Skip to main content

Tutoring, Mentoring, and Support

Northwestern is committed to supporting all students on their academic journeys. When academic or personal challenges arise, it is important to be proactive – talk to an adviser, go to office hours, seek tutoring. Here are some strategies for seeking help.

Proactive Success Strategies

Academic challenges can have serious consequences and impact your academic standing. Don't wait till the end of the quarter to seek help, when it may be too late to constructively deal with the situation:

  • Faculty members and TAs have office hours every week to meet with students answer questions and discuss course material. This is an ideal way to get help!
  • Meet with your College Adviser or with your College Seminar instructor, if you are a first-quarter first-year student.
  • Think about changing your approach to the course. Studying in groups, proactively quizzing yourself, and taking practice tests in exam-like conditions are all proven strategies for improving learning. Check out these videos with great advice from other students!

University Resources

Course Options

Students who are struggling in a class,may want to meet with their College Adviser (or College seminar instructor, if they are a first-quarter first-year student) to chat about the implications—good and bad—of dropping it. During Fall, Winter and Spring Quarters, students may drop a class through the end of the sixth week; Summer term classes have deadlines based on the start and end dates of the class. The Academic Calendar will provide the exact deadline during the academic year, and the Registrar provides information about summer classes. (The deadline for tuition reductions is the end of the first week.) Students may still request to withdraw from a course after the deadline to drop has passed but before Reading Period begins; the withdrawal deadline is on the Academic Calendar. All approved withdrawals will result in a W grade being posted to the transcript; the course remains on the transcript, but Ws do not impact the GPA.

In rare cases, students may need to request an Incomplete (a grade of Y) in a course. Students are expected to attend classes. Sometimes, however, illness or other unexpected circumstances arise, and students who miss class meetings should take steps to address their absences.

Retaking a Course

The most common circumstance in which students need to retake a course is if they don’t earn a C- or higher in a major or minor course, a sequence course that requires that grade to progress, or in the final quarter of a sequence for the language requirement. When students take a course for the second time, both instances appear on the official transcript. Both the original grade and the second grade count toward the GPA. However, only the credit earned in the quarter in which the higher grade was earned counts toward the minimum of 45 units of credit required for graduation from Weinberg College.