International graduate students experience a number of unique challenges as they transition through their training programs. Surprisingly, relatively little research has been conducted on perhaps one of the most crucial predictors of international students’ retention and success within their graduate programs: the advising relationship. Using a total of 367 diverse students who responded to a universitywide survey of international students, the authors were able to use quantitative and qualitative analyses to (a) support the adequacy of the Advisory Working Alliance Inventory (L. Z. Schlosser & C. J. Gelso, 2001) for measuring alliance factors in advising relationships for international students; (b) show that some ratings of alliance were lower than a comparison group of U.S. domestic students; (c) determine that alliance ratings had minimal association with grade point average, gender, or college-level area of study, but were substantially associated with advising satisfaction and desire to change advisors; and (d) reveal themes in advising experiences reflecting constructive and destructive advising experiences. The social justice and future implications of the results are consistent with many historical and contemporary emphases in counseling psychology.

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