The shift from high school to college can be rough for a lot of students. You go from having a full day of guided learning, with a lot of individualized teaching, to one class at 8 a.m. and another six hours later, and your professor doesn’t even know your name. You have to start learning the material on your own, and that can be hard. Then midterms roll around and you’re expected to know everything from the past seven weeks, even though you barely remember what you had for breakfast. But you’re not in it alone. There are numerous department and student-run organizations that exist solely to help you through your 400 and 500-level courses.
The Mathematics Center (MaC) is a free walk-in tutoring center for 400-level math courses. They are equipped with answer keys and quiz solutions to ensure they guide you in the right direction. Open nearly every day of the week, they’re conveniently located on the ground floor of Christensen Hall and will help math make a little bit more sense. The students who work there can only work there if they’ve done well in the classes they’re tutoring you in, so they know their stuff.
The Connor’s Writing Center (CWC) is a free writing assistance center located in Dimond Library. Sign up for a slot with a writing assistant and sit down to talk about any paper you have to write. Whether you have a prompt and some ideas, or what you call a final draft – no matter where in the process you are – the CWC is there to guide you. They won’t fix your paper for grammatical errors, but they’ll help you improve your paper and most professors care about content and writing skills more than your ability to use flawless English.
Other notable academic services include:
The Programming Assistance Center (PAC) in Kingsbury, which helps with programming classes in the CS and IT departments;
Pi Mu Epsilon, the math honor society, which helps with 500-level math courses;
Phi Sigma, the biological science honor society, which provides free tutoring for BIOL 411 and 412;
Alpha Chi Sigma, the chemistry honor society, which provides introductory chemistry assistance; and
The Society of Physics Students, which provides free tutoring for PHYS 401/402 and 407/408.
Many of the departments on campus also have a list of private tutors that are willing to meet with students who seek out their assistance. The university also provides the Center for Academic Resources, or CFAR, which is the hub for all thing academic. They hire their own tutors, and also provide academic counseling for those who want to discuss their academic needs and goals. If you’re struggling, you should visit them! You can wander into their office in Smith Hall on the second floor Monday through Thursday from 11 – 3 p.m., or make an appointment during some other time of the week.
Classes are hard, but you’re not in this alone, Wildcats.
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Written By:
Brandon Edgerly ’16 | UNH Tales
