This research study examined the developmental and prescriptive academic advising preferences of two Texas community first-time-in-college (FTIC) students. For more than 100 years, higher education institutions have employed academic advisors to undertake meaningful interactions with students to assist with their academic progress. Their…

Student mental health issues on college and university campuses may affect not only the students but also a wider constituency across campus. The researcher utilized relational cultural theory (RCT), a theory rooted in mental health counseling, as a framework for the study. This study examined how the severity of mental health issues or symptoms…

Higher education institutions (HEIs) in the United States and around the world were forced to change many of their practices in response to the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Academic advisors at HEIs played a critical role in support of student retention before the pandemic and continued to do so during that crisis. The NACADA…

Getting a head start on college coursework in high school has become an even more important goal for high school students in recent years, due in part to the rising costs of obtaining traditional four-year college degrees coupled with the disruptions in learning for high school and college students due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now more than ever,…

Honours programmes have successfully provided academic rigour, special scholarships, and better career prospects over a century. However, recruiting and retaining these exceptional students -- the key to creating a successful honours programme -- becomes more challenging when the national college enrolment declines significantly every year. Hence…

One function of modern education has been to prepare students for future college and/or career pathways. Particular attention in the US is given to preparation in STEM career fields. However, we may not be effective in advising students towards some STEM careers. This qualitative interview study evaluates the perspectives of stakeholders in…

This study aims to develop a comprehensive HEI choice intention (CI) model to understand how social influence (SI), brand equity (BE), and HEI factors influence attitude toward HEI (HEIA) as well as how the HEI attitude is a mediator of the relationship of these variables with the HEI CI. Data collected from 1633 high school seniors via online…

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) conducts annual demographic data collection for all medical school applicants and matriculants, revealing a concerning trend of underrepresentation of minority groups. Among these, the data from 2018 to 2023 showed a low underrepresentation of Latine women, with only a 3% representation among…

This is the text of the keynote address for the 2018 NACADA Annual Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. The author discusses two main epistemologies in academic advising research and practice, and argues that both positivist epistemologies and constructivist epistemologies should be available to practitioners and researchers.

The Independent Transfer Pathways in North Carolina Project served as a catalyst in forging a culture of cooperation between community colleges and independent colleges and universities in North Carolina by creating a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between the two systems. The project focused on developing discipline-specific articulation…

This study examined whether there are statistically significant relationships between academic advisors' demographic characteristics, advising-related variables, institutional variables, organizational context variables, and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used a national sample of academic advisors' survey data collected from February to…

The population of Latinx students at colleges and universities in the United States who have received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is large and growing. The literature shows that these students face unique challenges at the intersection of being DACA and Latinx (e.g., racial/ethnic discrimination and microaggressions,…

A study of hidden risks, anxieties and barriers to STEM student transfer from community college to a large, comprehensive university is presented. This qualitative study employed a thematic analysis of student responses to a semi-structured interview that asked students about their hesitancy to transfer to a 4-year institution. Participants…

Doctoral advising is a complex process. In times of uncertainty, doctoral programs offer a unique opportunity for advisors to embrace a new pedagogical and intersectional role.

As academic advisors help students navigate academic challenges toward a degree, seemingly mundane interactions have the potential to shape students' beliefs about themselves and their abilities. This study examines whether subtle cues within messages from advisors may help students develop what Carol Dweck calls a growth mindset--the belief that…