The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 41, No. 2 & Volume 42, No. 1 - 224

stitutions, are at various levels of class standing,
and have widely differing amounts of cultural
capital to help them (McDonough, 1994).
Because students often lose credits in the
transfer process (i.e., credit leakage), register last (often after returning and ﬁrst-year
students), and often need to declare a major
immediately, accurate and timely academic advising and guidance is critical to their success
(Bradley, 2014; Grites & Farina, 2012). Bahr
(2008) stresses the importance of the advising role, stating that "the levels to which advisors are available to students, actually meet
with them, and provide them with assistance
and support are clearly linked to factors demonstrated to predict student success" (p. 51).
When students do not receive help from an
academic advisor, they often rely on their peers
for this guidance, which can place them at
greater risk for not progressing or even persisting. Transfer students need to receive advising

As seniors transition from the
role of students to alumni,
colleges and universities
work to transfer that sense of
community from the campus to
the institution at large. Campus
rituals and traditions can help
connect seniors with current
alumni and their alma mater by
providing a sense of continuity.
224

prior to and after the point of transfer (Flaga,
2006; Owens, 2010).
Academic advising for seniors is also
critical to ensure that they are on track for
graduation (Hunt et al., 2012) and to provide
resources and support for transitioning to a
career or graduate school (Hunter et al., 2012).
Since some students do not utilize formal
campus career services (Yazedjian et al., 2010),
academic advisors can serve as liaisons or
catalysts to ensure that seniors are taking advantage of the career counseling, on-campus
recruiting, career preparation workshops, and
online career management systems that are
commonly offered to assist them with this
transition (Imbimbo et al., 2005).

Implications for Residence Life and
Housing Professionals
Since academic advising and career planning
are signiﬁcant concerns for students in transition, interventions and programs aimed at
bringing advising centers into residence halls
are natural ways for those in student affairs
to partner (Nutt, 2003). A high percentage of
college students fail to take advantage of traditional advising services (NSSE, 2013), in spite
of the fact that they can greatly beneﬁt from
it. Far too often students fail to see the signiﬁcant opportunities for learning, guidance, and
growth that can take place through academic
advising (Light, 2001). Some institutions such
as Kansas State University and the University
of Georgia have created intentional partnerships with academic advising. In the program
at Miami University in Ohio, ﬁrst-year student
advisors live in residence halls where they can
more naturally discuss topics related to major
choices and career goals (Acheson & Rybski,

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING
The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 41, No. 2 & Volume 42, No. 1

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