Reflecting the conference theme, a brief history of NACADA is presented and personal vignettes shared to lay the foundation for understanding the organization's role at the turn of the century. Specifically addressed are the characteristics of tomorrow's students and evolving issues in higher education—including the role of faculty and information technology—that affect advising. Futurists predictions for meeting the challenges of the changing education environment conclude the presentation.

The authors examine the O'Banion model of academic advising before presenting a variation of it that is both nonlinear and holistic. Applying O'Banion's five dimensions— a) exploration of life goals, b) exploration of vocational goals, c) program choice, d) course choice, and e) scheduling options—to two case studies, the authors demonstrate how an advisor and advisee may cover all aspects of the O'Banion model in a natural, fluid manner.

Multicultural competence, defined as an understanding of international business and social relations plus the attitudes, skills, and special knowledge necessary to apply it, is identified as an emerging component of human capital in the global economy. This article documents the growing demand for multicultural competence, describes the course content and advisor activities that have been recommended to develop this capacity, and comments on the limits and inherent dangers of providing multicultural exposure to everyone. The article also identifies new roles, such as that of a “culture broker,” which characterize the global economy. Academic advisors are urged to help students maximize their human capital by adding multicultural competence skills as part of their formal education.

The admission interview is the primary means that medical schools use to determine whether applicants possess the personal characteristics suitable for medical practice. In preparation for the interview, prospective students should be able to explain why they chose medicine as a profession and relate experiences that helped them confirm their interests. They should be aware of the economic and ethical atmosphere in which medicine is practiced and should recognize challenges that this environment presents to the profession. Applicants should display good communication skills in their interactions with the interviewers and convey interest in, familiarity with, and enthusiasm about the school where they are interviewing.

This study allowed us to determine differences in advisors' attitudes toward students who matriculate at their 4-year institutions (native students), students who transfer from community colleges, and those that come from other 4-year institutions. Results show that advisors view transfer students to be less prepared, less motivated, less knowledgeable about requirements and procedures, and less able to adjust to the upper-division academic environment. Potential consequences of advisors' attitudes are discussed along with suggested avenues for addressing them.

This article is a summary of federal regulations relating to academic advising. Issues covered include defamation, negligence, privacy, disabilities, civil rights, duty to report crimes, and privilege. Relevant state laws, interpretations, hypothetical situations, and the possible institutional and personal penalties—both civil and criminal—for not following the current laws are presented.

Human capital, defined as any individual characteristic that contributes to worker productivity, has been presented as a unifying theme for academic advising in higher education (Shaffer, 1997). An approach to calculating the true costs of a college education is presented as an exercise to maximize students' human capital. When considering college expenses, students usually overlook opportunity cost: that is, the income forgone while they are pursuing degrees. In addition to a true-cost calculation worksheet, the paper presents a strategy for making true costs salient to students: projecting the number of years needed for college graduates to recoup their investments. The article closes with suggestions for using the true-cost exercise in academic advising.