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troubleWhile some countries are already into the new academic term, I know other countries won't be starting up for another week or two, so this strikes me as a nice intermediate time to put up a Guide To Help Students.
This is Version 1 Part 1, as I not only have a lengthy list of other potential things that many students have questions about, I suspect there are major things I'm missing/forgetting. Expect more, plus erratas, soon.
This is my very first and most important advice to you, gentle reader: When you need help, ask for help.
I know asking for help can be very difficult, and sometimes quite humbling. I get this. I do not like to ask for help. But ask for help. I cannot promise you that you will immediately get the help you need. I cannot promise you that the first person you ask for help will be the right person to ask. I cannot promise you that you will only deal with smiling happy people who want to help you out. But I do promise that asking for help is the most effective way to get the help you need.
I strongly suggest you try and find connections with other students Like You. This may mean joining up with your major's Society (like the Undergraduate History Society, for example), or looking for an umbrella group such as the GLTB Society (here it's DalOUT), or Women's Centre, or First Nations/Aboriginal Student Association or Black Students Association, etc. It may mean joining your local Tea Drinker's Society (I love them) or hobby group on campus, but connecting up with students who are Like You - whatever that means for you - can make a difference in accessing resources or getting help. Being a member of my Graduate History Society, for example, has helped me to get help in dealing with academic issues I was having, and my Women's Centre has been very supportive of my attempts to get accessibility issues covered on campus.
More Specific Advice:
"I can't afford my text books. What do I do?"
First, the bad news: Chances are, your required text books are not going to be in the library. The librarians tend to spend their new book money on buying different texts, because textbooks often go into new editions and purchasing them every year or so would be prohibitively expensive.
That said, sometimes your professor will leave a copy or two on hold in the library. It doesn't hurt to ask. Most books that are on hold can only be signed out for limited amount of time, or cannot be taken out of the library, but it will give you some access.
Some Options:
- Buy used. While used textbooks often sell out really fast in the bookstore, check out posters around campus and see if your text is being sold independently that way. You can also look for used book sales on online-retailers.
- Try Freecycle or, if you have a BookMooch account, try BookMooch. I have some of my used texts up on my BookMooch account, and I know others do as well. (I don't recommend BookMooch to Canadians - it costs more to ship things within Canada than it does to ship things outside of Canada. But if you already have BookMooch points, it can't hurt to look.)
- Talk to your classmates. Some may be willing to share a text with you if you chip-in on the cost of the text.
- There's a date after which most university bookstores will not take books back. This date has little relation to your last opportunity to drop out of a class. Start nosing around and seeing if anyone wants to get rid of their textbook.
- Talk to your prof. I borrowed more than one text from a prof when I was still using textbooks for things. (Most of my uni now is reading packs.)
- Talk to your student union. When I attended Augustana, we had a textbook lending library that was run by the Student Union. Your university may have one, too.
"I can't afford enough food or toiletries for me or my family."
There is a very strong chance your university has a campus food bank. It is there for you. The issue can sometimes be in finding it, though, as it depends on who runs it. The last university I attended had it run by the Chaplaincy's office, through donations by students. My current university runs their through the Student Union, and it's affiliated with the local food bank. Other times you may need to get in touch with an advocacy group, such as your campus Women's Center, Black Students Association, GLTB Group, Aboriginal Students Association, Foreign Students Group, etc. In my experience the Women's Center is a good place to go for things like tampons, pads, diapers, baby food, condoms, and (sometimes) Emergency Contraceptives.
Most of the above groups are volunteer run, and not through the university (although they may receive funding from the student's union). They often need volunteers. (I spent today putting away shipments of food in the campus food bank, for example, and that would have been faster and more fun with more people.) If you feel guilty using the food bank (it's there for you), offer to volunteer for their organization.
The university may also have 'official' options for you. Your best bet is to contact whatever counselling service they have on campus and talk to them first. They will have guidance for you.
Do not hesitate to talk to your financial aid office about money. If your tuition is paid up, they often have emergency money they can loan you interest free. I had to move out of my apartment once early on in the academic year, and they loaned me money for the deposit and first month's rent ($800). They may also have grants and scholarships that you - whatever your circumstances - may qualify for. This can include for things like paying for your medications or any assistive tech you may need, purchasing, repairing, or replacing a computer, or just "regular" financial need. Talk to them. They cannot help you until you ask.
