Academic advising support services play a significant role in a student's college experience from enrollment to graduation. The various services they offer can be instrumental in student persistence and graduation rates. However, the graduation rates of African American students continue to lag behind other ethnicities at a local university in California. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of African American students with academic advising support services at a California university. Tinto's model of student persistence served as the conceptual framework. The research question focused on the perceptions of five African American students with academic advising support services while attending the study site. The data were analyzed using open and axial coding and the application of the NVivo 12 software package. Findings indicated that a sense of belonging, a lack of advisors, advisor training, and comprehensive academic advising were reasons participants were not satisfied with academic advising support services. The findings may promote positive social change by encouraging higher education institutions to provide support programs, additional advisors, enhance advisor-training programs, and provide comprehensive advising opportunities that increase student involvement and contribute to student persistence and graduation rates. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]