Getting Academic Help

As many of you know, I am an International Affairs major concentrating in Global Public Health. I am also currently on a pre-med track, meaning that I am fulfilling requirements to apply to medical school (scary, right?). I decided on this last year (my freshman year) as I was thinking about where I could head in the future.

This year, I am enrolled in Chemistry 11 and Biology 11, both classes for science majors as opposed to the "Baby Chem" or "Baby Bio" that could count towards my science requirements in the Elliott School. Since I am not a science major, these classes don’t count towards my major but they do help accumulate elective credits and can count for 2 science classes. At the beginning of the year, I felt very overwhelmed. Many kids in these classes for science majors have already taken the class in AP form during high school but weren’t able to test out of it.

It took me a lot of courage to fess up to the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to do the work unaided. Chemistry had been giving me the most trouble, and I was deciding whether to keep it in my schedule or drop it. As the deadline was coming up to drop (without “withdrawing” from the course, where a W is on your transcript showing you dropped it), I thought harder and harder about the decision. I finally decided to email the Chemistry Department and ask to see if there were any older students available for tutoring. I was in luck and have found a tutor and feel much more equipped to tackle Chemistry this semester!

Tutoring resources abound at GW- everyone wants you to succeed! Not only can you email the department, but there are lots of places to look if you're worried about your stacked class schedule or just need motivation to keep up on reading. Check out the GW Tutoring Initiative, Exchange on Campus, and the GWU Tutor Database (not yet utilized but check back in the future!).  

Questions? As always, shoot me an email! marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu

- Marisa