There is also the option of aid within your community. I know my Local Council of Women has a Bread & Roses fund for women studying engineering, for example, and that my local feminist bookstore has a small scholarship for women returning to school after time away. Chances are these are things your financial aid office is aware of. Talk to them.
If you are a member of a religious group, your place of worship may be able to help you. I know less about this than other things as I do not belong to a religion, but I have talked to people who do. They have reported to me that many religious groups and places of worship will help out students who belong to their group. Ask them. They don't want you to be struggling.
"I'm going to fail this class / I can't finish this assignment on time / I'm stupid and my profs are laughing at me. What do I do?"
In general, your profs want you to do well. Speaking as a TA, and as someone who has had multiple conversations with professors over the years: Talk to them. No, seriously. Email them. Call them. Stop in their office during office hours. Write them a note and put it in their mail box. Talk to them omg please talk to them. If you have a TA, talk to them, too.
I will not promise anything from that conversation, but possible outcomes include helping you out with something, giving you more one-on-one time, hooking you up with a tutor, giving you extensions on things, reading over a rough draft of your work so that you can get some early feedback, suggestions on sources, suggestions on what you can work on, general assistance, a good cup of coffee or tea and a place to sit. Generally (not 100% of the time, but more often than not): They want you to do well. They want to help you. Helping you in September and October means grading your papers in November is infinitely easier.
There are also other options:
- Your major probably has some sort of Society associated with it, which may be made up of incredible keeners. (The Undergraduate History Association at Dal publishes an quasi-academic journal, for example. Our Graduate History Association puts on a well-respected Academic Conference every year. We are keeners. We want to talk about history.) If you're struggling, members of your Association will likely be willing to help you out, or at least point you to others who can. (This help may include saying things like "Don't go to that prof, he is an asshole about grad students." *cough*)
- Your university probably has some equivalent of "The Writing Centre". Sing along if you know the words: They want to help you. Some of your tuition goes to paying for this, so you're already paying for the service, and they get more funding if they have more students come in, so you're totally doing them a favour. GO EARLY. My Writing Centre actually stays open till 2 a.m. during finals because that's when the library closes and they have so many people needing help that it's just easier to do it that way than to turn students away.
- Your university may have a formal system for hooking people up with tutors. If not, there are a lot of people who advertise tutoring services. Ask around, or look on the boards around your campus. There may also be an electronic board of some sort that students use. Check it out.
- Talk to your classmates. You are probably not the only person struggling. Study groups are not just for plot purposes on t.v. shows. Sometimes these are arranged online (via Facebook, for example), but there have been some chilling cases in Canada that have declared online discussions to be "cheating" and academic dishonesty. Check with your prof, or keep it offline.
- Get a tour of your library. My university offers library tours all throughout September. You'd be amazed how many resources are available to you through your academic library, but no one knows about them. (I've booked multiple appointments with research libraries, for example, to help with secondary source research.) A good tour will include how to use the library website - if it doesn't, ask someone to show you how. I keep forgetting the awesome resources on my library's website. Remember: Librarian want to help you. They go to university so they can be awesome librarians and help you. Talk to them.
This list/guide is so far quite small. Please feel free to add additional comments. It's a work-in-progress, after all.
Errata & Additions:
meloukhia emphasis talking to financial aid officers if you have money issues.
FrustratedBiWoman mentions renting textbooks as an option.
naraht brings up UK-specific stuff that goes into much more helpful detail but ist still basically applicable everywhere.
killing_rose brings up somewhat more US-specific advice that is still basically applicable everywhere.
lilacsigil goes into some details on disability assistance offices at universities, and there is some follow-up commentary from jesse_the_k
This is Version 1 Part 1, as I not only have a lengthy list of other potential things that many students have questions about, I suspect there are major things I'm missing/forgetting. Expect more, plus erratas, soon.
This is my very first and most important advice to you, gentle reader: When you need help, ask for help.
I know asking for help can be very difficult, and sometimes quite humbling. I get this. I do not like to ask for help. But ask for help. I cannot promise you that you will immediately get the help you need. I cannot promise you that the first person you ask for help will be the right person to ask. I cannot promise you that you will only deal with smiling happy people who want to help you out. But I do promise that asking for help is the most effective way to get the help you need.
I strongly suggest you try and find connections with other students Like You. This may mean joining up with your major's Society (like the Undergraduate History Society, for example), or looking for an umbrella group such as the GLTB Society (here it's DalOUT), or Women's Centre, or First Nations/Aboriginal Student Association or Black Students Association, etc. It may mean joining your local Tea Drinker's Society (I love them) or hobby group on campus, but connecting up with students who are Like You - whatever that means for you - can make a difference in accessing resources or getting help. Being a member of my Graduate History Society, for example, has helped me to get help in dealing with academic issues I was having, and my Women's Centre has been very supportive of my attempts to get accessibility issues covered on campus.
