Seeking advice: An exploratory analysis of how often first-year students meet with advisors

Abstract

While it is well understood that academic advising helps students adjust to and deal with the challenges of college, little is known about what influences the extent of their interactions with advisors. Using data from 52,546 full-time, first-year students at a diverse set of 209 institutions, we examined how often students met with academic advisors, and how this varies by student and institutional characteristics. We find that the typical first-year student met with an advisor one to three times during their first college year. However, the number of meetings varied across student subpopulations and institution types. Findings aim to inform wider discussions about academic advising and student support on college campuses.