By Laura Rico
Daily Bruin Contributor
The recent resignation of the coordinator for the College of Letters and Science’s Pre-professional Advising Office has resulted in the temporary move of various counseling services from Murphy Hall to the Career Center.
With Sharif Sawires’ departure, the office decided to transfer personal statement and professional school application advising to the Career Center, instead of hiring a new director. The letter of recommendation service is still operated out of Murphy Hall.
“The main reason for the move is to increase access to counseling,” said Betty Glick, associate vice provost for undergraduate admissions.
While the advising office at Murphy Hall consisted of two full-time counselors, the Career Center currently has 13 counselors to assist undergraduate students. Due to understaffing at the PAO, the office often found itself backed up with requests for student services.
“Students often had to wait two to three weeks to obtain an appointment with a counselor,” Glick said.
According to Glick, 7,200 undergraduate students currently receive counseling from the PAO. Services consist mainly of helping students select classes, obtain letters of recommendation and write personal statements.
Last year, the PAO sent out more than 60,000 letters of recommendation to graduate and professional schools.
The scope of the program has changed throughout the years, Glick said, as a result of increased competition for admission into graduate and professional schools.
“The PAO started as a letter of recommendation service for students applying to law school and medical school,” Glick said. “Now students also want to see how they compare to other candidates and how their test scores match up to those of accepted students.”
According to Kathy Sims, director of the Career Center, the PAO’s proposal to permanently relocate pre-professional counseling services to the center must be approved by both the Student Affairs Budget Review Committee, which recommends budgets for student services, and the Student Fee Advisory Committee, which recommends how student fees should be spent for campus services.
In addition, the Chancellor Albert Carnesale must also confirm the move. The process is not expected to be finalized until July.
“If the proposal is denied, the interim period could be extended, since it would be too late to plan a different strategy,” Sims said.
She said it is not unusual in the UC system for career centers to work as main resources for pre-professional counseling.
“It makes sense to combine the services, since students focused on graduate study often begin to rethink their options,” she said. “If they don’t get the exposure to the career center early on and acquaint themselves with counselors, it can be difficult for them to make decisions regarding their options.”
For freshmen and sophomores, academic advising is still located at Murphy Hall.
Glick said students in the Academic Advancement and honors programs should consult their full-time counselors to learn about programs offered through those offices regarding graduate and professional school admission.