The Department of Biological Sciences Advising Office provides personalized advising for you, even when it must be remote. We will adapt continuously to ensure that advising remains flexible and accessible.
Here are some changes to our advising practices that aim to improve the remote advising experience for both advisors and students.
- Flexible advising meetings. Advising meetings can be done by email, phone, or video conference. Schedule through Navigate Student and let us know your preference.
- Fillable digital Advising documents. Easily emailed or shared through other digial platforms.
- On-demand advising. We have created a number of informational videos to assist you in planning and following through on your path to graduation.
- Increased transparency. We have better outlined the responsibilities of students and advisors to provide more efficiency and clearer expectations.
- Improved access to resources. Many resources have changed since the start of the Spring term. Check out how to find what you need.
As always, if you have quick questions or need more clarification, please email the advising office at bioadv@pitt.edu and someone will get back to you within 2 business days.
Flexible advising meetings.
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Click on the purple “Appointments” button on the Explore menu.
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Click the blue “Schedule an Appointment” bar at the bottom of the My Appointments screen.
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Choose “Advising”.
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Choose “Dietrich School Major Advising”.
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Choose your appointment type: "General Advising" for questions and big picture planning or “Biological Sciences Pre-Enrollment Advising” for scheduling classes for the upcoming term.
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Choose “Biological Sciences Advising”.
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Choose the advisor you’d like to see.
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Choose the date/time that works for you.
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Make sure to add a comment for your meeting platform preference (Zoom, phone, email, etc).
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Be sure to click the “Confirm Appointment” button to confirm your appointment.
Fillable Digital Advising Documents.
Our office is no longer using paper advising folders! Students should fill out an updated progress tracker for their major and send it to their advisor along with an updated semester-by-semester plan BEFORE their pre-enrollment advising meeting.
- Biological Sciences Major Progress Tracker: old gen-eds /// new gen-eds
- Bioinformatics Major Progress Tracker: old gen-eds /// new gen-eds
- Computational Biology Major Progress Tracker: old gen-eds /// new gen-eds
- Ecology & Evolution Major Progress Tracker: old gen-eds /// new gen-eds
- Revised 3-Track Ecology & Evolution Major Progress Tracker
- Microbiology Major Progress Tracker: old gen-eds /// new gen-eds
- Molecular Biology (Biochemistry) Major Progress Tracker: old gen-eds /// new gen-eds
- Molecular Biology (Cell/Dev) Major Progress Tracker: old gen-eds /// new gen-eds
Use the following to name your files: LastnameFirst_ProgressTracker_MonthYear.pdf
Semester Planner – use to plan courses for all terms leading to graduation
4. On-demand bio advising.
Get answers to some common questions!
How to download your AAR (Academic Advisement Report)
How to fill-out your bio major progress tracker
How to search for gen-ed requirements
How to make an academic plan
How to choose the correct undergrad research form
How to enroll for UTA credit
How to enroll for independent study/research credit
How to make a bio advising appointment
Increased transparency
In order to better serve our students during these unprecedented times, we want to clarify our expectations for advising.
What we expect of our bio majors:
Meet with a bio advisor at least once/term to get hold lifted for course enrollment. Enrollment appointments typically take place in September-October in the fall for spring course planning and in February-March for fall course planning. Summer...
Take ownership of your academic career: track your requirements for graduation and make a plan to meet those requirements.
Explore career opportunities and extracurriculars
Stay informed. Make sure you read our weekly newsletter that is emailed every Tuesday to stay on top of deadlines and requirements.
Let us know if there are problems. Keep us informed of how things are going.
What you should expect from bio advising:
Provide personalized guidance on your academic path. We will provide you resources to track your requirements for graduation and will support you as you make a plan to meet those requirements.
Support and supplement your academic and career interests. We are also excited to help you explore additional opportunities and build your network. Please check out our videos on getting involved in research and UTAing, etc....
Connect you with other resources on and off campus. We work with a number of other offices and are happy to help you find those connections - prehealth, career, etc...
What you can expect from our Bio Peer Advisors
Weekly zoom office hours: drop in to say hi and ask questions about classes, extracurriculars, majors, and more.
PittBioBlog: our peer advisors share their experiences at Pitt
Other resources for success during Flex@Pitt
Flex@Pitt strategies for success