department major advisor. Each CoSS department has major advisors in their own departments that advise specific programs. You can find more information about who to reach and how to reach them on our Department Advising page.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How are appointments done?

  • Appointments are done via Zoom. 

• Can I choose which advisor I meet with?

  • Yes, you can choose which advisor you prefer when going through the EAB steps on scheduling an appointment. Please note any advisor in ACCESS can assist you with any questions you might have in regards to general university requirements.

    If you are part of the ACCESS to Success Program please contact your probation advisor first. 

• I can't come to my appointment! What do I do?

  • You'll receive a confirmation email to your preferred email with the advisor that you'll be meeting with. Contact the ACCESS advisor directly.

• What Information Should I Have Ready?

  • Make sure to have access to a copy of any and all advising documents that might be relevant to the reason of your appointment. Digital copies are fine, as long as they're current. Your advisor has access to your transcript and transfer credit that you see on MySJSU, so if you don't see something you think you should be seeing, bring that up to your advisor.

• I might be a few minutes late. How much time do I have until my appointment is cancelled due to being late?

  • You'll be given until 10 minutes after the start of your appointment to log in to the meeting. If you have not entered the Zoom meeting starting the 11th minute, you'll be marked as a no-show and will need to reschedule.

• I'm having problems scheduling an appointment. What do I do?

  • Email socsci-success@sjsu.edu with a screenshot of the issue and briefly describe what you did to bring up the error.

• What if I don't have access to EAB or receive an error message?

  • You will not have access to EAB if you identify as one of one of the following:

    1. An incoming transfer student who has recently submitted your intent to enroll 

    2. Former Student Returning (FSR) or Disqualified student looking to start the reinstatement process.

    If you identify as such, please email us your advising request at socsci-success@sjsu.edu. An access staff member will contact you with a confirmation of your appointment within two business days. Please make sure to check both your SJSU email and preferred email for confirmation.

    If you DO NOT identify as a student mentioned above, please refer to the "How to Schedule an appointment on EAB" tab above and follow the step by step instructions to schedule your advising appointment.