Please contact us by email for advice, information, and appointments. 

Visiting Summer Students must refer to the Visiting Summer Student information. 

Note Regarding Appointments:
Due to the unique schedules and work locations of our Undergraduate Affairs staff, we are unable to accommodate walk-in or last-minute meetings. To ensure availability, please contact us by email at least 1–2 weeks prior to your planned visit to UC San Diego to schedule an appointment.

Electronic advising for incoming FA26 freshman and transfer admitsis available in the New Triton Advising portal (NTA) through the Virtual Advising Center (VAC). Email/phone cannot be used in place of the NTA/VAC. Incoming physics majors will receive a welcome message informing them of important introductory actions they are required to take to prepare for fall quarter enrollment and overall qtr-by-qtr planning. Students who reach out requesting assistance with qtr-by-qtr planning will be referred back to this information. 

Using the "Ask a Question" feature in the Virtual Advising Center (vac.ucsd.edu) is the exclusive way to message the Physics Department advising staff with questions/concerns. You will typically response within 1-3 business days.

During campus closures, academic departments are closed, including department VAC portals. Please submit your message once the VAC re-opens. 

Due to the rollout of the new campus system and the significant malfunctions students and academic units have experienced with it, our department has had to devote substantially more staff time and effort than usual to enrollment management and seeking campus assistance to troubleshoot schedule and enrollment issues. The volume and complexity of this work has required us to make some difficult decisions about how to prioritize our very limited staffing resources.

In fact, we have had to temporarily close advising meetings broadly, including for incoming transfer students who have already been admitted and declared as Physics majors, incoming students who are not Physics majors, and continuing UC San Diego students. This has allowed us to put the full weight of our available staff capacity toward assisting students with enrollment and addressing the issues created by the system rollout.

This has been particularly challenging because our staffing levels are extremely low compared with many other student-facing service departments on campus. We therefore have significantly less capacity to absorb an unexpected increase in enrollment-related workload without temporarily reducing other services.

We recognize that limiting meetings can be frustrating for students, and these decisions are not a reflection of how we value their questions or concerns. Rather, they are necessary measures we have had to take in response to the extraordinary demands created by the new system rollout, so that we can focus our limited staff capacity on helping students navigate enrollment and resolving the issues that are directly affecting their ability to enroll.

For the remainder of Summer Session II, advising meetings will remain closed. Drop-in advising will resume beginning in Week 1 of Fall Quarter, and scheduled advising meetings will resume in Week 3 of Fall Quarter. This schedule will allow us to continue prioritizing the immediate enrollment needs created by the system transition while gradually returning to our regular advising services.

Physics Advising closes in correlation with campus closures, and there are sometimes closures not related to campus closures. When the VAC closes, advising is unavailable (there are no drop-ins or appointments, and VAC messaging is also unavailable). Please take note of upcoming VAC closures: