Services

• Counseling and Academic Advisement
• Tutoring
• Financial Aid Advisement
• Early Academic Progress Evaluation
• Workshops
• Career Advisement/Activities
• Exposure to Cultural Programs
• PEP Program

Counseling and Academic Advisement

Personal and academic advisement is available on both an individual and group basis. Students are required to participate in a scheduled counseling calendar. A full-time counseling staff member is assigned to work with each student. The contact is frequent and continuous throughout the student’s tenure at the College.

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Tutoring

Each semester, a bank of tutors is hired and trained to serve in all major academic areas. These tutors are available to all program students whenever the student or the student’s counselor feels that additional study, remediation, or review is necessary to the academic success of the student.

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Financial Aid Advisement

Student Support Services students receive assistance from their counselors to ensure that both federal and college financial aid forms are correctly completed and filed before deadlines, thus insuring continued and much needed financial assistance to this predominantly low-income population.

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Early Academic Progress Evaluation

At mid-term and prior to final exams, Student Support Services counselors make individual requests of faculty members for written evaluations of Student Support Services students’ academic progress. Approximately one third of the population is evaluated by means of the Teacher Evaluation for Student Support Services Student Forms each semester. These preliminary evaluations allow counselors and students to gauge the students’ achievement level and to identify and remedy academic problems before it is too late.

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Workshops

Counselors organize a variety of workshop and group counseling experiences, which address such topics as stress, financial aid, Planned Parenthood, substance abuse, career exploration, and test anxiety. Other group sessions may be arranged depending on the needs of the students.

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Career Advisement/Activities

Advice, testing, and several on-campus recruiting programs for local businesses and agencies are available to students as they begin to make career and post-graduate decisions.

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Exposure to Cultural Programs

Students are encouraged to attend on-campus and community-based, College-sponsored functions.

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PEP Program

• Why is RIC interested in you and your potential?
• How does P.E.P. prepare students for RIC?
• How are students selected for P.E.P.?
• Who is eligible for P.E.P.?
• What about the costs of P.E.P. and Rhode Island College?
• How do I Apply to P.E.P.?
• What is the Role of the Counselor?
• Notice of Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination

Why is RIC interested in you and your potential?

The Preparatory Enrollment Program has a long history of encouraging and supporting students from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds in their pursuit of a Rhode Island College education. The purpose of P.E.P. is to assist young people who are educationally under prepared and who come from academically and economically disadvantaged backgrounds to override these barriers. Through P.E.P., students and the College form a partnership. We will contribute to your future, and you will contribute to our College community. We expect not only to teach you but to learn from you as well.

How does P.E.P. prepare students for RIC?

P.E.P. consists of two academic phases designed to fully prepare participants for the college-level work that they will face when they enroll at Rhode Island College in the fall. The first phase begins in the spring when P.E.P. students commute to our campus for several weeks during the early evening in order to attend orientation meetings, counseling sessions, and classes in study skills.

The summer session consists of seven weeks of intense academic study. As P.E.P. students, you will live on campus in a student residence hall while taking classes in writing, math, argumentation and debate. In addition, qualified P.E.P. students may be eligible for a freshman-level course for college credit. The purpose of these classes is to work on your academic weaknesses and to make certain that you are prepared for college-level classes . Class sizes are small, usually 12 students, and individual and group tutoring sessions are frequent. Tutors live in the resident hall with the P.E.P. students and College facilities such as the library and computer terminals are open to P.E.P. participants. Succeeding in the summer program requires serious effort and hard work, but you will find both the academic and the human resources readily accessible to all P.E.P. students.

During the summer program, students will also attend group and individual counseling sessions. Each P.E.P. student is assigned to a counselor who will provide academic advice, personal support, and will serve as a source of information on the College and its rules and resources. Your P.E.P. counselor will continue to work with you throughout your College career.

Although the goals and structure of P.E.P. are primarily academic, varied extracurricular activities will round out your pre-college experience. Intramural sports, outings to concerts and the theater, museum visits, and picnics allow P.E.P. students to get to know each other and their instructors outside the classroom setting.

After you successfully complete the spring and summer academic programs and with positive recommendation of the director, you will be enrolled as a full-time degree candidate at the college. When P.E.P. students become Rhode Island College students, Student Support Services will continue to provide you with academic counseling and support services, which will be available to you throughout your academic career at Rhode Island College.

