This study explores how college writers responded to teachers' after-class tutoring that was intended to complement their in-class writing instruction. Through qualitative content analyses of three focal college student writers' interviews, reflections, writings, and teacher-student talks collected in a Chinese university, the study shows that students' visits to the after-class program, which was designed from a meaning-making perspective on writing and implemented similarly to in-class instruction, was (de)motivated by diverse factors (e.g. their prior experiences with faculty members after class). However, students' alignment with faculty tutoring somehow stabilized along with their growing understanding of meaning-making knowledge for writing, which was taught in class and enhanced by after-class tutoring.