Academic Difficulty

Students experience academic difficulty for a variety of reasons, most of them being non-academic! Often, the student who gets into academic trouble is having issues surrounding time management, conflicting priorities, a too-heavy work schedule, financial or personal problems, relationship issues, medical or psychological troubles, disability issues that are not attended to, lack of maturity and personal responsibility, difficult living situations with roommates or, simply, poor class attendance. 

Academic issues may include a overloaded class schedule, improper major for the student’s interest or abilities, “un-accommodated” issues from learning or attention disabilities, getting behind in a class and having difficulty catching up, need for tutoring, or unfamiliarity with a certain professor’s teaching style.

Whatever the cause(s) of academic difficulty, it is important for the advisor to determine the reason(s) and refer the student to services and programs designed to address the concerns. Many students who experience academic difficulty will rebound successfully through issue-focused academic advising, counseling, or learning disability assessment and accommodations. Students can improve their grade point average by repeating courses and getting the new grade.

In addition, there may be advantages to referring a student for help. For example, a student may benefit from remedial classes, more personal attention, academic assistance through the Learning Center, or a focus on a shorter, more technical course of study. 

Academic Assistance Programs and Service A variety of FVCC programs and services help students who are struggling academically. Many of the following are sponsored, at least in part, by the TRIO (federal grant for student support services) program in the Learning Center:

-Academic Probation (College policy for students below a 2.0 GPA)

-College Success Strategies (two-credit study skills course)

-Math Lab

-Tutoring Program

-Walk-In Advising at the Learning Center

-Language Arts Lab (Reading and Writing help)

-Service Learning

-Individual Development (ID) classes for math, computer skills, career decision-making, and English

Academic Standing There are three levels of academic standing:

1.  Good Academic Standing. A student is in good academic standing with a minimum accumulative GPA of 2.00 (C average) or above.

2.  Academic Probation. Should a student’s cumulative GPA fall below 2.00 (C average) at the end of a semester, the student will be placed on Academic Probation. The registration for the next term will be administratively blocked until an initial probation plan has been filled out by a Learning Center counselor. This plan documents the kind of difficulty the student is having (e.g., no career direction, financial problems, personal problems, etc.) and makes a plan the student signs for overcoming these obstacles. The student’s registration is unblocked by presenting a copy of the plan to Registration. The advisor gets a copy of the plan in his/her mailbox.

3.  Academic Suspension.  A student is placed on Academic Suspension when his or her cumulative GPA is below a minimum of 2.00 (C average) and the subsequent term GPA is below a minimum of 2.00. The student’s registration is administratively blocked until a suspension plan is completed with a counselor or the student stays out of school for one term. In practice, students are almost always re-admitted if they earnestly work with the counselor on this plan. Some, however, receive the academic suspension letter and don’t bother to return. Also, academic suspension almost always corresponds to financial aid suspension which makes it very difficult to pay for college. In reality very few students have ever been academically suspended. Several consecutive bad semesters generally takes a toll on the student (or parents) and without improvement the student move on.