1. The University of Texas at Arlington
Creating a Bridge for High-Achieving Students: A discussion about high-achievers, pointers for advisors, and creating an advising flux capacitor.
Emmanuel Garcia , PhD
Rebekah Chojnacki, M.A.
The University of Texas at Arlington
NACADA, St. Louis, MO
October 13, 2017

2. The University of Texas at Arlington
Total campus enrollment: 41,715 students
Largest First-Year class in school history: 3, % increase from 2016
65% graduate Top 25 percent in their high school class
261 students accepted in to Honors College - 60% increase from 2016
28.6% Hispanic / 15.5% African American

3. Buckle Up…!

4. Who is a High Achieving Student?

7. Back to the Past

8. Literature Review
Perfectionism as a problem (Parker, 1995; Neumeister 2004; Dickinson, 2015)
Dougherty (2007) – population overlooked. Poor study habits from high school. High levels of pressure. Atmosphere of indifference and assumption? Research is scarce.
Low grades shock ego and identity of population (Honken & Ralston 2013)
Limitations: Honors Colleges, Caucasian, First-Year, small samples (Neumeister, 2004; Rice et al, 2006; Del Siegle et al, 2009; Dickinson, 2015)

9. Admitted Students Day Now known as Maverick Jumpstart
Initiative to attract local high-achieving students with early enrollment
students-day/ June 1, 2016
2016 – 84 students
2017 – 135 students

10. Building Our Flux Capacitor

11. University College Scholars

12. Recruiting criteria for Fall 2016

13. GPA Pools Fall 2013: 729 students - 3.35+ GPA; 663 – 3.5+ GPA
Previous datasets:
Fall 2013: 729 students GPA; 663 – 3.5+ GPA
Fall 2014: 761 students GPA; 622 – 3.5+ GPA
Fall 2015: 799 students GPA; 672 – 3.5+ GPA
First semester dataset:
Fall 2016: SAT 1270/ACT 27 – 549 students
Second semester dataset:
Spring 2017: 696 students GPA; 585 – 3.5+ GPA;

14. 3 workshops with free pizza Introduction to workshop series
Fall 2016
3 workshops with free pizza
Introduction to workshop series
Undergraduate research student panel
Honors College and McNair Scholars

15. 3 workshops with free pizza Service Learning Matching major to passion
Spring 2017
3 workshops with free pizza
Service Learning
Matching major to passion
Reflection/feedback

16. Results Out of 51 students GPA stayed above 3.0 – 42
GPA from 2.0+ to (INT)
UCOL to INT - 21
Declared major - 3

17. Consistency with scheduling/location Timing of contact
What have we learned?
Planning for success
Expanding the net
Consistency with scheduling/location
Timing of contact
Connecting with students

18. Wanted student mentors Fighting for student attention
Roadblocks
Wanted student mentors
Fighting for student attention
More departmental participation (swag bags )
Target audience – initial attendees all STEM
Student burnout/disappointment (1st semester crash)

19. STUDENT FEEDBACK
Information was supplemental
Helped with knowing where to focus
Gets students to explore
Snowballs
Encouragement to keep looking for resources

20. Back to the Future

21. Undergraduate Research Showcase Week
New Initiative
Undergraduate Research Showcase Week
University College Scholars – Year 2

22. Reviewing our ACT/SAT Guidelines

23. Working with student mentors! Training new advisors
This Year’s
Working with student mentors!
Training new advisors
Building resource binder – contact us if interested!

24. Collaboration/Networking
Interested in collaborating?

25. References
Del Siegle, L. D. R., Pollard, E., & Romey, E. (2009). Exploring the Relationship of College Freshman Honors Students’ Effort and Ability Attribution, Interest, and Implicit Theory of Intelligence with Perceived Ability. Gifted Child Quarterly, 54(2),
Dickinson, M. J., & Dickinson, D. A. (2015). Practically perfect in every way: can reframing perfectionism for high-achieving undergraduates impact academic resilience? Studies in Higher Education, 40(10), doi: /
Dougherty, S. (2007). Academic advising for high-achieving college students. Higher Education in Review, 4,
Honken, N. B., & Ralston, P. S. (2013). High-Achieving High School Students and Not So High-Achieving College Students: A Look at Lack of Self-Control, Academic Ability, and Performance in College. Journal Of Advanced Academics, 24(2), doi: / X

26. References, ContINUEd
Neumeister, K. L. S. (2004). Understanding the relationship between perfectionism and achievement motivation in gifted college students. Gifted child quarterly, 48(3),
Parker, W. D., & Adkins, K. K. (1995). The Incidence of Perfectionism in Honors and Regular College Students. Journal Of Secondary Gifted Education, 7(1),
Rice, K. G., Leever, B. A., Christopher, J., & Porter, J. D. (2006). Perfectionism, stress, and social (dis) connection: A short-term study of hopelessness, depression, and academic adjustment among honors students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(4), 524.