College Advice - Part One - New Schedule/Disability Resources & Services

Me at a Women Rising event

Adjusting and Creating a New Schedule

Starting as a college freshman is stressful.  You have to adjust to an unfamiliar campus, class sizes vary, creating your own class schedule (which may or may not have an online class or two), and deal with twice the workload.  Doesn't sound difficult?  Of course not.  Now add on a job, family, and friends to the list.  Still think it's easy?  Newsflash, it's not.

Now what if you have a disability that limits you?  Attending college with a disability isn't easy, but it can be done.  I personally didn't, and still don't, have to deal with a job.  My social life wasn't, and still isn't, a problem either.  However, I did have to adjust to an odd schedule.

Freshman year I took a full-load.  That's 12+ credit hours.  Three of my classes were on campus scattered throughout the week.  The fourth class was online.  It wasn't hard to adjust to the schedule I had created because I knew how to manage my time.  I knew where to be and when I had to be there.  It made getting my assignments done a lot easier.  When I made my schedule, I kept in mind the distance between the classes.  I needed, well wanted, a flexible schedule.  I had to make sure I could get to class on time (parking and distance).  In addition, I had to make sure I had enough time throughout the day/week to get my work done.

I do have some bad news though -- I had to drop a class.  It nearly killed me to do so.  I couldn't adjust to the professor's teaching style.  Dropping the class had me reevaluate my learning style.  It also motivated me to work harder.

Disability Services At College and It's Benefits

Being a freshman, I didn't know about all of the resources I had available to help me.  I didn't quite know about Disability Services.  It's fair to say I didn't use the services that I had available when I first learned about them either.  I didn't take advantage of a note-taker until Fall 2014.  I was required to use their services twice for two different sciences classes.  It wasn't fun.  I'm not used to telling someone what to do.  I don't recall when I exactly took advantage of extended testing time, but I've used it ever since (only for classes I felt needed it - science classes).

I've since backed off of the services offered to me because I'm no longer a full-time student taking classes on campus.  If I need the services, I know where to go.

If you're going to be a college student next Fall, and you have a disability, find out where your school's Disability Resources & Services (or whatever the school calls it, I've heard two different names) are located and give them a visit.  Visiting them won't hurt.  They will answer all of your questions and tell you what you need to do to receive their services.  It was the best thing I ever did.

As you probably noticed in the title that this is part one of my college advice.  If there is anything specific preferably related to community college that you want me to discuss, please leave me a comment in the comment section below.