Frequently Asked Questions (Students)

Any student can benefit from academic coaching. Some students might be struggling with specific concerns related to academic success, whereas others are doing well academically but find benefit in an outside perspective on time management, prioritizing tasks and study strategies and plans.

At your first meeting in the CLASS, you will meet with one of our senior staff members for 30-45 minutes. During that time, the senior staff member will make sure that you are directed to the best resources. All of our staff members see students for academic coaching appointments, but often students will choose to work with a graduate assistant in our office if more frequent or regular appointments would be helpful.

An academic coaching appointment will be tailored to your specific needs. Most common requests include time management, performance anxiety, study, reading, and note-taking strategies. We also can help with executive skills coaching and coaching related to other life areas such as sleep or healthy lifestyle habits.

If you would like to request to meet someone in our office for academic coaching, please login to our Student Portal. Make sure you use your Wake Forest email ID and password to do so. You will be prompted to complete a brief application form to help your academic coach plan your meeting. You will then be contacted electronically to confirm an appointment time. For assistance, call the office at 336-758-592 or visit our website.

Your use of CLASS services for either academic coaching or peer tutoring will be kept private, but as discussed in FERPA may be shared with other Wake Forest University school officials for legitimate educational interests. If you have disclosed a disability to our office, we will ask for your signed consent before discussing specific issues related to your disability with your professors.

The peer tutoring program is for any WFU undergraduate student seeking assistance (in subjects other than math or writing). Students must be enrolled in the course in which they are seeking tutoring.

For more information about other campus tutoring resources, visit our Find a Tutor page.

All students can sometimes use a little help! WFU students often seek out tutoring as a way to further develop knowledge in a particular area, develop stronger study skills, and progress toward academic success. Some students find it beneficial to meet with a tutor several times during a semester; other students prefer to meet with a tutor before an assignment deadline or exam. If you feel like you could benefit from additional academic support, then the time is right!

CLASS offers tutoring in most subjects. However, availability of tutoring in specific subjects varies from semester to semester.

You can schedule a Peer Tutoring appointment through our online schedule.

You can schedule sessions between 2 to 14 days in advance.

More information about making an appointment can be found on our website.

The CLASS peer tutors are undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of disciplines that excelled in their coursework and want to share their knowledge with others. They have an interest in helping others succeed academically and are interested in partnering with students to help them progress in their courses.

You can expect that our tutors will give you their full attention, actively listen to your concerns, collaboratively set goals with you (both for the session and beyond), and help you work through your academic challenges.

You can expect that our tutors are knowledgeable in the area they are tutoring and come to each session on time and well prepared. Our tutors will not do the work for you. However, our tutors will partner with you, helping you become confident learners progressing toward understanding in your area of study.

You can expect that our tutors keep all sessions confidential, only speaking with the CLASS staff if there are concerns that need to be addressed.

In terms of what to bring, that depends on what your specific needs and goals are for the session. It might be helpful to bring the course syllabus, assignment sheet, study guide, textbook, returned assignments/exams, or course notes.

To ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to our tutoring program, we limit students to three sessions per week, per subject.

If it is at least 20 hours before your appointment, you can cancel directly through our online system by clicking on your appointment and clicking cancel. If it is less than 20 hours before your appointment, you will need to contact your tutor directly. Their email address is listed in your confirmation and reminder emails as well on on your “appointment request form.”

Our tutors will wait 10 minutes for you to arrive. After 10 minutes, they will mark you as a “no show.” After 2 no-show appointments, your account will be disabled, and you will be unable to make future tutoring appointments without permission from the tutor coordinator. If your account is disabled, you will need to contact the tutor coordinator, Laura Denlinger (denlinlc@wfu.edu).

While we would love for you to get a good grade in the course, we are more concerned with the progress you make toward reaching your academic goals.

You can contact Laura Denlinger (denlinlc@wfu.edu), Academic Counselor & Tutoring Specialist, with any comments or concerns.

If you are trying to find a tutor, but you cannot find the course on our schedule, please contact our tutor coordinator, Laura Denlinger (denlinlc@wfu.edu). We will try to find someone, although it is not a guarantee. If we are able to identify someone and need to hire them, the process can take up to 3 weeks before they will appear on the schedule.

We offer very limited tutoring during summer sessions based on the availability of current tutors who are staying in town or taking summer classes. We encourage you to meet with your professor or TA, attend office-hours, or reach out to others in your course.

Your use of CLASS services for either academic coaching or peer tutoring will be kept private, but as discussed in FERPA may be shared with other Wake Forest University school officials for legitimate educational interests. If you have disclosed a disability to our office, we will ask for your signed consent before discussing specific issues related to your disability with your professors.

It’s best to talk with your professor as soon as possible at the beginning of the semester. Your professor may expect you to request a testing or other accommodation early enough to make plans for implementing the accommodation (e.g. five business days for an in-class examination with extended test time.) Most professors request that all accommodations be discussed with the professor during the first two weeks of the semester.

For more information about requesting your accommodations, please see the student accommodations process page.

Please contact our office by email (class@wfu.edu) or calling 336-758-5929 if you have any difficulties with this process.

We prefer that your disability documentation be no more than 5 years old: our Documentation Guidelines outline our policy in more detail.

If you think you may have an undiagnosed disability, then you should consider scheduling an appointment with one of our senior staff members to learn more about your options. Please login to our Student Portal to complete a student application or to request an appointment if you already have an account. Please email (class@wfu.edu) or call (336-758-5929) if you need help scheduling an appointment.

All accommodations at WFU are agreed upon through an interactive process between the student and a member of the CLASS staff. Potential outcomes of this process may include requesting further documentation to support the requested documentation, provisional approval of accommodation, and/or continued denial of the requested accommodation if it is not reasonable or may fundamentally alter a course requirement.  If concerns are not resolved in this interactive process, the student is able to pursue grievance procedures with the 504/ADA accommodation coordinator for the university: WFU Grievance Procedure.

If an instructor refuses to honor your accommodation, students have several options. The student is encouraged to reach out to their CLASS advisor.  The CLASS advisor will mediate and guide the interactive process between the student and faculty member as needed. If the student believes they have been discriminated against, the student may pursue grievance procedures with the 504/ADA accommodation coordinator for the university: WFU Grievance Procedure.

If you’ve been approved for classroom attendance consideration as part of your disability accommodations, this document (coming soon) will show you how to complete our classroom attendance consideration flex plan.

If you have requested text in alternative formats through our office, you can upload your proof of purchase or rental as an image file or as a PDF through the Student Portal. Under the menu titled ‘My Accommodations’, select the item titled ‘Alternative Formats’. There is an upload link for textbook receipts under the heading ‘Upload Book Receipt’. If you have questions or are not able to upload your receipts, contact CLASS: class@wfu.edu or (336) 758-5929.

If you need to request a housing and/or dining accommodation, you will request those accommodations through the Office of Residence Life and Housing.

Additional information and resources for students with food allergies can be found on the Deacon Dining website.

Our office relies on students to help us learn the best ways to support and reach out to the Wake Forest and Winston Salem community. We hope you will consider becoming a CLASS Ambassador, a Peer Tutor, or a Deacs Like Me Mentor to be a part of our CLASS team!

OWLS, or our Outreach Workshop Learning Series, is a monthly workshop series with the goal to expose students to a variety of topics related to learning and provide practical strategies they can use to enhance their personal learning experiences.