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A new study finds that white students visit academic advisors the least, but have the highest academic benefits, in terms of GPA and graduation rates, compared to non-white students and international students.

In higher education, substantial gaps exist between white and non-white students, with a greater number of white students graduating in fewer years and receiving higher grades than many other groups. Prior research shows that non-white students are less likely to engage with faculty members, but there is a dearth of information related to interactions with academic advisors—staffers who provide guidance related to courses needed for graduation, resources, and career pathways.

"Academics, practitioners, and policymakers alike have purported that academic advising is a powerful mechanism to close some of these gaps and that marginalized students attend advising meetings the least. In many ways, we find the opposite of these arguments," says Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, the study's lead author and associate professor of international education at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

Using 2017–2021 data from a US university with one of the largest undergraduate populations, Cherng and his co-authors analyzed student achievement (grades, graduation rates), demographics (race/ethnicity, income, international status, and first-generation status), and appointments with advisors. They evaluated outcomes for different demographic groups as well as differences within groups.

They found that non-white and international student groups (with the exception of students who identified their race as "other") met with advisors more frequently than white students from the US. Despite meeting with advisors more often, students of color received fewer benefits. For example, white students who had one advising meeting had roughly 0.05 points higher GPAs than their white peers who had no advising meetings, while there were no differences among Latine students. While many groups experienced GPA benefits from advising (with the exception of Latine students), graduation rates were only higher for white students.

In terms of social class, first-generation students were 7% less likely to meet with advisors and less likely to graduate than students whose parents attended college. There were no differences found in outcomes between low- and high-income students.

Their findings are published in Educational Researcher.

"Our study highlights the importance of advising: it does have an impact, but the question now should be for whom," says Cherng. "Efforts should be made to the substance of advising and how advisors work with different groups of students. Only in this way can advising fulfill its purpose as an equalizing force."

This study is co-authored by Junhow Wei, assistant dean for studies, Princeton University, and Martha Moreno, postdoctoral fellow, New York University.