More Specific Advice:
"I can't afford my text books. What do I do?"
First, the bad news: Chances are, your required text books are not going to be in the library. The librarians tend to spend their new book money on buying different texts, because textbooks often go into new editions and purchasing them every year or so would be prohibitively expensive.
That said, sometimes your professor will leave a copy or two on hold in the library. It doesn't hurt to ask. Most books that are on hold can only be signed out for limited amount of time, or cannot be taken out of the library, but it will give you some access.
Some Options:
- Buy used. While used textbooks often sell out really fast in the bookstore, check out posters around campus and see if your text is being sold independently that way. You can also look for used book sales on online-retailers.
- Try Freecycle or, if you have a BookMooch account, try BookMooch. I have some of my used texts up on my BookMooch account, and I know others do as well. (I don't recommend BookMooch to Canadians - it costs more to ship things within Canada than it does to ship things outside of Canada. But if you already have BookMooch points, it can't hurt to look.)
- Talk to your classmates. Some may be willing to share a text with you if you chip-in on the cost of the text.
- There's a date after which most university bookstores will not take books back. This date has little relation to your last opportunity to drop out of a class. Start nosing around and seeing if anyone wants to get rid of their textbook.
- Talk to your prof. I borrowed more than one text from a prof when I was still using textbooks for things. (Most of my uni now is reading packs.)
- Talk to your student union. When I attended Augustana, we had a textbook lending library that was run by the Student Union. Your university may have one, too.
"I can't afford enough food or toiletries for me or my family."
There is a very strong chance your university has a campus food bank. It is there for you. The issue can sometimes be in finding it, though, as it depends on who runs it. The last university I attended had it run by the Chaplaincy's office, through donations by students. My current university runs their through the Student Union, and it's affiliated with the local food bank. Other times you may need to get in touch with an advocacy group, such as your campus Women's Center, Black Students Association, GLTB Group, Aboriginal Students Association, Foreign Students Group, etc. In my experience the Women's Center is a good place to go for things like tampons, pads, diapers, baby food, condoms, and (sometimes) Emergency Contraceptives.
Most of the above groups are volunteer run, and not through the university (although they may receive funding from the student's union). They often need volunteers. (I spent today putting away shipments of food in the campus food bank, for example, and that would have been faster and more fun with more people.) If you feel guilty using the food bank (it's there for you), offer to volunteer for their organization.
The university may also have 'official' options for you. Your best bet is to contact whatever counselling service they have on campus and talk to them first. They will have guidance for you.
Do not hesitate to talk to your financial aid office about money. If your tuition is paid up, they often have emergency money they can loan you interest free. I had to move out of my apartment once early on in the academic year, and they loaned me money for the deposit and first month's rent ($800). They may also have grants and scholarships that you - whatever your circumstances - may qualify for. This can include for things like paying for your medications or any assistive tech you may need, purchasing, repairing, or replacing a computer, or just "regular" financial need. Talk to them. They cannot help you until you ask.
There is also the option of aid within your community. I know my Local Council of Women has a Bread & Roses fund for women studying engineering, for example, and that my local feminist bookstore has a small scholarship for women returning to school after time away. Chances are these are things your financial aid office is aware of. Talk to them.
If you are a member of a religious group, your place of worship may be able to help you. I know less about this than other things as I do not belong to a religion, but I have talked to people who do. They have reported to me that many religious groups and places of worship will help out students who belong to their group. Ask them. They don't want you to be struggling.
"I'm going to fail this class / I can't finish this assignment on time / I'm stupid and my profs are laughing at me. What do I do?"
In general, your profs want you to do well. Speaking as a TA, and as someone who has had multiple conversations with professors over the years: Talk to them. No, seriously. Email them. Call them. Stop in their office during office hours. Write them a note and put it in their mail box. Talk to them omg please talk to them. If you have a TA, talk to them, too.
I will not promise anything from that conversation, but possible outcomes include helping you out with something, giving you more one-on-one time, hooking you up with a tutor, giving you extensions on things, reading over a rough draft of your work so that you can get some early feedback, suggestions on sources, suggestions on what you can work on, general assistance, a good cup of coffee or tea and a place to sit. Generally (not 100% of the time, but more often than not): They want you to do well. They want to help you. Helping you in September and October means grading your papers in November is infinitely easier.
