Advising Highlights for Incoming Meteorology Undergraduates

You are in college now, so you must be responsible for yourself. Your advisor's purpose is to help answer your questions, but you are responsible for making decisions. To be safe, verify any academic advice before you act on it. This is especially true if you hear about a rule from another student. Most students find FSU more difficult than their high school or previous college. This is due partly to our high academic standards and partly to the problems anyone has in adjusting to a new city and a large school. So work hard and don't let yourself fall behind in your classes.

Important reading:

Undergraduate degree requirements as listed in the current FSU General Bulletin. For example, you must earn at least 9 credits in summer school at a 4-year university operated by the State of Florida unless you transfer to FSU with 60 or more credits. If you need help, see your advisor if you have a technical question about meteorology, career paths, or the content of prerequisite courses. See Vinette Burns (403 Love, 644-8582) if you have a question dealing with university regulations and/or bureaucracy (trouble getting into a needed math course, etc.)
Liberal studies requirements as listed in the current FSU General Bulletin. Some transfer students will have satisfied these requirements at their last school. The Meteorology Department does not care what liberal studies courses you take.
Meteorology degree requirements as listed in the Meteorology Department's guide for undergraduate students. For example, you have two options in terms of meeting graduation requirements: graduate preparatory or applied. In terms of planning courses, the difference between these two options is not important to a new freshman, but it is quite important for a junior transfer student.

VERY IMPORTANT: The core meteorology courses are taught only once a year. Therefore, if you have to retake a math course, it can throw off your graduation schedule by a year. Sometimes students can catch up by going to summer school. If you find yourself continually struggling to pass math courses with a C- or better, you should investigate other possible majors. If you decide to change your major, the Meteorology Department has a handout to help guide you in the process.

Be aware that the first 4 days of each semester are the drop/add period. Bureaucracy places no limits on schedule changes during the drop-add period. After that, it is practically impossible to add a class, and, if you drop a class, you still have to pay for it. Most meteorology students have full schedules just from taking required courses. Therefore, do not sign up for a course "just for the fun of it" unless you have carefully planned your schedule until graduation and you are sure that you have room for a fun course. The only exception in this area is that most students can handle a 1-credit physical education or music course without adverse effect on their schedules.

If you are not taking any meteorology courses your first year at FSU, you are still invited to visit our weather map room on the fifth ("roof") floor of the Love Building, open 7 days per week. Outside of business hours, you will need your student ID card to gain entry.

We have a forecasting contest that operates just for fun each Friday afternoon during the fall and spring semester. Those who want more practice with forecasting are invited to participate in the national forecasting contest. For this, you must forecast each Monday through Thursday during the fall and spring semesters.

Foreign Language: The Meteorology Department is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, which requires its students to demonstrate competency in an ancient or modern foreign language. The Meteorology Department does not care what foreign language you choose to satisfy this requirement. Several ways exist to demonstrate competency. If you have no prior experience with a foreign language, you can take three 4-credit courses in a language. A year of high school foreign language is roughly equivalent to a semester of college foreign language. If you did fairly well in one or two years of high school foreign language and it is still fresh in your mind, then you can sign up for the second or third semester of an FSU foreign language course. If you did fairly well in three or more years of high school foreign language and it is still fresh in your mind, you should talk with an FSU faculty member who teaches your foreign language about procedures for trying to test out of the foreign language requirement. The Department of Modern Languages can be reached at 644-3728 . Call the Classics Department (644-4259) regarding Greek, Hebrew, or Latin.