Finally, we are asking you to spend a few minutes describing the occasion in which you received either the best or the worst advice about your undergraduate education at Cal and about your experience with advising in general. Your responses may be shared anonymously with faculty, staff, and other current and future students as part of an effort to improve the undergraduate experience at Cal.
1. First, choose to tell us about either the best or the worst advice.
| 1624 (76.2%) BEST advice since starting at Cal |
| 508 (23.8%) WORST advice since starting at Cal |
What was the advice and how did it affect your undergraduate education?
[Contact OPA for more information]
2. Who offered this advice?
| 838 (39.8%) Another Cal undergraduate |
| 200 (9.5%) Your parent or guardian |
| 85 (4.0%) A friend not enrolled at Cal |
| 70 (3.3%) Another relative of yours |
| 244 (11.6%) A Cal faculty member |
| 88 (4.2%) A Cal graduate student |
| 283 (13.5%) A Cal staff advisor |
| 31 (1.5%) A website or publication |
| 44 (2.1%) Other Cal staff member |
| 220 (10.5%) Other, please specify: [Open-ended text field] |
3. Based on your experience, if YOU were to give one piece of helpful advice to an incoming freshman or transfer student about to start at Cal, what would you say?
[Contact OPA for more information]
4. Have you ever received advice from two different offices or staff members at Cal that was contradictory or in conflict?
| 366 (16.6%) Yes |
| 1845 (83.4%) No |
Please explain what happened and how you decided which advice to follow:
[Contact OPA for more information]
5. Finally, consider for a moment the advising, counseling and mentoring resources that have been available to you. Regardless of whether you have used them, to what extent have they met your needs as a Cal undergraduate?
[Contact OPA for more information]