<ol>
<li><p>What is a department advisor? As far as I can tell, there is no such thing at the University of Chicago. Maybe in the math department (about which I would have no information) there is. There certainly isn’t in the English Department. A student who writes a BA thesis (which is not mandatory there) gets a BA thesis advisor, but there is never any departmental advisor. The separate advising staff is what there is. (Not a good thing, IMO.)</p></li>
<li><p>There is, however, a separate medical professions advisor, who talks to students about meeting medical school admissions requirements and the like. I think there are some other specialized advisors, too.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, the advisors have placement exam results when they meet with the students individually.</p></li>
<li><p>Others have clearly had a better experience, but my kids haven’t gotten a lot of value out of their advisors (and it’s been a revolving door for my older child’s advisors). Mainly, they make certain a student has a plan for completing the core, for choosing a major, and for meeting major requirements. My son’s advisor helped him thing through honors vs. non-honors math and science. A bit. Not a lot of depth in the advising, that I’ve seen.</p></li>
<li><p>I have no idea how departmental approval works first quarter of first year. If I were the student, I would take responsibility for getting it before meeting with the advisor. Students other than first years are already registered for courses by the time the first years register.</p></li>
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<p>My guess is that your son’s advisor will look at his plan and push back some. They have been recommending that students take both Hum and Sosc first year (they used to tell them to wait until second year for Sosc). The advisor may tell him he’s nuts to take both Honors Analysis and an upper-level math course. But I doubt the advisor will make a serious attempt to stop him if he’s thought things through and has departmental approval. (The department could push back, too.)</p>