Mentoring Scenario 5 Discussion

There are several factors to consider in this scenario. The first is the courses that you elect to take during your first term. Your options are: 

• Accept the placement because you don’t want people to think you can’t handle the graduate work.
   
• Insist on taking some advanced undergraduate courses your first term to check your preparation.
   
• Try a combination of graduate and undergraduate classes, focusing the undergraduate work in areas where you doubt your preparation. 

Which option you pick depends on your preparation. It is important to realize that you are in charge of what happens to you.

Two of the ethical concerns in mentoring are recruiting students under false or incomplete pretenses and making sure that student responsibilities are substantive and appropriate.

Points that an Outside Observer Might Raise
Two of the ethical concerns in mentoring are recruiting students under false or incomplete pretenses and making sure that student responsibilities are substantive and appropriate. The questions an outside observer could raise regarding the departmental behavior are: 

• When this student was accepted, did the admissions committee discuss her deficient background?
   
• Why was she accepted with a poor background?
   
• Is the student a member of a minority group and the acceptance tokenism?
   
• The student was given a scholarship. Was this in recognition of her need to spend more time on classwork than others?
   
• Is this department being pushed by the institution to enroll more underrepresented students?
   
• Do the first-year counselors regard the students they counsel as individuals to help or as a burdensome service assignment? This scenario is challenging in that it represents an aspect of advising fairly realistically.
   
• How do we know if a student is underprepared?

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