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Summer Programs Help Students Find Success

We saw great results this summer from two programs aimed at helping students achieve academic success.

Both Math Camp and the Summer Opportunity for Academic Recovery (SOAR) program were offered for the second time this year.

Math Camp

Eighty-nine incoming freshmen attended this year’s Math Camp, a three-week “boot camp” to help them prepare for math-intensive majors.

As a result of their intensive work, 63 percent of the participants increased their math placement level and were placed into more advanced math courses. The others began the semester better equipped for the challenges of college algebra.

Math Camp is an optional summer program designed to provide a thorough review of concepts from Math 119 and 130—two important prerequisites for math-intensive majors or other majors requiring specific math skills. It was one of the programs Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek committed to during a White House meeting two years ago.

Last year, about eighty students attended Math Camp, and 57 percent of those who took the final exam increased their placement level.

We expect to offer Math Camp again next year. Read more about this summer’s Math Camp here.

SOAR

Thirty-seven students who had been academically dismissed at the end of the spring semester are now back in class and in good standing, due to the Summer Opportunity for Academic Recovery (SOAR).

Select students are invited to attend this second-chance program. They are allowed to remain at UT if they successfully complete the program’s requirements by taking at least seven credit hours of summer classes, including a one-credit-hour course on success strategies; meeting weekly with an academic coach; and spending at least ten hours a week in structured study or tutoring outside of class. SOAR students who earn a sufficiently high summer GPA can return to UT in the fall in good academic standing.

This summer, fifty-eight students participated in SOAR. Fifty of them—86 percent of the class—completed the program. In addition to the thirty-seven back in good standing, eleven have been allowed to return but remain on academic probation. Two other students were eligible to return on academic probation but chose not to.

By honing their study skills and learning about campus resources that promote academic success, these students received the boost they needed to help them get back on track.

Last year, fifty-two students participated in the initial SOAR pilot program, and 88 percent successfully completed the program. Three of those have since graduated and twenty-three remained enrolled.

SOAR is part of our continuing efforts to ensure student success and boost retention. We expect it to be offered again next summer.

Learn more about SOAR here.