Many college students who get into trouble academically wait too long to seek out help.  If you are having frequent conversations with your student about grades, you may want to insist that your student seek out extra help before it’s too late.

There are a number of sources for extra help.  These include:

• Learning centers
• Tutors
• On-line support
• The professor or teaching assistant

Most campuses have learning centers for certain subjects like math, science, and writing.  These are free and available at convenient hours.  Most students, if they take advantage of the learning centers, can get the help they need.  The key thing is to use the learning center 2/3 times a week.  Occasional drop ins aren’t that helpful.

Private tutoring is also available, but tutoring isn’t as helpful as one would expect.  Tutoring can be expensive.  Tutors aren’t that reliable and many aren’t that skilled at helping a student.  If you seek out a tutor, you should have your student enter into an agreement that spells out hours/week the tutor will be available.

On-line support also exists especially in math/science subjects.  Sites like Khanacademy.org can be very helpful in providing extra instruction on the material.  Khanacademy.org is free.  Cramsters.com is a low-cost tutoring support service that can also be very effective.

The professor in the course or teaching assistant can be helpful.  Unfortunately this isn’t support that you can turn to on a regular basis.

Some campuses have extra support for students with special needs.  Generally there will be a disability services office that provides information about this support.

As parents, you’ll need to be firm with your student to ensure he/she takes advantage of the needed extra help. .