There are also other options:
- Your major probably has some sort of Society associated with it, which may be made up of incredible keeners. (The Undergraduate History Association at Dal publishes an quasi-academic journal, for example. Our Graduate History Association puts on a well-respected Academic Conference every year. We are keeners. We want to talk about history.) If you're struggling, members of your Association will likely be willing to help you out, or at least point you to others who can. (This help may include saying things like "Don't go to that prof, he is an asshole about grad students." *cough*)
- Your university probably has some equivalent of "The Writing Centre". Sing along if you know the words: They want to help you. Some of your tuition goes to paying for this, so you're already paying for the service, and they get more funding if they have more students come in, so you're totally doing them a favour. GO EARLY. My Writing Centre actually stays open till 2 a.m. during finals because that's when the library closes and they have so many people needing help that it's just easier to do it that way than to turn students away.
- Your university may have a formal system for hooking people up with tutors. If not, there are a lot of people who advertise tutoring services. Ask around, or look on the boards around your campus. There may also be an electronic board of some sort that students use. Check it out.
- Talk to your classmates. You are probably not the only person struggling. Study groups are not just for plot purposes on t.v. shows. Sometimes these are arranged online (via Facebook, for example), but there have been some chilling cases in Canada that have declared online discussions to be "cheating" and academic dishonesty. Check with your prof, or keep it offline.
- Get a tour of your library. My university offers library tours all throughout September. You'd be amazed how many resources are available to you through your academic library, but no one knows about them. (I've booked multiple appointments with research libraries, for example, to help with secondary source research.) A good tour will include how to use the library website - if it doesn't, ask someone to show you how. I keep forgetting the awesome resources on my library's website. Remember: Librarian want to help you. They go to university so they can be awesome librarians and help you. Talk to them.
This list/guide is so far quite small. Please feel free to add additional comments. It's a work-in-progress, after all.
Errata & Additions:
meloukhia emphasis talking to financial aid officers if you have money issues.FrustratedBiWoman mentions renting textbooks as an option.
naraht brings up UK-specific stuff that goes into much more helpful detail but ist still basically applicable everywhere.killing_rose brings up somewhat more US-specific advice that is still basically applicable everywhere.lilacsigil goes into some details on disability assistance offices at universities, and there is some follow-up commentary from jesse_the_k
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 07:41 pm (UTC)Most financial aid offices have monies that they are longing to give out to students, but cannot, unless students ask for it. This includes grants, scholarships, emergency loans, what have you. If you go in and say 'I need money, help!' someone in the office is going to hook you up. Financial aid offices also have access to really weird/obscure sources of funding, like grants from alumni who really want to help out hula hooping redheads or people who hate Ayn Rand or whatever, so do not assume there is no money for you.
Excellent
Date: 2010-08-13 07:57 pm (UTC)In the late '80s there was a student who had gotten so good at concealing his dyslexia that he was an editor of the campus newspaper; I think they caught up with him because he was failing some course or other, but it took nearly flunking out before he got help. I know lots of people who won't ask for help unless the alternative is an even worse situation. (In some cases, that's me.)
There's a thesis in that for somebody in psychology. (Not you. You're busy. ;-))
Re: Excellent
Date: 2010-08-13 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 08:00 pm (UTC)... or about six months.
Re: I can't afford my textbooks
Date: 2010-08-13 08:49 pm (UTC)~frustratedbiwoman (from Tumblr)
Re: I can't afford my textbooks
Date: 2010-08-13 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 09:14 pm (UTC)First ports of call for help can include your college and university Welfare Officers, who can point you in the right direction, and your college peer supporters, who can also offer sympathy and cups of tea. There are welfare handbooks put out by the university and there's a student health and welfare website that also offers useful links. If you don't want to talk to someone in college, Oxford has Nightline, which is a 24-hour phone line for listening and support. I would imagine other universities might have something similar.
"I can't afford my text books. What do I do?"
My college library was always willing to buy books that I needed for my studies (if they were in print), with a note of support from my tutor. My college also had a book grant where students were given a smallish yearly sum in order to buy books. Borrowing books from tutors is a good idea and definitely something that worked for me when other avenues failed (also if the problem was one of access rather than finances). These days also there are a lot of books available in electronic editions (say, from the OUP or CUP), and your university library may have subscriptions to these services.
