Tutoring Opportunities for Students

Photo provided by Rampage student photographer Malique Gordon.

Students can access free tutoring while enjoying coffee and snacks in the Academic Center for Excellence and Careers (ACEC), open from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Students can drop by and get help with a variety of classes from experienced peers, or they can make an appointment by contacting ACEC’s Wayne Pelts or Rilla Cooper. 

If students need help outside of tutoring hours, Brainfuse – available on Canvas – provides free live tutoring 24/7. Students can get help with assignments and receive live feedback. 

Cooper, director of student success, said that 25 percent of college students fail at least one course. Working with a tutor, she added, could make the difference between an F and a D.  

Students who feel too busy for tutoring are “too busy to not utilize the tutoring well,” Cooper said. If students fail the class, they will have to retake it another semester, so they “might as well take advantage of the tutoring the first time and be proactive.”  

Pelts, assistant director of ACEC, points to his personal experience as a freshman in college. He said he studied harder for biology than any other class he took that year – and he still got an F. 

“College is difficult. I think a lot of times students think of college as high school 2.0,” Pelts said. “[But] college is different in terms of the requirements and the assignments and the type of exams.” 

Every Monday morning Pelts emails BU students a list of tutors’ availability and what subjects they can help with. He encourages students to take advantage of the free tutoring. 

“It’s with students you probably already know,” Pelts said. “It’s with students who have taken the course before and know what was expected and understand what the professor is looking for.” 

Pelts compared tutoring to athletic training – just like with sports, sometimes students need to put extra time and effort into academics. 

Cooper said, “I think sometimes no matter how great a job a teacher does explaining and engaging students in the information, it can always be beneficial to talk it through and hear it through a different lens.”   

Both Pelts and Cooper said that everybody needs help at some point in their lives. 

“The earlier we recognize that, especially in the college environment,” Cooper said,” the better and more successful you’ll be later on.” 

Pelts called asking for help “a sign of being healthy and mature and adulting and sometimes brave.” He urges students to utilize free tutoring to do the best they can. 

“You’re here for a degree,” Pelts said. “You want the best GPA. You want to learn as much as you can. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of help?”