Academic Life and Learning Strategies Consultations

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.

  1. General Life & Learning: Raise any issues related to your student experience at Princeton and make a plan for addressing them.
  2. 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.
  3. BSE/STEM: Meet with a BSE/STEM learning consultant to tackle distinctive academic, time management and other demands of your courses/major.
  4. Pre-Med: Meet with a pre-med track learning consultant to discuss the issues pre-med students encounter.
  5. Reading Intensive Courses: Learn strategies for effectively reading and learning from text in courses with heavy reading loads.
  6. 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. 
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.


 

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).

Application and Hiring Process

Attending an information session is optional, but recommended. You are also encouraged to make an appointment with a current academic life and learning consultant to learn more about the position, the work, training, etc. 

Please complete the on-line application form (you must log in to Google with Princeton credentials) form and submit the requested documents (see below) as soon as is feasible for you and no later than February 16th (or prior to our interview, if necessary). I will begin interviews by February 15th with the aim of having them completed by February 23rd).  Your written responses are NOT expected to be formal “essays” or anything like that and I would not expect answers to individual questions to be longer than a page and they could easily be less.

  • The on-line application includes several questions, the most important of which are the following:
    • What is an academic challenge you faced at some point in your career at Princeton, and how did you respond to it? In particular, what adjustments or adaptations did you make, how and why?
    • Describe the most significant academic (broadly conceived) issue or need you observe among Princeton undergraduates. Explain the reasons for it, and articulate any ideas you have for ways the University (including ODOC, McGraw, etc.) might address it.
  • In addition to completing this form, you are required to submit a course analysis of a class of your choice, using the course analysis guidelines and template (more information provided in the application form question #9. 
  • You may also submit a resume—or, alternatively, an informal description of relevant work experience: this is optional. 
  • The first training will take place (exact day and time TBA based upon your collective availability) the week before midterm week, probably between February 26th-28th. Please note this in your calendar. If you are unavailable for training, I cannot hire you. 
  • There is no training during midterm week or spring break. Training resumes after spring break and continues into reading period, but into finals period. Typically, there are two cohorts of consultants-in-training meeting for training at different times. 
  • In addition, we will probably have one (2-3 hr) training session on a weekend during the spring term so that the entire cohort can get a chance to meet each other. 

This position requires a three- day intensive training right before the fall semester begins. As a result, I will arrange for early arrival/move in for learning consultants on or around WEDNESDAY, August 27th (Classes begin September 2nd.). You must commit to arriving on that date and participating in the intensive training taking place in the time range of 9am-9pm August 28- to September 1 (Thursday-Sunday prior to the start of the semester). If you receive early arrival from McGraw, obviously training takes precedence over other activities. You must reserve these dates in your calendar. Please do so now.

FAQs