As a student, I swear by my paper planner. Everyone has a system, and mine is a floral planner from Target that I use to track my homework, student orgs, meetings, and work. But even when armed with a host of color-coding pens and post-it notes, sometimes things fall through the cracks, and that’s where my advisors come in.

Each Northwestern student ends up with around 5-7 advisors – sometimes students jokingly compete for who can have the most by graduation – and I’m no exception. I have a Weinberg advisor, a Neuroscience advisor for my major, a Theatre advisor for my minor, a career advisor, a pre-med advisor, and I’m pretty sure someone in the Office of Research and Fellowships is looking out for me. Like all Northwestern students, I also had a first year advisor, who helped me with my college transition.

Both my formally-assigned advisors and the professors who have informally advised me along the way have been amazing resources. I try to meet with my advisors at least once a year, except for my pre-med advisor Mel, who I see more often. Most of the advising offices have drop-in hours where you can stop by with short questions, but you can also book appointments online. In order to meet with Mel, I just go online, enter in my schedule for the next week, and it matches my schedule with Mel’s schedule for an appointment time!

As I finished my junior year this spring I met with three of my advisors. We looked over what classes I have left before graduation and which quarter I’ll take each class. Even though I didn’t decide on my major until the end of my sophomore year, I’ll still be a part time student my last two quarters, which will be perfect as I take the MCAT and send in my med school apps.

When Mel and I met, we talked with about classes, the MCAT, med school applications, which professors I might ask for letters of recommendation, and what I could do during my gap year. But most importantly, she reassured me that I’m going to get where I want to go, and I’m going to be okay. I won’t lie – as a Northwestern student and especially as a pre-med student, I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well and get good grades, and on occasion, this pressure leads me down a rabbit hole of freaking out. But whenever that happens, I know I can go to Mel or any of my other advisors and they’ll help me plan, point me to resources, and reassure me that I’ll be okay, which is sometimes what I need most.