Spinelli Center for Quantitative Learning

Courses in many departments, including economics, sociology, environmental studies and astronomy, regularly require students to analyze and draw conclusions from quantitative data. The Spinelli Center for Quantitative Learning supports students doing quantitative work across the curriculum. We offer tutoring, workshops and class study sessions outside the regular classroom.

Where and when is my tutoring session?

“Being a graduate of Smith College opened all the doors I wanted to open. This is about paying back.”

Viola (Vi) Spinelli ’47

Explore the Spinelli Center

Tutoring

Courses & Resources

Students in a tutoring session, on their laptops.

Workshops & Review

About Our Name

The Spinelli Center for Quantitative Learning takes its name from Viola (Vi) Spinelli ’47, whose generous gift makes its programs possible. Vi left a bequest to permanently endow the center.

For Vi, it was not only repaying a debt, it was also solving a problem. “I went on to Yale to get my graduate degree in public health,” Vi said. “I had to take statistics, and forget it! I couldn’t understand the concepts.” She completed her master’s degree and eventually ran a multi-million dollar business as a hospital vice-president. If she had struggled with numbers, Vi reasoned, surely others must have the same problem, and the Spinelli Center for Quantitative Learning addresses that problem head on.

Math Success at Smith

The Math Success at Smith team is a group of faculty and staff across the college who are interested in retaining students' interest in STEM+ and enhancing their persistence in STEM+ courses by supporting the students and providing resources. All of us are passionate about helping students succeed! Please contact the team through mathsuccess@36837a.com.

At Smith, we offer opportunities for math success to every student. Here are a few elements of successfully completing mathematics or statistics courses:

Choose the correct course. Conversations with instructors in the Department of Mathematics are often the best way to determine what course you should take. During Orientation, the “Conversations with Faculty [and Instructors]” at the Indoor Track and Tennis facility and the “Information Fair” on Chapin Lawn offer you opportunities to discuss your options. You may also want to read about the calculus sequence and read to the “Courses” subsection “Choosing Your First Mathematics Course” on the Department of Mathematical Sciences webpage.
Understand where your skills are now. Some instructors give an assessment at the beginning of their course, but a conversation with the instructor may be just as useful.

Review prerequisite material. Your instructor may have links to review material or may direct you to review sessions (such as the Review Workshops offered by the Spinelli Center) or to tutoring sessions to make sure you have the needed foundations for the new material.
Seek help early and often.
- Your instructor wants you to come to office hours. You don’t need to have a “good” question, you can ask half-formed questions or just go to get to know them! Go to your instructor’s office hours early in the semester so it will be easier to go later when you have more, or more difficult, questions.
- Visit the drop-in hours of the QM tutors and the calculus counselor.
- Similarly, SDS tutors and the data counselor (and some QM tutors) have drop-in hours for help with statistics and data science courses.

Contact Spinelli Center for Quantitative Learning

Seelye Hall 207
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063

Phone: 413-585-3091 Email: qlctutor@36837a.com

Director: Catherine McCune, Ph.D.

Note: Please include the course and section, the instructor’s name, and the topic with which you’d like help in your email.