Choosing an advisor

To aid all students in their choices, which are due in the office today, the faculty held interviews yesterday. They were scattered in various rooms in two separate buildings, and students could drop in and chat during an hour in the morning and in the evening.

Some students were very thorough and took careful notes. Not me. I used the interviews as a quick way to assess the personality fit of individual faculty members with my own. I was able to choose six people using this method.

Kellye Carter Crocker, a wonderfully helpful, friendly, fourth semester student and Des Moines Register book reviewer (how's that, Kellye?), described a method she and her roommate use to check their own feelings (there's that word again) about advisors they might get. They write each name on a piece of paper and then draw one blindly out of a hat. If they're disappointed at the result, they don't choose that person.

Using that method, I decided to eliminate one person from contention this semester. I eliminated a couple of others because I figured I wouldn't get them anyway since they work primarily with picture book writers.

I don't think it really matters who I get. I'll be happy with anyone on my list. We find out the results tomorrow morning.