<p>Hi, I’m a Peer Advisor at the School of Arts and Sciences at Pitt, and also an alumnus of an Academic Learning Community. There is a social benefit to the Academic Learning Communities, and there is also an academic one. Pitt is a large university and the class sizes are bigger than most kids coming from high school are used to. If you join an academic learning community you will have three classes with the same group of 19 students. You make friends and also study partners! In a way, being a part of a learning community makes your classes smaller, and more personal, which can help the learning process.</p>