Students assessed as high risk at Essex Community College (Maryland) were paired by identical scores on vocabulary and reading comprehension tests and as to whether they elected to take a learning skills course (N=56) or to ignore advice and not take the course (N=67). The learning skills course uses a programmed multimedia approach and as much individual attention as possible to attain goals set by the student in a learning skills contract. A significant advantage in grade point average was demonstrated by the students attending the program, who also took an average of three more hours of college work than their counterparts. Students who did not accept the college recommendation of getting learning center support tended to be older and took a greater range of the number of standard three credit academic courses. Of learning skills students, 82% returned to their studies the following semester compared to 59% of non-learning skills students. An appendix contains the procedure for the Tennessee Self Concept Scale which was used in the learning skills program student contract. (MB)