"Everyone gets a fair shot with the concentration advising system, [whereas] it's sort of random among [first-years]," she says. "It's as if they don't know what to do with them."

Nathans says that she "worries a great deal" about the difficulty first-years have in connecting with Faculty in departments of interest

The notion that first-years don't need Faculty interaction is "a demeaning idea," Nathans says. "Faculty should not slough off younger students."

Like Brown and Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania tries to connect first-years with faculty. Dianne D. Frey, director of academic advising at Penn, says that the university recently changed its advising system for incoming students to improve faculty involvement.

Faculty members are given a $1,500 research stipend to compensate them for their involvement in the program.

In addition, they are now linked with students for their first two years, until they are "handed off" to their major. Moreover, Frey says that fewer assistant professors will be involved in the program and that no non-academic university affiliates will participate.

"We want some control over the advice they're giving," she says.