Using Narrative Career Counseling With the Underprepared College Student

An increasing number of students enter college underprepared. These students do not have the academic skills to take college-level courses and are placed in remedial classes. Career counseling can help underprepared college students make educated career decisions based on their current situations. This article explores the characteristics of underprepared college students, examines career-related issues these students face, and reviews the literature on narrative career counseling. The life design method is applied to a case example of an underprepared college student to demonstrate how to best serve the needs of these students.Keywords: underprepared students, career counseling, narrative career counselingAn increasing number of students enter college underprepared (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2010b), lacking the academic skills to take college-level courses, so they are placed in remedial courses. Remedial courses prepare these students to take college-level course work in math, writing, and reading (NCES, 2003). Underprepared students face challenges such as a longer time to graduate and financial pressures (Kolajo, 2004; Palmer, Davis, & Hilton, 2009). These students also struggle with career decision making (Lease, 2004) and exhibit a lack of help-seeking behaviors (Palmer et al., 2009). These characteristics combined with other cultural groups that remedial students often represent, such as lower socioeconomic status (SES; Attewell, Lavin, Domina, & Levey, 2006), minority status (NCES, 2010a), and being a first- generation college student (NCES, 2005), only increase the underprepared student's risk for dropping out of college.Career counseling can help underprepared students make educated career decisions based on their situations. The life design approach (Savickas et al., 2009) encourages individuals to consider career in the larger context of life, tell a story, and then act. This article explores the characteristics of underprepared students, examines career-related issues these students face, reviews the literature on narrative career counseling, and applies the life design approach to a case example of an underprepared student.The Underpre.pared StudentRemedial courses, also called developmental and basic skills (NCES, 2003) courses, are offered to college students who lack the academic skills to succeed in college-level courses. Merisotis and Phipps (2000) noted placement in remedial courses differs from institution to institution and often depends on the admissions criteria of the college. Additionally, Perin (2002) identified two approaches to remedial education in which the courses are either housed in the department with college-level courses or in a separate department. According to NCES (2003), 98% of 2-year colleges and 80% of public 4-year universities offered remedial course work, with 28% of entering freshmen at 2- and 4-year institutions enrolling in at least one remedial course. The NCES (2003) also found that colleges and universities differ in how students are placed in remedial courses. Snyder (2001 ) noted that 4-year institutions relied more on admissions tests for placement than did 2-year universities. Institutions also differ on policies surrounding remedial classes: Some give college credit, whereas others do not; some allow students to take other college courses simultaneously, whereas others keep remedial students separate (NCES, 2003). In all cases, remedial courses are required for students not meeting the basic skills deemed necessary for college course work success. Although this lack of preparation is a common factor among students, other similarities have been identified.Because of institutional differences in placing underprepared students, student characteristics differ from institution to institution, but they are similar in some ways (Grimes & David, 1999). Attewell et al. (2006) found that students from a lower SES are more likely than students from a higher SES to need remedial course work. …