Helping Students to be Academically Successful

At Frostburg, we are most anxious for students to have a successful academic experience. There are many factors which influence the success of students, including high school background, motivation, academic ability, study habits, health, proper use of leisure time and the student’s attitude toward college.

The University has many resources to assist students.

• Each student has an assigned academic advisor who is available to assist students in making use of these resources.
• Each freshman is required to take an Orientation class (Orie 101); the instructor of this class serves as the student’s academic advisor for the first semester or until the student has declared a major and been assigned to an academic department.
• In addition, we all encourage students to take advantage of the counseling, career development services and academic advising and to use the library which has ample spaces for quiet study.
• A tutoring service is available to students who need this assistance.

We want to make sure that students know where they stand in their classes. Students can usually gauge their success by evaluations received on papers, tests and by comments from the professors. Unfortunately, many students tend to overestimate their grades. When discussing your students’ academic progress with them, we hope you will be able to help them be more realistic in their assessments. After the first six weeks of classes during the semester, students enrolled in 100 and 200 level courses will receive warnings in most classes where they are not doing “C” or better work. These warnings are sent to students at their local address. Students who receive warnings are asked to meet with their professors and advisor. Warnings are often based on limited work; students can improve these grades prior to the end of the semester if appropriate action is taken.

Several administrators and faculty advise students to take steps to improve. The following are some of the suggestions made to students. These may be helpful to you as you talk with your student.

• Talk to their instructor(s) to determine if the student’s grade is improving and if they will be successful in earning a passing grade before the semester is over.
• Talk with their advisor about the steps they might take.
• Take advantage of the University’s policy for dropping courses they believe they may not pass. They may withdraw from a course by a designated date with a “W” (no penalty). This may be a wise decision for some students.
• They may reassess their goals for being in college, especially if they are not attending classes. If they think they are not enrolled in a class since they do not attend class, they should know that they must go through a withdrawal process. We inform students that they must go to the Registrar’s Office in Pullen Hall to pick up the appropriate form for withdrawing from a class. Otherwise, their record will reflect FX’s or F’s for everything in which they are enrolled. These grades may make it impossible to get into a college later in life when they are ready to resume college work.