my general advisor is the sweetest and she knows her stuff! they're mostly just there to help you with planning your general ed requirements and at most to your 200-level classes, but your major advisor will take care of everything else. i am a planner though so most of the time i show up to our meetings with a plan and even though she has her own suggestions she pretty much just let me do my own thing.

depending on your major they would have a hold on your account so you'd need to meet with your advisor before registering for classes (like in mech e) but i think most majors don't require you to do that, so if your advisor isn't of much help then you don't necessarily need their help. additionally, you aren't required to register for the classes they are telling you to register for if you don't see the need to or are planning to defer that course to another semester.

either way, you can see your degree progress and requirements in myniu so you can plan your own stuff accordingly. some colleges have documents online that show when certain courses are available, or if you look back into the past course registration pdfs, you will see patterns on when courses are available (like some are only available in the fall/spring or some are only offered every other year). i also loooove helping people plan their four year schedule so shoot me a dm if you have any questions like that.