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The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal Reaching beyond Academics in Academic Advising Cornelius K. Gilbert and Earlise C. Ward, University of Wisconsin Whether it is one mile away or a thousand miles away, going to college, particularly at a four-year institution, can be a very exciting yet anxious time, especially for first-year students. Unfortunately, experience has taught us that many first-year students, particularly within the first semester, do not realize that going away to college requires a shedding of skin or a transformation from their previous high school mentality and lifestyle. The situations and decision-making that students experience in college, whether academic or personal, are often radically different than the circumstances they experienced in high school—making it safe to conclude that a first-year student, especially during the first semester, is still in the mindset of a high school student. Many of these students simply do not realize that the college experience is radically different than high school. Therefore, when first-semester students step onto their respective college campuses, they have not made the necessary adjustments from their previous high school habits, lifestyles, and mentalities. However, when they eventually do make these personal adjustments from high school to college, very often they experience confusion and stress. Stressors can include but certainly are not limited to their new living arrangements/environments and, perhaps most notably, the pressure they can face from family and peers concerning their academics—primarily, feeling pressure to decide upon a major course of study. Pressure can become a student's reality when he or she is habitually encountered with ordinary questions that are benign in intent. For example, queries such as “What is your major?” or “What do you plan to study?” can be internalized by students, especially when they accept the erroneous notion that a major equals a career or one's life goals. These students fail to realize that the stress they are experiencing is transitional. Academic advisers should assist in this transitional period. Advisers should know and share with their students, in required first-year individual and group advising sessions, that this type of stress is positive. Positive stress (eustress) is described as the kind of stress that motivates and satisfies our need for stimulation and challenge. Positive stress promotes personal and professional growth and general self-improvement (Corey & Corey, 2002). If students are able to identify their stress as positive, then their level of anxiety and confusion is reduced, and they can proceed in a healthy adjustment to college life. Within these initial advising sessions, advisers should give attention to the challenges students face during the transition from high school to college. Wichita State University conducted a survey of the top ten issues students had in adjusting to college life (“Top Ten Issues”). They are adapted here, in order of importance:
While elucidating on the GPA, advisers should introduce the concept that Bickham asserts in Why Seniors Wish They Were Freshmen: The Impact of First Year Grade Point Average. In his presentation, Bickham emphasizes how important it is to establish a strong and desirable GPA within the first semester. He points out that students who start with a strong or desirable GPA have a higher likelihood of graduating with a strong or desirable GPA, even if they encounter some academic difficulty between the first semester and the last. This information is important to share with incoming students because, as Bickham states, “After speaking to students and professionals in higher education I've learned that educating students on [the impact and the importance of their first-semester GPA] is almost non-existent” (Bickham, 2003). With all of the stress that students can experience in coming to college, the transition from high school to college and the overall college experience provides a forum for young adults to develop their identities. Hence, questions of academics do not solely comprise the first-year experience. Students will be confronted with both academic and personal adversities that will challenge them. When faced with adversity, these first-semester college students will, no doubt, discover more about themselves because part of the college experience is about self-exploration and self-realization. However, during this development, it is not only the collective self that is developed. During this stage, college students very often incorporate into their personal sense of self other identities, such as a cultural identity, a social identity, or even a career identity. When the student is able to incorporate these identities into one, it then becomes a central self-identity or an integrated personal identity. The sense of self that one develops should represent his or her uniqueness or individuality and should be incorporated in the process of deciding on a major. Oftentimes college students focus so much on academics that they neglect other psychosocial aspects of their lives. These aspects include social relationships (significant others, parents, and friends), environment (students are not conscious that they need time to adapt to a new environment), physical health (students often do not exercise or practice relaxation to help relieve their academic stress and frustrations), and religion and spirituality (students may not focus on gaining support from their pastor, minister, or place of worship). If students are able to also focus on these areas, they will find that they are able to manage their academic responsibilities more effectively. Though the “current buzzwords in academic advising include developmental advising and developing the whole person” (Bates, 2003, para. 1), academic advisers must assist students with the details of being in college. More often than not, assisting with the details means fulfilling an ethical requirement of responsibility to do no harm to students who trust academic advisers for accurate information regarding their academics and graduation (Bates, 2003; Frank, 2000). However, assisting with the details must also include the crucial task of helping students to address the psychosocial issues that they encounter. In summary, this paper highlights the importance of integrating transitional issues, which typically relate to social and personal concerns and pressures, into academic advising. This integration is necessary because, even though the area of academic advising is limited to academics, it is important for advisers to attend to psychosocial issues that may affect students' academic performance and to educate students about these issues. Once students are informed, they have a better understanding of how to improve their academic performance, especially if it means benefiting from personal counseling at the college's counseling center. They are then better able to make informed choices. References Bates, S. D. (2003, August 1). Don't forget the details: A call for balance in academic advising. The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal, 6(1). Retrieved October 3, 2003, from http://www.psu.edu/dus/mentor. Bickham, C. T. (2003). www.grade-pointaverage.com. Retrieved October 13, 2003, from http://www.grade-pointaverage.com. Corey, G., & Corey, M. S. (2002). I never knew I had a choice: Explorations in personal growth. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Frank, K. S. (2000). Ethical consideration and obligations. In V. Gordon & W. Habley (Eds.), Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook (pp.44–57). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Top ten issues identified by students. Retrieved September 27, 2003, from Wichita State University, Letters and Sciences Academic Adviser's Handbook Web site: http://advising.wichita.edu/lasac/pubs/aah/trans.htm. Additional Resources Ellemers, N., Spears, R., & Doosje, B. (2002). Self and social identity. Annual Review of Psychology: Self and Social Identity. Retrieved October 9, 2003, from http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0961/2002_Annual/83789644/print.jhtml. Guanipa-Ho, C., & Guanipa, J. A. Ethnic identity and adolescence. Retrieved September 27, 2003, from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/CGuanipa/ethnic.htm. About the Authors Cornelius K. Gilbert is an associate academic adviser at the University of Wisconsin in the Cross College Advising Service. He can be reached at cgilbert@lssaa.wisc.edu or 608-265-5460. Earlise C. Ward is post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Wisconsin Center for Women's Health Research. She can be reached at ecward@wisc.edu or 608-262-9228. Published in The Mentor on December 19, 2003, by Penn State's Division of Undergraduate Studies Available online at www.psu.edu/dus/mentor/ Privacy and Legal Statements | Copyright | © The Pennsylvania State University | All rights reserved | |