The College

The College Core Tutor Program is designed to help undergraduate students enrolled in Core and other introductory courses. Tutors are generally willing to help students in advanced classes, but they are not required to do so, and the intended users of the program always have priority.

The Common Core Tutors work to assist students in chemistry, economics, mathematics, and physics introductory classes, and in the case of writing tutors, to help students with their writing for College Common Core Humanities, Social Sciences, and Civilization courses.

Tutors in all subjects are stationed in the Stuart Reading Room of Harper Library on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings (7:00 PM — 10:50 PM), beginning the second week of the quarter and continuing through exam week. For specific times and location consult the current Tutor Schedule.

No. Students are tutored on a first-come, first-helped basis. Therefore, you may have to wait a bit if several students want to see the same tutor.

The Tutor Program offers great flexibility with average help times ranging from 20 minutes to an hour. In periods of low demand, Core Tutors will try to be available for as long as a student needs.

Some nights are busier than others, so you should expect to wait for a short while until a tutor is available. With this in mind, you are encouraged to continue studying the course material with which you need help, or bring work from other classes, so that you have something to do while waiting. If the line seems excessively long night after night, please notify the Director, Michael Baltasi so that appropriate scheduling changes may be considered.

Tutors are expected to help mostly with material studied in class (e.g. concepts and principles) and not to focus on particular problems assigned as homework. When helping with homework, tutors will assist students by using analogies and general examples to help students solve the assigned homework problems on their own.

Educational counselors are available through the Academic Skills Assessment Program. A.S.A.P. counselors help students assess and strengthen writing and study skills by focusing on time management, reading comprehension, test strategies, and other academic concerns. For more information, contact the Student Counseling and Resource Service at 702-9800 or look at the A.S.A.P. website.

The College Core Tutor Program works hard to provide students with the best possible assistance. If you have complaints or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact the Director, Michael Baltasi or the Assistant Director, Kathleen Cao. All comments are confidential; we will not disclose your name to the tutors or anybody else.

Most tutors are recruited during the second half of the Spring Quarter. However, there are occasional openings throughout the year. The Program generally hires graduate students who have served as Teaching Assistants in the Core courses they wish to tutor. In certain cases, 3rd and 4th year students in the College with exceptional academic records have also served as tutors. If you are interested in working as a tutor and would like to be considered for a job opening, please contact the Director, Michael Baltasi.