UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An analysis of academic advising at Penn State revealed significant improvements for students facing academic difficulties who attended multiple advising appointments. Data from a spring 2025 study conducted by the Division of Undergraduate Studies at the University Park campus indicated that academic advising meetings are a key tool in helping students recover from academic challenges.
When a student’s cumulative GPA drops below 2.0, University policy stipulates steps that are intended to help students stop a slide toward ineligibility to graduate and implement academic recovery strategies. Students enter academic warning when their cumulative GPA dips below 2.0. If a student earns less than a 2.0 semester GPA while on academic warning, they will be put on academic suspension, preventing them from registering for courses for two semesters. Since students must attain at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA to graduate, academic warning and suspension are intended to function as a safety mechanism to keep students from hurting their GPA too badly and making graduation too difficult to obtain.
“An advising meeting allows a student and academic adviser to collaboratively identify barriers the student has faced in the past,” said David R. Smith, associate dean for advising and executive director of the Division of Undergraduate Studies. “Together, they can chart a path for the student that helps them to set academic goals and address academic challenges in the future. An adviser can also steer students away from less ideal enrollment choices, such as registering for too many classes or courses that don’t contribute to their academic progress.”
According to the spring 2025 study conducted by Janet Schulenberg, senior director of the Division of Undergraduate Studies, University Park students who entered academic warning after their first semester and met with an academic adviser were significantly more likely to earn a spring semester GPA of 2.0 or higher and avoid academic suspension:
- Among fall 2024 admitted students who did not engage with an adviser while in academic warning, only 13% earned a 2.0 or better semester GPA.
- Of those who had one or two advising meetings while in academic warning, 35% earned a 2.0 or better semester GPA.
- The biggest improvement came for students who met with an adviser three or four times while in academic warning, with a success rate between 50 and 55 percent.
The data has held true over time, with similar results dating back to when Schulenberg began tracking these outcomes in spring 2023.
“These results reinforce that academic advising conversations are a key tool in helping students recover from academic challenges,” Smith said. “Creating a safe space for students to reflect on their challenges is critical to identifying and developing new habits that can better support academic success.”
Schulenberg said that many of the largest gains in the academic recovery data are in areas of the University that have strategically prioritized early relationship building between academic advisers and their students and setting expectations for adviser outreach, as these areas tend to see a larger percentage of their students.
“For example,” Schulenberg said, “the Division of Undergraduate Studies at University Park met with 99% of their fall 2024 admitted students in academic warning during spring 2025. At University Park, investment in professional advising for first-year students has been more common overall, and 88% of all fall 2024 admitted students in academic warning met with an adviser at least once. In contrast, only 63% of fall 2024 admitted students in academic warning met with an adviser at least once University-wide.”
These differences in the prioritization of academic advising across colleges and campuses have a downstream effect on academic recovery rates, Schulenberg said.
Academic improvement success plan implemented
Starting in spring 2024, the Division of Undergraduate Studies sought to scale up best practices identified in the data by piloting an academic improvement success plan in Starfish to guide students out of academic warning and suspension.
The success plan incorporated processes showing success in the Division of Undergraduate Studies at University Park, Eberly College of Science, College of Health and Human Development and Penn State Brandywine. Subsequently, the success plan has been adopted by Penn State Altoona, Penn State Harrisburg, The College of the Liberal Arts and several other campuses.
Carolyn Jensen, director of the Eberly College of Science Advising Center, and her two-person team work specifically with students who are trying to recover from entering academic warning or academic suspension. The plan includes student self-reflection and a collaboratively built action plan that helps the student address the specific challenges that inhibited their academic success. Students in the Eberly College of Science in academic warning must meet with an academic recovery specialist multiple times and complete a self-evaluation survey.
Jensen said her team tries to identify deeper issues of motivation and concentration. The recovery specialists discuss a range of things, including adjusting to college, personal issues, study skills, time management, obstacles and fears. Once they’ve discussed motivation, recovery specialists work with students to identify some goals and create a plan to get back on track. That can sometimes mean referrals to other campus resources, such as when a student is presenting as depressed or admits to substance abuse issues. But one thing Jensen said she rarely accepts is that the student can’t make it academically.
“Once they've been admitted to Penn State, we’ve sort of said that they can make it, right?” Jensen said. “If you are admitted, Penn State is acknowledging that you will be successful in finishing your degree. So, in my eyes, it's up to us as an institution to help these students meet their potential.”
That isn’t to say a student is always up to the challenge of the major they initially picked, Jensen said, but there is a program out there for them. She said she has seen many students who were in academic warning go on to be successful at Penn State.
The practices of advisers from the Eberly College of Science and other advising units with similar academic recovery interventions informed the structure of the success plan, with Starfish as a key part of the intervention. Starfish success plans clearly lay out expectations for students and academic advisers for the academic recovery process. Advisers also use Starfish to track recovery efforts, schedule appointments, identify emergent concerns and connect students with support.
Erin M. Shumac, academic advising and success advocacy supervisor for Penn State Altoona, onboarded academic advisers at the campus to the new success plan. She said it has provided a more structured approach to supporting students.
“The plans reinforce best practices and effectively document the important work advisers were already doing,” Shumac said. “Also, students engaging with the success plans have become more familiar with Starfish as a whole, leading to increased awareness of other key features, such as faculty-submitted progress indicators. The structured approach has also increased adviser-student interactions, which has been an essential factor in academic improvement and retention efforts.”
Peter Moran, associate dean for policy and planning at Penn State Altoona, has already seen significant gains at the campus from the new approach.
“We have been very pleased with the results,” he said. “In the upcoming year, Penn State Altoona looks to build out student support programming using the Academic Improvement Success Plan function in Starfish. We appreciate participating in this effort with our colleagues across the University.”
Shumac, along with Daniel Mercado and Adrianne Lindeman from Penn State Harrisburg, recently presented on the Starfish success plans at the 2025 Penn State Conference on Academic Advising. Since implementing the success plan, from spring 2023 to spring 2024:
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The number of students in academic warning who met with an adviser at least once increased from 38% to 60% at Penn State Altoona and from 78% to 84% at Penn State Harrisburg.
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The number of students in academic warning who earned the necessary term GPA above a 2.0 increased from 28% to 52% at Penn State Altoona and from 28% to 54% at Penn State Harrisburg.
As of fall 2025, their data showed 89% of students who engaged with the academic improvement success plan were able to enroll the next semester compared to 62% of all students in academic warning.
Those who want to explore creating a Starfish academic improvement success plan for their college or campus should reach out to the Penn State Starfish team at starfish@psu.edu.
Starfish progress surveys and academic recovery
Starfish midsemester progress surveys, open now through Wednesday, Oct. 22, work in concert with Starfish academic improvement success plans and are an important way for instructors to support the process of academic recovery.
Receiving a flag can send a stronger signal to those working with students in or near academic warning that they may need additional outreach and support. For example, an academic adviser or recovery specialist can use Starfish filters to identify students in academic warning who have been flagged as in danger of earning less than a C in a class and have incomplete steps in their academic improvement success plan.
On the other hand, if a student in warning status receives kudos for strong academic performance, this can encourage students who have made steps toward academic recovery to continue along this trajectory. Academic advisers and recovery specialists can also use this information to reinforce positive changes to student learning strategies.
Instructors and teaching assistants formally listed as instructors of record for full-semester undergraduate courses in LionPATH will be prompted via email to share information about students’ course progress, open from Oct. 6 through Oct. 22.
To learn more about Starfish at Penn State, visit starfish.psu.edu. The Division of Undergraduate Studies is part of Penn State Undergraduate Education.