How are students selected for P.E.P.?

Application to the Preparatory Enrollment Program involves a competitive admission process. If you are interested in participating in P.E.P., you must submit a completed application; you cannot simply "sign up" for the program.

Students are selected on the basis of their personal characteristics and ambitions as well as their academic histories. Our estimation of your ability to succeed at Rhode Island College will be based in part on traditional measures of academic ability such as high school transcripts, G.E.D. records, S.A.T. scores, writing samples, and Rhode Island College's math and writing placement test. We are, however, interested in understanding you as a complete person, not simply as a academic record. Through personal interviews, your application essay, and recommendations we hope to learn about your dreams and your character. Both your ability and desire to succeed are important to our evaluation. We are not interested in what you have achieved as much as we need to learn what you are capable of achieving and how much you want to succeed.

Who is eligible for P.E.P.?

If you meet all the following criteria, you are eligible to apply to the Preparatory Enrollment Program:

1. You are a Rhode Island High School senior, recent graduate, or G.E.D. recipient.
2. You are in need of the further academic preparation and remedial work in order to succeed in college.
3. You come from low-income family and you will be a first generation college student (neither of your parents having graduated from a four-year college or university in the U.S.A.).

What about the costs of P.E.P. and Rhode Island College?

The Preparatory Enrollment Program will not only support you academically and personally, but our Program will also provide you with the best possible financial support. The expense of a college education is often a major concern for potential college applicants, but the costs of our preparatory sessions and Rhode Island College education should not be a deterrent. Participants in P.E.P. are considered for a superior financial aid package.

All the cost of the spring and summer sessions are completely covered by P.E.P. Then when you enroll as a student at Rhode Island College in the fall, if you are eligible for financial aid (eligibility is determined by Financial Aid Office, your financial need will be met 100% for your first two year of study. Whenever possible your need will be met with grant assistance instead of loans or work-study funding. P.E.P. juniors will be awarded financial aid packages in the same manner as regularly admitted students except that the Financial Aid Office will attempt to meet 100% of financial need. Seniors will be awarded packages in the same manner as regularly admitted students.

Financial aid packaging is complex and detailed. Our counselors will welcome your questions and are ready with advice on filing the financial aid applications. While individual financial aid awards will differ according to varying needs and economic situations, the bottom line is that P.E.P. is willing to make a big investment in your future. During the first two years at Rhode Island College we will do our best to make certain that P.E.P. students are supported by grants instead of large loans or spending long hours on work-study jobs. Take the time to compare, you will not find another program with financial support, which matches P.E.P.’s.

How do I Apply to P.E.P.?

Applying to the Preparatory Enrollment Program takes effort and genuine interest. Our program offers you quite an opportunity for strong academic, personal, and financial support. It is up to you to meet our application requirements. Do not miss out on a place in P.E.P. just because you forget to meet the deadlines or miss a testing session. We can only succeed in evaluating you if you provide us with all the information we request.

If you are interested in applying, please call the Admissions Office at Rhode Island College at (401) 456-8234 or call the Student Support Services office at (401) 456-8237. We will provide you with a checklist of required application materials and a calendar of important dates. Our office hours are 8:30am to 4:30pm Monday through Friday. Please feel free to call us with any questions or concerns.

What is the Role of the Counselor?

Each student in P.E.P. will be assigned to a counselor. The Counselors have the following responsibilities.

To provide you with academic advice and assistance (i.e. majors, course selection, problems with classes, tutor referrals, etc.)

To provide assistance with understanding Financial Aid Policy and procedures.

To help you identify obstacles which may be interfering with your studies, and to assist you in working out solutions to better handle these obstacles.

To help you in developing a career plan.

To help you develop as a person as will as a student (i.e. emotional maturity, handling the demands of college, decision making).

To advocate or not advocate for you as a student.

Notice of Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination

Rhode Island College is committed to equal opportunity and affirmative action. No student, employee, or applicant will be denied admission, employment, or access to programs and activities because of race, sex, religion, age, color, national origin. handicap, sexual orientation, conviction record, or Vietname era veteran status. This College policy is in concert with state and federal nondiscrimination laws. Inquiries concerning the College’s administration of the nondiscrimination laws should be addressed to the College Affirmative Action Officer.