Meet one-to-one with a well-trained Princeton junior or senior to work on ANY course and ANY academic life and learning question, issue, or goal. Each student has a distinctive profile as a learner, with a unique academic background, strengths, and areas of improvement, their own goals and objectives, as well as particular courses and extra-curriculars. Consultations (coaching sessions) provide individualized support to students in understanding expectations and demands, clarifying goals, mapping out a plan, and learning new strategies, techniques, and tools to attain success while maintaining overall well-being. What is a consultation? Consultation Topics: Choose from a variety of consultation types to meet your needs and maximize the benefits, but know that you can also raise questions with your consultant beyond that topic, too. General Life & Learning: Raise any issues related to your student experience at Princeton and make a plan for addressing them. Weekly Coaching: Meet regularly to set up a weekly schedule, follow up on implementing changes, and check in weekly for support and to maintain motivation. BSE/STEM: Meet with a BSE/STEM learning consultant to tackle distinctive academic, time management and other demands of your courses/major. Pre-Med: Meet with a pre-med track learning consultant to discuss the issues pre-med students encounter. Reading Intensive Courses: Learn strategies for effectively reading and learning from text in courses with heavy reading loads. JP/Thesis: Talk through any aspect of your project from planning your work to working effectively with your advisor to clarifying your research question. To make an appointment with a Graduate Student Coach, search for “independent work” in the TutorTrac scheduler. Time Management & Planning: Find solutions to your time management challenges and learn realistic methods for calendaring your big tasks, making sustainable schedules, and being productive every day. Course-Specific Strategies: Develop a strategic approach to any course, tackle assignments, and prepare for exams. Gain new strategies, techniques, and skills to enhance your effectiveness and efficiency. Work-life Balance: Achieve and maintain balance among academics, extracurriculars, well-being, and everything else you want—and need—to do to get out of your Princeton experience what’s most important to you. Consultants (undergraduate and graduate students) from a variety of disciplines are trained to collaborate with you to develop an individualized approach to learning which draws upon your unique profile of strengths and is tailored to the specific demands of each of your courses. Individual consultations focus on designing a strategic approach to learning that enables you to make the most of lectures, precepts, readings, manage time, and achieve your goals while maintaining a healthy balance. Make an appointment (at least 24 hours in advance) to meet with a consultant early in the term in order to manage the academic demands of the entire semester. Scheduling Sign up is easy. Each week, there are approximately 80 appointment slots available, 7 days/week 9 am to 10 pm. Select a time and consultant, enter your information. You will receive an email confirmation with instructions on where to meet and what to do in advance. Prior to your appointment you will get a reminder. Follow the instructions in the scheduler to sign up for a one-to-one session(link is external) in the McGraw Center. Consultations can last for up to one hour. In order to give consultants time to adjust their schedules and prepare, we require students to make appointments at least 24 hours in advance. As you make an appointment, please complete the pre-consultation form. Please submit a new, current pre-consultation intake form prior to your session, even if you have submitted one previously. Doing so will help your consultant prepare to work on your specific topics. Visit our troubleshooting page if you are having difficulties signing up. Can't find a time that fits your schedule? Check back again soon because we frequently add appointment times or contact us. We’ll arrange an appointment with you at a convenient time. Simply email us a request. If you have tried to sign up using the above guidelines and continue to encounter difficulties, please contact mcgrawundergraduates via email and describe your difficulty and what you tried to do to solve the problem so we can help you as efficiently as possible. We’re happy to answer your questions. Before doing so we ask that you ensure that you read the website carefully for relevant policies, guidelines, and dates. Meet the Consultants Eman Ali Rachel Bejo Malcolm Bevans Amelia Boehle Anna Borodianski Alice Chakrapeesirisuk Amaya Dressler Ramon Espinoza Lana Hoffert Nicholas Johnson Keith Matanachai Maria Morales-Salgado Ernesto Moreno Silvana Nasim Martina Qua Aleigha Reynolds Lina Schwartz Kasey Shao Gurjeet Singh Zachary Vachal Nic Voge Daniel Zayas Become a Consultant The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning hires consultants each spring for its Learning Consultation Program Do you want to improve your own academic performance while helping your fellow students improve theirs? Interested in honing skills for professions beyond Princeton, including business consulting, medicine, seminary studies, graduate school, and teaching? Are you curious about: how people learn and how we can learn more efficiently for academic purposes? motivational dynamics and ways to harness them for success? how to promote growth and change in oneself and others? strategies and techniques for effective consultation and collaboration? university culture and how it works; what some have called the “hidden curriculum”? If so, then join the McGraw Center a Learning Consultant in our Learning Consultation Program. Express your interest now and we will add your name to our records and contact you at the outset of the spring semester. The McGraw Center for Teaching & Learning hires consultants each spring for its Learning Consultation Program. You can express your interest at any time, and we will share more information with you about both the position and the hiring process. This is a paid position (approximately $15.00/hr). FAQs Q: What is a learning consultation? What happens during a consultation? A: A learning consultation is a one-on-one consultation with a peer who is trained to assist you in designing a strategic individualized approach to your learning based on your unique strengths and the specific academic demands. The goal of a consultation is to enable you to make the most of lectures, precepts, and readings and achieve your personal goals while balancing academics with other aspects of your life at Princeton. McGraw strongly suggests you make a consultation to meet with a consultant early in the semester in order to manage the academic demands of the entire semester. Also, this doesn’t have to be “one and done”, you are welcome (and encouraged) to meet again, or even periodically with a consultant to continue to strengthen your approach(es). Q: Who consults with me? A: You will meet with a peer consultant for one hour. Our peer consultants come from a variety of disciplines and are trained to help you design a strategic approach to your classes. Your consultant may not have majored or have extensively studied in your particular field, course, etc., however our consultants are trained to collaborate the with you regarding the process of your learning goals and needs, and therefore do not need to have specific content knowledge in your field in order to work with you. Our consultants are pretty awesome! Please review our consultant’s profiles (see tab above) to find a consultant you might want to work with. Q: Will they help me with my Calculus exam? What is the difference between consultation and tutoring? A: Consultants can help you (re)think and strategize how you have been studying for calculus, for example our consultants can help you develop a strategic study plan that will enable you to be prepared for that exam, however they might not be able to help you solve a particular problem for a problem-set for the exam. In other words our consultants do not offer tutoring or advice on content, rather they collaborate with you on the process of your learning. Routinely our consultants assist students on topics such as: self- regulation and time management; avoiding perfectionism and overcoming procrastination; dealing with large projects; engaged and active reading; advanced problem-solving; effective note-taking; exam preparation; crafting compelling presentations. Q: I am a student that is struggling with writing here at Princeton. Can the individualized consultations that McGraw offers be geared towards improving my writing in general? A: At the McGraw Center we view writing as a holistic process that involves more than the act of writing or the writing product itself. In other words, how you read and engage the text(s) your writing on; how you understand the purpose or overall context of how that text or writing is situated within the objectives of the course is equally important to the writing process as the writing itself. At McGraw we focus our consultations on the how. We can work with you individually to assess the design and objectives of the course and discuss how those themes and features of the course impact writing within that specific discipline the course is located, along with the particular conventions of writing in that discipline. The Writing Center(link is external) is an excellent resource for the brainstorming, drafting and revising stages of the writing process and your writing product. They can supplement that support with working with you to understand the how and purpose of academic writing, which often can make the writing process less daunting. They can also help with how to manage the project in lieu of the many demands Princeton places on your time and/or discuss how to improve any motivational dynamics you feel are impeding your progress and confidence as a writer, such as procrastination. Q: May I visit McGraw more than once? A: Short answer: yes! Consultations help you engage you in a process and approach of thinking and strategizing about your courses, and many students benefit from more than one meeting. Thus, you are welcome and encouraged to meet again, or even periodically, with a consultant to continue to strengthen your approach(es). Many students have found it helpful to use subsequent consultations to follow-up or stay accountable of goals and strategies discussed from a previous consultation and/or to engage in a new discussion and collaboration regarding their academic needs and goals. Q: What should I bring to my consultation? A: Bring whatever is relevant in regards to your question, need, or course you would like to discuss; the more your consultant knows the better they can be of assistance. Below are some recommended items to bring: Syllabi and/or relevant handouts Course Text Calendar/Planner Current assignment, including any work-in-progress (two copies) textbooks or other reading materials Anything else, including your questions Q: How do I make an appointment? A: Schedule a one-hour, one-to-one session. Please do not schedule an appointment for less than 24 hours from the time you make it because we cannot ensure that our staff will be available on such short notice. Please Note: For training purposes, some consultations will be staffed by two consultants. Student Testimonials I think our consultation was one of the main reasons my thesis turned out so well. Our discussions helped me focus my ideas, gave me new ones and ultimately gave me the confidence I needed. --M.C. Our meeting was super helpful, informative, and fun. I'm sure what I learned will help me not only this semester; but also for a long time from now. --G.N. Our consultation helped me tremendously in my academic turnaround last year. --C.K.