"I can't afford enough food or toiletries for me or my family."
As well as maintenance grants and loans, you may be entitled to child benefit and funding for childcare. And there are other sources of hardship funding:
http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/studentfundin
If you are in Britain you are entitled to free contraception via your GP, any other GP, or any family planning clinic. Also, I think, pregnancy tests? Women's officers and welfare officers can also help with some of these things if you'd rather not go to a GP.
College chaplains may have discretionary funds that they can offer you, whether or not you belong to their denomination.
"I'm going to fail this class / I can't finish this assignment on time / I'm stupid and my profs are laughing at me. What do I do?"
Absolutely talking to your tutor is the first port of call. Under the Oxford system, anyway, they are not going to be the ones who are marking your Finals, so they are really and truly on your side in this regard! (Or ought to be.)
You may have a college sister/brother/parent in your subject who has been through all of this before and can offer some advice. Your college might also have a (student) Academic Affairs Officer who can do likewise.
ETA: Oh, and Oxford won't be starting till October...
no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 09:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 09:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 11:22 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-14 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-14 12:29 am (UTC)Also, your additions are awesome, thank you!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-14 03:11 am (UTC)1. Extremely helpful - they will organise accommodations for you, fight for you if you have a hostile teacher, and help you find other things you may need (quiet spot in the library, classroom with heating/cooling, classroom with a particular kind of lighting or other accessilibility.)
2. Not very useful - they will help you fill out the forms and get them to the right people, but they are not very connected to disability culture on campus. Great at getting accommodations that someone else has needed before you, pretty useless if you are the first person to need X from a particular department or anything that would take much work on their part. Even so, there is often one person in the office who will be very helpful - you can pick them by the way they volunteer information rather than making you work for it.
3. Useless - whatever you want, they've never heard of such a thing. They give up on you before there's even pressure on them from teaching staff, and are often in locations like the second floor of a building with a lift that only fits smallish manual wheelchairs. They don't keep appointments, and are always surprised when someone asks for help. Abandon ship, and head for the disabled students group (or even a disabled student/staff member if you can find one). Other students/staff will direct you better and not waste your precious energy and time.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-14 03:59 am (UTC)Disability culture on campus - what's that? :o
Great at getting accommodations that someone else has needed before you, pretty useless if you are the first person to need X from a particular department
omg, this! also think it can be pretty problematic for the student to be required to know exactly what kind of accommodations are possible and which is likely to be the most helpful for them, without any background in such things.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-15 12:51 am (UTC)If I'd only known how to do these things back when I was failing out of college ...
If your disability office sucks, there's still hope. There's probably a local/regional/national group which can offer experience, support, and suggestions in terms of getting the accommodations you need to do your schoolwork. In the U.S., the National Federation of the Blind at nfb.org or the American Council of the Blind at acb.org both sponsor student chapters -- lawyers and computer-engineers in training, in particular.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-15 03:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 06:32 pm (UTC)It's usually events like International Day, Friday-night social events that are free to students, department-specific meet-and-greets, ANY type of author reading or special speaker (though these events are usually more a wine-and-cheese type thing), free film screenings, and lots more. A lot of the events serve just pizza and soda, but others, especially events focusing on exchange students, will have a wide variety of home-made international cuisine. Sometimes the portions are sample-sized but other times you can end up with a mountain of food.
The main thing is that you have to KNOW when these events are happening, which requires talking to people, finding out if there's a mailing list, looking online, etc. and I'm sure availability varies from university to university. But it's worth looking in to.
Re: Excellent
Date: 2010-08-16 07:21 pm (UTC)Now I consider myself extremely lucky to be going to the college that I go to. My disability office is so awesome that they even have about four or so power wheelchairs that are available for on-campus use for students who are either in a manual wheelchair and can't get around campus (as our campus is large, not terribly flat, and sometimes very difficult in a manual chair) or for students who usually don't use a wheelchair but whose mobility doesn't let them access campus otherwise. They also have some manual wheelchairs available for use on campus. Without that particular accommodation, I don't think that I would have really been able to even get as far as I have gotten.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 07:23 pm (UTC)Oh my god, I cannot second this enough.
I go to a community college, and so it is a little more difficult than it would be at a larger school or something. But between a couple of clubs (which I'm not involved in just for the free food!) and events, I have been able to not have to entirely go broke from having to pay for food.
The other thing to do is to talk to whoever is organising the event about if you can take home some of the extra food at the end. If they know your reasoning, they're usually even willing to help or make sure that there's some extra for you, and that also stops people from jumping on you for taking it (which I have had happen).
