College Advisor turn outs
 

I've been on a college run robotics team for the past 3 years. While growing with this team I have notice one big problem which seems to be the lack of turn out from college students as advisors. I've talked to some advisors to see as to why they aren't commig back, and its not that they hate the team (THEY LOVE US) but its the fact the FIRST takes up soo much time during the year and on top of that they usually have a bunch of homework. The team I'm from get a lot of veterans who were on teams in high school and understand that FIRST takes a lot of time and deadication. I guess my main point of this thread is are other college runned team having the same problems and what are those other teams doing to work it out?

We offer a class (in the Fall) and a lab (in the Spring) which give our college students academic credit for their participation.

We've started to discuss how to package the tasks that the college students do into smaller roles (outside the class). Students who don't have that much time but who want to do an excellent job can be more focussed.

The way I see it, FIRST not only takes up a lot of your time but also a lot of energy during the school year for students. It's kind of funny, but to some people, that doesn't matter... and to some, it does.

It just depends on the person and what they think is their personal limit. Otherwise, FIRST would take up your entire life.

Exactly. I am going to join a team when i get to the Chicago area - and put in all the time I can - but I don't know how much time that will be. (I hope ALOT!) It'll be something new. First off - I'm going to be renting an appartment down there to stay (school is so small they don't have dorms) and I am going to have to get a job down there...

Plus you never know who I will run into down there...

I'm the kind of student who (even at the college level) likes to get to know his teachers. I get to class early, stay late, and meet them during office hours to discuss recent material or just current events. My professors during the spring semester find out about my involvment in FIRST very quickly and are usually sympathetic. I manage to get some leeway on homework assignments towards the end of the build season. Also, I can usually rechedule any test I would be missing by attending a competiton.