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.