Trouble Is Everywhere

I don't know what it's like at other colleges, but if you get over your head/think you're heading that way, go talk to your dean. (At least this is one solution at our school.) Our deans function as everything from counselor to problem-solver to hardass and occasionally pseudo-parents. Mine, the year that everything went to hell, was extremely supportive and helped out a lot. Our deans are also extremely used to people bursting into tears in front of them--for some reason, they're the people most likely to have students fall apart on them.

Financial aid people are my heroes. I can't reiterate what y'all said enough. If I hadn't actually talked to them, I'd still be paying off a loan from the Year of Hell. They paid for a ticket back home three days after things fell apart and never made me pay it back. If I hadn't talked to them (with a dean shepherding me in and going, "They do not bite. You undergrads are skittish creatures with no communication skills."), I'd have had to take out a loan to pay for the $1500 ticket.

Health centers, for those that have them, are incredibly important resources. I know the small liberal arts colleges around us all have a health center (though I don't know how this translates.) They're free for students, offer at least basic health care, and around here, have mental health professionals on staff as well. Ours has a dietitian and several specialists in addition to the well developed mental health services and nurse practitioners.

That's my way of saying that staying both mentally and physically healthy is really, really important, but it's really easy to neglect that. So if your school does have the resources, use them.