Career/Major Exploration

Program designed to prepare associate-degree seeking students for transition to a bachelor’s program.

We know that approximately 60% of UGA students change their major at least once. We also know that if that change happens after their first 60-hours, it impacts their time to graduation. To address this issue, we have established six focus areas that cluster our 140+ majors into groups with significant overlap in core classes. The meta-majors reflect broad conceptions of post-UGA aspirations, are aligned to specific programs of study, and reflect the Holland Interest Inventory (which incoming students take as part of the Orientation Intake Survey).

The Orientation Intake Survey results in a better advising appointment during Orientation and prompts students to assess confidence in their intended major such that they receive guidance on making a purposeful choice before they even register for classes.

Provide an array of career services and develop collaborative career programming through alumni involvement in disseminating the career information.

Designing and integrating academic success content into all sections of Area B courses, regardless of session length or modality

Advising Redesign which includes Faculty Mentoring. All Freshmen at GSC are assigned a professional advisor and faculty mentor. Advisors and faculty mentors work together to deploy touchpoints for each student.

Retention and graduation rates have increased nationally due to the implementation and design of well-crafted program maps with an emphasis on students taking fuller schedules categorized by the 15-to-finish initiative. Gordon State College made early efforts to create program maps with co-curricular milestones using the theme of Gordon’s Highlander EDGE. After careful review we noticed that some of the program maps had not been pressure tested and we have now determined a plan to carefully review, and pressure test our program maps annually.

The Faculty Mentor Program at Gordon State College pairs first-year students (students under 30 credit hours) with faculty in the student’s major area/area of focus. Faculty mentors act as part of the student’s success team. They provide professional and career guidance, encouragement, and help connect students with campus resources. All tenure-track faculty members serve as faculty members. Faculty mentors act to provide services and support that complement the services offered by GSC’s professional academic advisors.

A first-year experience course, using high impact practices

Increase degree completion in STEM fields. To meet this goal, we are focusing on both K-12 STEM outreach and the retention of STEM students once they have enrolled.