Academic Advising

Students are assigned an Academic Success Coach prior to the start of classes their first semester on campus, and that coach is a resource for the student throughout and often beyond their Lipscomb career. Academic Success Coaches will support the learning process of students by helping them understand the value and benefit of their entire academic program, their major, and by helping students make responsible choices within the framework of a degree program.

You will be assigned an Academic Success Coach based on the major you chose when you applied to Lipscomb. Students who change their major will possibly be assigned a new Academic Success Coach, based on their new major.

Incoming freshmen will receive an email, sent to their Lipscomb email from their Academic Success Coach, the first week of May. You can also find your Academic Success Coach and their contact information on the right side of your Bison Portal.

​​​​​You are required to complete 47 hours of general education hours, based on your major a certain number of major credit hours and then possible elective hours. It can be difficult to navigate your degree plan and take courses that fit your goals.  Meeting with your Academic Success Coach will help you stay on track towards graduation.

​​​​​​The easiest way to schedule a meeting with your Academic Success Coach is to reach out to them via email. Some coaches may prefer to schedule a meeting another way, but if they do, they will reach out to you and make this known.

​​​​​​You can prepare for academic advising by viewing the courses that are being offered and creating a trial schedule for yourself. The class schedule is always on the website. It helps to have an idea of what classes you need to take, so please utilize your Conclusive degree audit.

​​​​​It is required that you look at the course schedule before you meet with your coach? No. Is it highly recommended? Yes! By not looking at the course schedule, your advising meeting will take significantly longer than necessary, and it will make you look unprepared.

​​​​​​You should meet with your coach at least once a semester, but if you would like to meet with them more than that, that would be great! It’s truly just up to you, but you do have to go at least once a semester.

​​​​​To register for classes, you must meet with your Academic Success Coach. After you meet your coach, they will remove the advising hold on your account, and you will be able to register for classes.

​​​​​You can check and see what classes you have left to take by looking at your Conclusive Degree audit on the myLipscomb portal. It will tell you all the classes you have taken as well as all the classes you have left to complete.

​​​​​​If you want to change your major, email academicadvising [at] lipscomb.edu (academicadvising[at]lipscomb[dot]edu).  They will tell you the next steps.

​​​​​​You declare your major by filling out the declaration of major form and turning it into the registrar’s office.

​​​​​You can view programs of study by clicking HERE.

We know how important it is for first-year students to be enrolled in courses well-matched to the student’s academic background and skill level. These courses also help students meet the University’s academic requirements toward graduation.

Your Academic Success Coach creates your fall schedule if you are a new, first-year student. Courses are selected based on intended major, as indicated by the student’s pre-registration questionnaire, placement scores and additional information provided on the pre-registration questionnaire.

Making a change to an assigned first semester freshmen schedule is possible in some limited cases. However, Lipscomb’s academic schedulers have used your submitted information to select the best possible courses that will offer you the opportunity to achieve academic progress toward your degree during your first semester. We encourage you to move forward with the provided schedule.

Many classes will be at seating capacity. The class schedule link is a good resource to review possible available seats in courses. The class schedule will list all classes offered for the upcoming semester, the meeting times for each section and the seat availability for each section (please review seat availability before requesting a change).

You have a registration hold on your account because your schedule is being created for you and will be sent out next month. There is nothing you need to do currently. It will be removed when you come this fall! Keep working on completing your Bison portal checklist and your schedule will be sent soon!

Many class sections are only offered at a specific time for multiple majors. For example, most likely you were placed in an 8 am class because you need it for your degree plan and that class is only offered at 8 am. Courses are selected based on intended major, as indicated by the student’s pre-registration questionnaire, placement scores and additional information provided on the pre-registration questionnaire. In order to maximize your course opportunities particular choices had to be made regarding the times of your scheduled classes

All new freshmen are required to take Lipscomb Experience their first semester. Lipscomb Experience is a discussion-oriented course that introduces students to the intellectual endeavor of liberal arts education from a Christian perspective in small group settings designed to develop mentoring relationships, to provoke important questions, and to facilitate thoughtful discussion.

The Story classes are designed to be taken in order, starting with the Story of Israel. These classes are also designed with Dr. Strahan’s book in mind. When taken out of order, the continuity and flow of the Story is disrupted.

1. Entering students are placed in EN 1113 (Introduction to University Writing). In order to place out of EN 1113 and instead begin with EN 1313 (University Writing), see the options below. 
   
   In order to place directly in to EN 1313, students can:
   1. Submit an AP Literature and Composition or AP Language and Composition of 3, 4 or 5.
   2. Submit an ACT score of 22 or higher (SAT of 560).
   3. Submit a CLEP score of 55 or higher.
   4. Submit transfer or Dual Enrollment credit for an equivalent of EN 1113.
   5. Come in person for a Writing Placement Workshop during NSO, or on May 10 (11am), May 15 (2pm) or May 24 (11am).  Students are required to sign up for these workshops. Students should check in at the Admissions desk for these options.
2. In order to meet the Writing requirements of the General Education Program (and satisfy EN 1113 and EN 1313), students can submit Transfer or Dual Enrollment credit for an equivalent of EN 1313.

You need an ACT score of 21 or higher in math to place into college algebra. You can take intermediate algebra first and then college algebra or you can take the math placement test to see if you can score high enough to go into college algebra.

To be considered a full-time student you must be enrolled in at least 12 semester credit hours. This is important if you need to be full-time for financial aid or health or auto insurance qualifications.

You can check the class schedule to see if there are honors courses available to fit into your schedule, but if not, you can still be an honors student and take your requirements at a later time

Lipscomb’s general education requirements have you take one science class with a lab and one additional math or science class (or math/science integrated class). Past experience has shown that it is best to take it early in the college career, especially if you are not a fan of science.

Your degree plan is a sample plan. You can take it next semester or take two different activity courses instead at some point.