Helping First-Year Students Make the Transition to College through Advisor-Researcher Collaboration

Abstract

Most information advisors receive about first-year advisees pertains to students' academic achievement and high school courses. To assist students effectively with the transition to college, advisors need additional information. We describe a collaborative process used to develop a prematriculation, academic motivation instrument that provides important information for academic advisors and the whole institution. The collaborators included academic advisors, institutional research personnel, and a faculty member from the School of Education, all working together to create the instrument, examine its psychometric properties, and make decisions about how to use the data. The instrument shows promise as predictor of academic success in the early college years and could potentially assist advisors in identifying first-year students at risk for academic difficulties.Relative emphasis: * research, theory, practice