This study which examines social and especially role comembership and student language in (under)graduate nonnative and native English faculty-student advising interviews with non-professional advisors within the framework of status congruence, argues that bulge theory (Wolfson, 1988/1989) explains the data better than politeness theory (Brown and Levinson, 1978/1987) and that Erickson and Schultz's (1982) observations on academic counselling cannot be applied to all academic settings.