Create Your Academic Plan

Student Orientation, Advising and Registration (SOAR) introduces incoming students to campus where they will register for classes, learn about services and resources available to them, receive academic advising and discover opportunities for involvement. Most of all, SOAR serves as an official warm welcome to the Dominican University community. 

The SOAR program is required for all incoming new students. Tuition deposits must be paid prior to registering for SOAR. 

Visit Student Orientation, Advising and Registration (SOAR) to learn more.

Holistic academic advising is essential for any well-rounded undergraduate experience. Dominican University’s faculty and staff work to provide each student with the support needed to help identify the subjects they want to study and the right coursework that will help them reach their academic, personal and professional goals.

Here, we guide students through the advising process from the moment they attend student orientation until graduation. We begin the process with:

• Multiple advising appointments throughout the year for each student to make appropriate academic choices and begin formulating long-term goals.
• Supportive Peer LEADers who help students transition to university life and develop new ways to succeed in college. Peer LEADers are embedded into the First-Year Seminar courses for all incoming first-year students.

Once a student declares their major, the department chair assigns the student to a faculty advisor. This advisor typically oversees the student’s academic growth until graduation.

Enrolled students with DU login credentials can visit the Office of Academic Advising for more information. 

The First-Year Experience (FYE) is central to new students’ transition to Dominican and creates a foundation of support that will accompany them through graduation.

Programming includes:

• Welcome Weekend, a bilingual (English and Spanish) program for the whole family to learn about our extensive resources, meet faculty, staff and students, and enjoy DU’s beautiful campus.
• First Year Seminar, taught by faculty advisors to create a clear path for seeking help. 

Embedded in the First-Year Seminar is a Peer LEADer, an upper-level undergraduate student who provides mentoring and peer advising.

The FYE Curriculum covers several topics to ease the transition to college:

• Identity
• College Learning Strategies
• Time Management
• Vocational Exploration
• Caring for Self and Others
• Financial Literacy.

DU also conducts several FYE Surveys to screen for support needs. Follow-up is provided from the Student Care Network, a team of holistic support professionals who address concerns such as academic support, financial stress, mental/physical health needs, technology and more.

Dominican undergraduate and graduate students are welcome to seek tutoring support for a variety of subjects.

All tutoring is provided by appointment. We encourage you to request an appointment via WCOnline.

Work with academically accomplished and professor recommended student tutors for tutoring in writing, mathematics, accounting, biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, French, German, Italian, macroeconomics, microeconomics, nutrition, philosophy, psychology, physics and more. If you seek tutoring in a subject area that you do not see on WCOnline, please email the Academic Success Center team at asc@dom.edu.

Follow these steps to schedule an appointment:

1. Go to dom.mywconline.com to register for an account using your Dominican University email address.
2. Click on the dropdown arrow to select the subject area you want to be tutored in.
3. Select a tutor once you have selected your subject area. Click on an available timeslot to sign up for an appointment.
4. Fill out the required fields on the form. Click on "Save Appointment" to finalize the appointment.

If you need additional assistance, please email asc@dom.edu or visit the Academic Success Center on the first floor of Crown Library in the Learning Commons.

The Academic Success Center offers both in-person and online tutoring.

In-person tutoring will be held in the Academic Success Center on the main floor of the Rebecca Crown Library (unless otherwise stated).

Virtual appointments will be held via Zoom. To access a Zoom tutoring session, simply click the Zoom link in the tutor's profile after booking your appointment.

Many of our tutors are comfortable tutoring in Spanish as well as in English—and welcome this multiplicity of languages in the ASC! To see if a tutor can provide your session in Spanish, click on an open spot with them to see if this fluency is listed in their profile.

Though students do not have to come to tutoring for writing with a completed draft, when your tutors work with you on a draft, they usually follow this process:

• When looking at a piece, tutors first see whether a student has met the assignment's requirements, i.e., answered the question.
• Second, the tutors attempt to identify a thesis statement and ensuing topic sentences, ensuring flow, order, cohesion and focus.
• Third, the tutors look at each paragraph, reviewing how it is introduced, how it is divided, how it is organized and structured, and how it works together.
• Fourth, tutors will look at how students incorporate and document research.
• Finally, tutors will look at sentence-level errors, beginning with the most major (fragments, run-ons, missing words, subject-verb agreement) and working towards the least major (consistency, commas, word choice).

This can be a long process. A half-hour session does not ensure that tutors can cover all areas; therefore, students should make multiple appointments for one assignment.

You must first make an appointment with Bob Greenwald, Jeanne Popowits, or Tim Cook during their online (e-mail) tutoring hours using WCOnline. You will then need submit your assignment, one hour before the appointment as an attachment. 

Appointments for assignments 1–4 pages in length should be scheduled for a 30-minute appointment and assignments for 5–8 pages in length should schedule a 60-minute appointment. 

Please submit your assignment or question(s) to the tutor at least one hour before your scheduled time to ensure that they receive the document before your scheduled appointment. 

To be clear: this is not an online chat forum. The time slot you have reserved will be time for the tutor to read, comment on your work and send the draft back to you with suggestions. At that point, you may send any follow-up questions you want to ask.

Students looking for additional support with their social work coursework can set up time to meet with our professional MSW tutor, Kai Lehocky, via WCOnline. Kai also has limited asynchronous availability, during which they can read, comment on your work, and send the draft back to you with suggestions. If the latter is something you're interested in, please reach out to asc@dom.edu no later than seven days before your paper is due so that we can confirm Kai's availability.

Kurzweil tools can read any text aloud, and also be utilized for word processing, note-taking and translating effectively into over 120 different languages. To receive a free license, email ADA@dom.edu with your student ID # or visit the front desk in the ASC.