O’Banion’s model considers academic advising as a process of helping students self explore their personal and academic abilities and future career goals. The model looks at the task of major and course selection as a procedural and developmental process. For students to effectively develop a comprehensive and meaningful degree plan that addresses their academic and professional career goals, they need to be engaged in some type of a sequential process where students are advised to self explore their potentials and life goals. The key factors in this model are self-awareness, current educational plans and career awareness. This model considers one of the main goals of academic advising to be in helping students self-explore their life goals and make a desired link between their professional goals and the world of work (see figure 1).

Feature of the Descriptive Model

Figure 1