This study examined the impacts of faculty mentoring on student success and aspirations examining, first, whether characteristics or functions of mentoring relationships between faculty-mentors and student-proteges have any impact on academic achievement as measured by students' college grade point average and degree aspirations and, second, whether such benefits differ across gender and ethnic/racial lines. Three definitions of mentoring have been proposed: direct assistance, emotional and psychosocial support, and role modeling. The present study combined all three approaches and used data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, which involved a survey of freshmen in Fall, 1987 with follow-up in June, 1991. The sample provided data on 5,615 students from 172 institutions. Results indicated that: (1) many undergraduates lacked access to faculty mentoring (44 percent reported that no faculty had taken a personal interest in their progress); (2) there was a positive relationship between access to faculty mentoring and academic success though whether this was a causal relationship was unclear; and (3) the relationship of mentoring to academic achievement varied across gender and ethnic groups. For example, honest feedback about one's skills and abilities was a strong positive predictor of grade point average for white women, but not for white men or non-whites. Survey data are presented in chart form. (Contains 23 references.) (JLS)