This study compared the learning and study strategies college students used in a course with the learning and study strategies their professors believe to be most important for success in the course. The learning strategies investigated here derive from an extensive body of cognitive research that indicates different ways in which students learn affect the quality of their learning and long-term intellectual growth. The study was conducted among 501 freshman and upper class undergraduates from a private university with a total enrollment of 1500 students using a Motivated Strategies for Learning (MSLQ) questionnaire. A survey asked faculty to rate the extent to which "rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, peer learning, and help seeking" were required to do well in their course. The results clearly indicated considerable discrepancies between the learning strategies faculty believe as important in their courses and the strategies that students report using in the course. The discrepancy was greatest for the cognitive strategies associated with deeper processing: elaboration, organization and critical thinking. These discrepancies between faculty and student beliefs suggest that faculty should use explicit terms such as rehearsal, organization, elaboration, and critical thinking and explain how they may be applied to course content and assignments.