The Psychology Department Model Advisement Procedure: A Comprehensive, Systematic Approach to Career Development Advisement

The MAP (Model Advisement Procedure) is a comprehensive, systematic approach to developmental student advisement. The MAP was implemented to improve advisement consistency, improve student preparation for internships/senior projects, increase career exploration, reduce career uncertainty, and, ultimately, improve student satisfaction with the post-graduate preparation offered by the program. The MAP structures each advisement session with a set of advisement questions, handouts, activities to complete between advisement sessions, and a place to record information for future advisement sessions. The present report is intended to describe the development of the MAP and the resources it offers. Further, we report on preliminary post-implementation assessment of the new advisement procedures. Although the effects were largely non-significant, the results indicated that students’ career exploration was more likely to be the result of the encouragement of advisors after the implementation of the MAP. Moreover, narrative data indicate that students are pleased with the new advisement procedures and the information/tools provided to them.