Advice for university and pre-university?

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Writergirl53
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22 Jun 2015, 12:41 am

Hi, I'm just about to finish up my grade 12 year, (it will be official in a few days when I receive my exam grades, but I am already basically off school for the summer), and am preparing for university in the fall. To give a few details about my specific situation, I have ASD, a visual-spacial learning disability, and a generalized anxiety disorder. I will be living on my own for the first time in residence, and am doing a humanities program for my major. I will have a few roommates. My primary difficulties are with socialization and with time management. Does anybody have any advice to share about things I should be doing in advance during the summer to get ready, and for how to avoid flaming out once I am officially on campus. For those of you who also have social difficulties and are past your first year of university, how did you make friends? How did you avoid troubles with your roommates? Is there anything that you were able to learn later through experience that you wish you'd known going into university? If anybody else has time management issues, (I know that might be a little bit less common on here,) what are some strategies you used to compensate for this? If you used any sort of accessibility services, or coaching or anything like that, what was the most helpful? Thanks you all so much in advance, any thoughts you have would be really appreciated! :)



AspergersActor8693
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22 Jun 2015, 11:01 am

As a University student who will be a senior in the fall, here is my two cents.

The first and foremost thing to do over the summer is to get accommodations for the academic year through your school's disability services office (I assume nearly every school has one by now) so that you can get 'letters' to hand to your professors stating that you need so and so accommodations. They are by law required to provide you with what you need and are not allowed to inquire as to why you have the letter unless you feel that you should/need to tell them. To get them you need to submit the proper documentation that shows you have what you say you have (i.e. A professional ASD diagnosis, documents from your doctor diagnosing the condition, etc). You will have to find out what your University requires.

Another thing to do over the summer is start getting some things for your room. Know what the room looks like, how big it is, what furniture is included, what is and isn't allowed, and what your roommates will be bringing. You really should visit the campus and residence halls in person so you see with your own eyes what the campus looks like. If possible, another thing you could do is take a summer class at your local community college so that you can get a general education requirement done and over with before you start, easing up your workload in the future. Make sure that your University is open to transfer credits and that there is a similar or exact class at University so you are not wasting your time.

What exactly do you mean by "Flaming out"?

The best advice I can give for socialization is join a club based on your interest(s), take classes with other students you meet in your major specific classes, go to the events held on campus over the year, and do something with your roommates in town. I am in the Improv club and Gaming club at my University where I have met people (Aspies too). As a theatre major, the major required classes I take always have at least a couple people I know from the Theatre Department. If I have the time to spare I go to the events held on campus. I've been to things like a concert day, a medieval festival, did some archery, had a midnight breakfast, went to a renaissance music concert, a concert of Handel's Messiah, all right on campus.

I can't give you any advice in terms of roommates because I've never had them. I started out in Community College so I lived at home that whole time, and when I transferred to University I was coming in as a Junior where I was eligible to get the upperclassmen single rooms which is where I lived this past year and will be living this upcoming year. I am not sure about this, but if you are not comfortable with roommates, you may be able to use your disability accommodations to request a single room. I don't know, I didn't start out as a freshman at a four year university.

For time management I try to get my work done or mostly done the day after it is assigned or whenever I have a day with no classes. I tell myself that getting it done now will leave me with plenty of time to do what I want without any stress. Depending on how your schedule works, you might wind up having to do something the night before. It happens. I would also take advantage of any tutoring services offered at your University. I have used the writing center whenever I have a big paper that is due. Find out what your school has and use them, they are there for you.

Hope that answers a question or two you had. Best of luck with University. If you have any other questions let me know or feel free to PM me.



kraftiekortie
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22 Jun 2015, 5:55 pm

This was my way to survival:

Follow, exactly, all syllabi. Don't let yourself get behind.

Attend 80 percent of your classes.



QuantumChemist
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23 Jun 2015, 2:42 pm

As an assistant professor at a university, my suggestion for the time management side is to make a schedule of all of your classes during the week. Once you have that done, pencil in about three hours study time per class hour per week to keep on top of class work. Do not forget to pencil in appropriate sleep time and small study breaks. Many students that I deal with simply run themselves ragged with lack of sleep during the end of each semester because they are so busy with everything else, so getting enough sleep is a big deal. Then pencil in your activities where there is free time. Keep on schedule as best you can during the semester. There is always times when you will need more study time (exam weeks) or more sleep time (colds). Talk to your professors about things that you are having difficulties learning, as they may have helpful hints on how to remember the material. If you get behind in a class, go to them and see what can be done to get you caught up. (However, this does not work well if you have skipped the majority of a semester and want an easy "band-aid" fix to the problem.)

As for the friends side of things, I was never good at that. About the only thing that I can offer is to be friendly to others when you can, but try to avoid being used by the wrong people. There are those who might try to act like a friend to get you to their homework for them. Watch out for those types....