Hirschfeld: Make a date with tutoring
Campus service offers help for $1.25 an hour
By Matt Hirschfeld (Contact)
Monday, February 4th, 2008
Feb. 14: A day that will live in infamy for some KU students.
Not because it is Valentine’s Day and the possibility of being dateless looms, but because it is the last day for a 50 percent tuition refund, the last day to add classes and the day before credit/no credit starts.
I came to discover that the center offers tutoring for classes such as Biology 110, French and Spanish classes and Math 101, to name a few. For my other classes that the center wasn’t offering, I found out that tutoring could be offered for a specific class if enough students show interest.
It is kind of ironic that a day of love could evoke such resentful and nerve-wracking emotions. But before the highlighters and gel pens are broken out to mark this day of renown, there may be a solution.
The cure for my class woes was KU’s Academic Achievement and Access Center, which offers tutoring services for those classes that are pre-requisites to move on to bigger and better classes at KU.
Calculus I was my Everest, and I didn’t know where to begin. I knew I needed a tutor, and a flier was the first place I looked. Paying as much as $12 an hour for a tutor seemed outlandish for help with a 100-level class, regardless of the guarantee the flier offered.
Then, low and behold, there was the center’s poster.
I came to discover that the center offers tutoring for classes such as Biology 110, French and Spanish classes and Math 101, to name a few. For my other classes that the center wasn’t offering, I found out that tutoring could be offered for a specific class if enough students show interest. (From what I hear, the genetics class needs a study seminar.) The tutoring sessions cost a reasonable $60 per semester with three hours of tutoring per week. It was something I could not pass up.
I could be giving the impression that a little under the table action is going on between me and the AAAC, but let me ensure you, no one is twisting my arm.
The AAAC tutoring services met the needs of an average college student who needed to pass a class. I couldn’t fathom spending $480 (16 weeks of tutoring at $10 per hour for three hours a week) in one semester for tutoring when I could spend $60 for the same amount of tutoring at $1.25 per hour.
I am not attempting to insult the intelligence of a tutor or a student who can afford tutoring at that price. I really do think that I could find much more fruitful expenditures for the $420 difference.
The credit/no credit option for classes is a great alternative for students who struggle in certain higher level classes, but in those 100-level classes that the administration thinks anyone can pass, I would rather have my effort be reflected in a “B” as opposed to a “CR.”
Your university is here to help, so let it help you.
In the end, I got a “B” in Calculus I. It was an “A” in effort though, and that’s what really counts, right?
Now, if I could only find a date for Valentine’s Day.
Hirschfeld is an Augusta junior in journalism.
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