Academic Support Center FAQ

Writing Appointments

Writing appointments are typically one-on-one meetings, supported by professional staff writing specialists. During a consultation, writing specialists can work with students at any stage of their writing process, from brainstorming and thesis development to final revisions and citations. (For additional information, see “What we can do in writing appointments.”)

Academic Coaching  

Academic Coaching is a partnership that focuses on developing practical strategies for succeeding in college and beyond. Common meetings for Academic Coaching include: time management, study strategies, test-taking, note-taking from lectures and course texts, reading strategies for difficult texts, goal-setting, and the process of learning itself. Together with a professional academic coach, students examine their learning processes, habits of working, and current difficulties or barriers to success. The student and coach then jointly create a plan and put in place healthy academic habits.  Meetings require active participation and an openness to trying new academic approaches. The goal is to heighten awareness of what it takes to achieve academic success and anchor this with new strategies, a supportive relationship, and personal accountability.   

Content Specialist Tutoring (Math, Biology, Chemistry, Nursing)

Content tutoring sessions can include further clarifying course concepts, practicing problem-solving techniques in a small-group setting, and developing additional study strategies for a specific course.

• For Math courses, the Academic Support Center provides resources for students in several ways. Students can meet individually or in a small group of 2-3 with a math professional tutor or peer tutor. Students are also encouraged in their college algebra class to attend a recitation – a designated time for focused topic review with a math tutor (See also “Recitation Questions”). Finally, the Academic Support Center has partnered with tutor.com to provide online math tutoring for AU students for select math courses.
• Biology and Chemistry students also have access to both professional and peer tutors. Professional tutors provide support for critical foundational courses through one-on-one or small group sessions.
• Upper-level Nursing students have class-specific support through nursing specialist tutors. Nursing specialist tutors work with nursing students with their senior year courses.

Peer Tutoring

The Academic Support Center has peer tutor support for a wide range of courses. (See too: “How to find out if there’s tutoring for my course.”) Peer tutors are high achieving students who have already completed the courses they are tutoring, and are hired to provide mentoring for topic-specific material covered in class.

Peer tutoring sessions can include further clarifying course concepts, practicing problem-solving techniques in a one-on-one or small group settings, and developing additional study strategies for a specific course. These Peer tutoring sessions allow a comfortable setting for students who want to review and further study the curriculum of a given course.