Re: struggling in class
Date: 2010-08-16 07:26 pm (UTC)Find out where the group spaces are and whether they require sign up (probably not) and get a classmate or two and go hack it out. Or find them already there. If you have an assignment due every Tuesday, you can bet your ass that Monday night there'll be people from your class in the library trying to hack it out, too. You probably aren't the only one struggling, and struggling together can sometimes be better than struggling alone.
This is, of course, subject to the people in your classes not being jerks, but I never had a class that didn't have at least one worthwhile person in it.
Re: struggling in class
Date: 2010-08-16 07:38 pm (UTC)If the first person you try to talk to/get to know is a jerk, find a different person. Do not not not get discouraged and give up. Having someone to study with, grin at in class, roll your eyes with when the professor does an utterly stupid thing, et cetera can be a lifesaver in a class. Keep trying.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-17 12:48 am (UTC)1. The purpose of accommodations is to level the playing field. Hostile professors often see accommodations as giving you an advantage over other students. Work with your disability office to communicate to the professor how your accommodations will help you work on the same level as other students.
2. Accommodations can't be used to keep from learning the central material of the course. Suppose you have a number-related disability, and yet you're required to take a math course for your major. You still have to figure out how to understand the math and do it well. A friend's daughter is dyslexic and struggled with her math class. She had to take the class twice, but she worked at it and pulled a B finally. Her mother was very proud of her for working through the disability.
3. Students with disabilities are just like the rest of the student population when it comes to wanting to work hard or not. Instructors respect the students they can see are working hard to overcome the effect of their disability on their education. They don't think highly of students who seem to be relying on excuses. That goes for your nondisabled classmates as well. If you're struggling with a particular course, go to your instructor's office hours. Don't be afraid to ask your instructor for help.
4. Work with your disability office and your instructors yourself. Keep your parents out of it, even if they want to get involved. Privacy laws may prevent your instructors from talking to your parents, but also your instructors want to see that you are learning how to be an advocate for yourself as an adult. If you're dealing with a particularly hostile and intractable instructor, you may want to arrange a joint meeting with the instructor, the disability office representative and your parent, but tell your parent to stay quiet.
5. If your disability involves chronic health issues such as pain and fatigue (as mine do) or other symptoms that may require you to miss class, discuss it with your instructor early in the term. Do not disappear from class, only to show up later claiming health problems. In such situations, instructors are likely to suspect that your health problem was a chronic hangover, as is common among your classmates without disabilities.
6. Disability accommodations for US students are not retroactive. Often students will show up at college having had an IEP through their K-12 years, but they want to make a fresh start in college and avoid working with the DRO. They don't set up the accommodations they need. Then they hit midterm, they're struggling in their classes and give in to getting accommodations. Often they want to go back and redo the first half of the term with the accommodations. But legally the professor can only provide accommodations from the time they receive the paperwork to the end of the semester. They can't restart the semester. If you think you might need accommodations, set them up at the beginning of the term. Even if you end up trying not to use them, you're still on the instructor's radar as someone for whom accommodations may be needed.
7. Suppose you have a chronic illness that you've managed fairly well most of the semester, kept up with your work, and then you have a bad relapse at the end of the semester that keeps you from doing a final project or taking an exam. This situation is what the Incomplete grade is for. However, if you've missed most of the semester, haven't been able to do most of the work, you're better off withdrawing from the course and retaking it later when your health is better, especially if it would free you up to do well on one or more of your other courses.
8. Finally, if things get bad because of physical or mental health problems, you're failing all your classes, and you're just plain overwhelmed by trying to study and get your health together, most universities have some sort of medical withdrawal, whereby you can drop your classes, save your GPA, and then come back to school when your health is better. It can feel like a failure to take this route, but better to withdraw than to end up with a string of Fs on your transcript because your health tanked and your schoolwork disintegrated. If you end up in this situation, see your Dean of Students office. They'll be able to help you.
I'm a little worried that I've been too blunt, but I've watched too many students make things harder on themselves by not managing their accommodations and their workload effectively.
If y'all have any questions for me about the instructor side of things, I'll do my best to answer them for you.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-15 04:59 am (UTC)On the third one: it's funny, because those are all things I've known in theory when in those situations, but to actually have followed that advice, would've been like asking me to climb mount everest. Staying connected with people was also pretty damn difficult because I had such a long commute.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-17 04:03 pm (UTC)James T.